The Demise of Barbie...

All the non-adult members of our household are in revolt since I started my new job. My commute and multi-day absences are taking their toll.

Bean's first tactic of screaming through his bedroom window for me not to go didn't have the desired effect of making me stay home, so last week he changed tactics.

"You go to work now, Dahdee," he said (it's how he pronounces my name, and it still amuses me to no end that people think he calls me "Daddy."). "You go to work and me stay home alone with Mama!"

Yes, reverse psychology. He's a smart cookie. Of course, it didn't produce the results he wanted. All it did was hurt my feelings. I expect that this is something I should try to get used to, being the co-parent of a kid who wasn't ~mine~ for the first three years of his life.

Alas, the pets are also staging a revolt. The cats have been... well, they've been cats. It could be worse. The dog, on the other hand, has been acting out more and more. He's chewed a few of Bean's toys, though my girlfriend was able to save most of them (the squeaky hedgehog, alas, no longer squeaks). Last week, however, the dog ate Barbie. To be specific, he bit off Barbie's butt.

Barbie is relatively new in our household. My girlfriend LOVED Barbies when she was younger (and still loves Barbie), so she rightly thought Bean would like her too. She dug two Barbies out of storage last week, and Bean does indeed adore them. It was one of the few things that made him play quietly in his room (you have no idea how rare this is), along with his train tracks. We have a house for Barbie, and one of his Christmas presents will be a Barbie Volkswagen that was found on sale. We're pretty sure Barbie is here to stay.

So on Tuesday right as I was packing the car to go there was the sound of crying and screaming from Bean's bedroom. From the sound of it I assumed he got himself in trouble for not listening/pulling on the dog/some other act of mayhem. I have a whole long other post that I need to write about the actual challenges we're facing with Bean, rather than the gender-creative thing. Oddly enough, that's not the "problem" with Bean. But like I said, that's a post for a different day.

When I went back inside, I found my girlfriend comforting Bean, who was in tears. There were bits of plastic all over the floor, and Barbie no longer had a bum. Her dress was in tatters. I put the dog in a time out, complete with presenting him with Barbie's remains. I have no idea if he understood why he was in trouble. I had bought him a different toy last week in the hopes that it would distract him from chewing the stuff that didn't belong to him, but apparently that didn't work at all.

So this week I found a couple of inexpensive Barbies at the store today. It's hard to find a good Barbie these days. Many of them now come with their clothing tops moulded on them in plastic, which is silly. After all, the whole point of Barbie is to dress and undress her any way you like, so that Barbie can be anyone you want her to be. I did finally find some that passed muster, and hopefully this will make up for last week's heartbreak.