This weekend I spent a day sanding and painting some new chairs for CS. My parents have two little red chairs at their house that are the perfect size for CS and his cousin, E. They were a gift from a friend when we were children, and they play a role in many happy memories. The last time we were in New York, CS spent the entire visit carrying one of those chairs from place to place, sitting when he felt the urge, or swinging it over his head when he was feeling his oats. Instead of giving him a time out when he did that (and thus rewarding him by letting him sit in the little red chair), we would just give the chair a time out.
Minus those forlorn half-hour stretches, my enduring image of Thanksgiving 2007 will be of CS on a little red chair, sitting at the "snack table", with a teddy bear shaped pb&j sandwich in one hand and a puzzle piece in the other. Since then, I have been on the lookout for a similar chair. I finally found something at the unfinished furniture shop in the historic district. At 12 euros a pop, I decided to go for two. When asked what color we should paint the chairs, CS said 'aaazzzuuuuuul!' and ran off to find his blue crayons. Since I couldn't quite let go of my l.r.c. image, I decided to do one in each color.
Based on the number of 15 second intervals spent in each chair per day and the on-going conversation about the relative merits of the blue chair, and the red chair, and there is a blue chair, and oh! a red chair too! - I would say that the chairs are an unqualified success. He can't tuck one up under his arm quite as handily as he can the chairs at his grandparents' house, but we've gotten pretty close. And we got the final stamp of approval this afternoon when Kaboomers Kitty claimed his spot.
Comments