I’ve had a few challenging days with Chanbe lately. After one such morning recently, I sat him down while Quindy was asleep, to see if I could try and get to the bottom of some of these behaviours. There’s lots of ignoring me going on, and he particularly loves having Quindy follow him in his naughtiness.

I broached the subject about his poor behaviour that morning, and that’s when he took over. He said to me that he seems to make bad choices when Quinny is around.

I was a bit shocked at how he used those words, and secretly impressed that he was aware of it without me spelling it out to him. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I asked him why he thinks he makes bad choices when Quindy’s around.

And he turned to me, cocked his head, lifted his right hand in an “I don’t know” gesture, and spoke out of the side of his mouth like so

and said

“It’s complicated.”

It was too much. I softened and enveloped him in a big cuddle. I asked him if we could talk about why it might be complicated, but he informed me that

“We’ve finished talking about that now Mama.”

I’ve really been focusing on spending quality time with him in the last few days. Hubs hasn’t been around much due to work, and I think our little Chanbe is noticing. He is often asking Hubs if he can stay home instead of going to work. So today we played Lego instead of him watching a movie which he normally does when the other 2 are having their midday sleep. It meant I didn’t get my usual “me time” but with he and Q at kindy for the next 2 days, there will be plenty of time for me to veg out.

It’s complicated. Sheesh. It sure is, buddy.