Boogie Nights Situation

This scene from Boogie Nights makes me incredibly tense. The drug deal is going horribly bad, Alfred Molina is batshit crazy, and that kid keeps making firecrackers go off. When I watch it, I want to knaw all of my fingernails off, because you just know that any second, something is going to go wrong, wrong, wrong.

The scene has inspired us to coin the phrase Boogie Nights Situation at Stately Wasser Manor. There are times when Jack is just the wrong combination of tired/overstimulated/hungry/randomly pissy that we just know that we are seconds away from something bad. Any second, Jack is going to rear back with a kickass tantrum, or he's going to hit me, or he's going to break something, or he's simply going to wack the hell out of his head on a sharp corner.

Sometimes, we can prevent disaster, but other times, we're just waiting out the clock, hoping that the scene will not end too badly.

Tossed Salad

Now that Jack is more mobile and more independent, when he does something nutty, I often find myself wondering, "Should I do something to stop him?" Almost every time, I decide the answer is no. If he wants to put large rocks in his mouth, well, he'll probably be fine. If he were five, maybe I'd put a stop to it, but it's fairly socially acceptable for him to suck on rocks now, I guess. And hey, why not take advantage of that narrow "okay to suck on rocks" window?

Last night, the boys and I were all tired, so we ordered a pizza and watched it downstairs in our jammies. Jack took an interest in Steve's salad. First picked the matchstick carrots out. Some he ate, some he spit out, and some he gave to us (unfortunately, there was some crossover in those categories). Then he removed large leaves of lettuce and started throwing them like confetti. One piece in particular, he repeatedly threw into the air and caught on his head. I kept thinking, "Should I stop this?" and never really came up with a compelling reason to. He was having fun, and it was an easy enough mess to clean up. So I let it go. I don't want to be the kind of mom that is always mad about something, and this just didn't seem important.

The funny thing is, I must have this on my mind. Last night I dreamed that Jack was scooping potato salad into the interior of a plastic toy battleship. In my dream, I let it go.