Jealousy, Independence, and Fish

Yesterday we were at my mom's house. Andy was downstairs playing with Calvin, and I went down there holding my sister's little baby boy. I sat down, and Calvin immediately came over and started trying to push the baby out of my arms, shaking his head back and forth, "no, no, no." He started to screech at me and push the baby harder, so I went to take the baby upstairs out of harm's way. Calvin started sobbing and screeching loudly. He didn't stop until his dad brought him upstairs, I passed the baby back to my sister, and took Calvin in my arms and hugged him tight and kissed him all over, telling him that he was my favorite boy. He does NOT like it when I interact with other children.

Also interesting this week is that all of a sudden he has this ultra-over-the-top need for independence. He insists on feeding himself, taking the toothbrush away from me very forcibly when I'm trying to brush his teeth, sticking his own head and arms through his shirt holes, and so forth. It's great that he's trying to do things on his own, but he gets so frustrated if he can't do it right. Like we'll be putting shapes onto pegs, and if he doesn't line the hole up correctly he'll just yell and cry. I have no idea where this came from. Last week he was my baby, and this week, he wants to do it all alone. I thought this stage wasn't for another year or so. He's learning things really well, but his incessant screeching in frustration is driving me batty.

One cute thing though. Tonight we went to a fish house for dinner, and there were of course fish all over in the decor. Andy kept enunciating "fish" and pointing them out. Calvin would try to copy and said "...ISH" and would draw it out just like his dad. His little bottom teeth would jut out every time he said it, and he thought he was so clever that he'd learned to identify a new animal... the "ish".