I want down!

Ever since I had the shingles, I've had problems getting Ragsy to go to sleep for me. After all, there were about 7-10 days there where I was unable to put him to bed for fear of him accidentially snuggling up too close to my face or me getting some of the ooze from the open sores on my head on his pillow (yes, gross - I know). Anyway, ever since then, when I try to put Ragsy to sleep, he screams. He cries. He struggles. He pushes me out of bed and will go so far as to shove me down the hall.

So last night it was no surprise when, after I declared lights out, he began to cry. "Down," he kept wailing. "Down!" And "Door! Go door! Rock? (translates to can we watch Fraggle Rock?)" Then it happened. A crystal-clear sentence. Yes, he's been combining words successfully for a while. "Mommy cook egg," "Mommy sit chair," and "Daddy sleeping" are pretty common requests and questions. But so far, he hasn't really spoken in a full sentence. Until last night, when he declared, "Mommy, I want down. I want down now!"

Fantastic. My son's first clear sentence is basically that he wants away from me. Oh, well. At least it wasn't the same as my first sentence, which was "What's the matter?" My parents were going through a divorce at the time, so apparently I oscillated between asking what was the matter and hiding under the table for hours on end. I vaguely remember doing that - curling up under the table, listening to my mom on the phone and watching people's feet go by. I wasn't too unlike that kid in the Christmas Story who hides in the cabinets.