Parenting 2.0

Yesterday Steven and I took a stroll with Milo. As we passed a clump of big yellow flowers I plucked one and handed it to Milo.

"Flower," I said, and then repeated it about a thousand times.

Milo looked approvingly at the flower. He petted the petals, he pinched the stem, he moved it from hand to hand and then, after about five minutes of this, he did the inevitable and tried to eat it.

"No," Steven and I said in unison.

Milo looked up at us and started shaking his head, which is what he now does when he hears the word "no". A minute later the flower was in his mouth.

Again we said no. Again Milo waited a minute and then the flower went in the mouth.

And so I reached over and took the flower away and handed him a rattle instead. Which, a few days ago, would have been just fine in Milo's world. But yesterday he immediately burst into tears. His face got red. He screamed. He wanted the flower.

Steven and I stopped walking and stared at Milo and then at each other.

"Aw," said Steven. "Baby's first temper tantrum."

"Wow," I said. "Do you get the sense that this parent thing suddenly got a lot harder?"