Oh no

We've crossed a new threshold in our parent-child relationship: Jonas has learned to express "no". It's all downhill from here, isn't it?

When I was at home with him on Friday, I realized that when I asked him a few different questions, "Do you want this?", "Do you want more?", "Do you want down?", he was shaking his head no. He's become increasingly demonstrative since he turned one, but I never noticed that his waving, shaking, nodding, etc. was a direct response to a question. Friday, it hit me. He is saying No! And, the more I watched, the more I realized his no response is pretty accurate (about 75%).

My first thought was, Cool! He's actually communicating with us on a new level. I can't believe we're already at that stage in development--time flies!--but it's great because this will curb some of the 50 Questions games to guess what's wrong or what he wants. Then, I realized, Ahhhh, but this comes with a price, doesn't it? "Jonas, it's time for bed." "No." "Jonas, you need a diaper change." Violent head shake. "Jonas, drink your juice". "Uh-uh." Well, we take the good with the bad, right? Besides, I have a theory about this kind of stuff. For every positive development or occurrence there is an equal downside to it. Of course, none of it is really inherently "good" or "bad", right? That's just the value we attribute to it. So, I choose to just cope with the "bad" and appreciate the "good" all the more.

For now, even though he shakes his head (it's almost more of a full body shake), it does make me laugh. And, it's infinitely easier to get to the bottom of his wordless requests.