Today marked the end of the longest time-out Miles has ever endured. He went a week without touchscreens or computers. Last Saturday we were out doing errands and Miles wanted to go see the "Big Missionary." The "Big Missionary" is this hideous inflatable LDS missionary standing atop the Missionary Mall store in Orem. We'd driven by it once already, and I told Miles that we could go by it again, but not until I'd taken care of A-B-C-D-E first. That was not acceptable to Miles as he wanted to see the missionary "NOW" and take a "movie" of it, so he started throwing an impressive tantrum. He was strapped in his carseat, but that wasn't to deter him from throwing his awesome fit. He screamed and yelled and hollered about wanting to see "the missionary". Then he started kicking the center console of my car. I wish there was a better descriptive word to use than "kicking" because "kicking" sounds like such a tame way to describe what Miles was doing with his feet. I told him to stop or he'd loose iPod/iPad/iPhone/computer privileges until Sunday, then Monday, then Tuesday, then I told him it'd be a week... until next Saturday (or today). Wow. That finally got his attention and he stopped trying to pulverize my car with his feet. Unfortunately, it didn't change his attitude towards me as for the next hour, he tried to hit or kick me as often as possible and continue on with the screaming portion of his tantrum. Nothing was going to calm him down, not even the donuts I'd bought. DI was on the visit list for the day, and Miles wasn't even interested in choosing a toy (which is standard practice). He was behaving monster-ish in DI demanding the donuts he'd rejected, telling me that he wants "no toy", etc. I was doing my best to ignore him. Then Miles wanted to go "over there" to the place where DI sells the "big and weird" stuff. Of course from across the "yard sale" area, yards and yards away from the far side of the east wall, Miles spotted the item that he had to have; the item that would transform him from Monster Miles back into Marvelous Miles; the ultimate object of his desire. So I bought it.
Yep, Miles is now the happiest owner ever of an 8 foot tall inflatable polar bear that lights up. Lucky him. Sucker me. He thinks it's going to go in our front yard at Christmas. I told him it could go on the back deck. He thinks it's awesome that he is small enough to fit inside the bear.
So, the electronics time-out. Today marked the end of the time out. First words out of Miles' mouth this morning were "I can play iPod!" He's happily having a shark eat other sea life, having an ancient temple pilferer running for his life from possessed monkeys, and working on his bowling skills. It was a good break for Miles, and has me thinking about instituting a "Time-out Tuesday" policy. Miles discovered hole punches this week and has been busy making confetti, reading books, writing, playing outside, and watching a bit of TV. The one thing he didn't do was play with toys. He's never liked toys, and that was more apparent than ever this week when he refused to play with any. DI here they come!
