The Joy of Repetition

Eli had a swell meltdown today as we were wrapping up a visit to the zoo. I estimate that he said, "I wanna hit daddy!" somewhere between 120 and 225 times (12-15 minutes X 10-15 times a minute). Now THAT'S some joy for ya, right there.

Grace, on the other hand, has a tendency to chat away with me, or at me, preceding every comment or question with "Daddy." Or "Daddy!" Or "Daddy..." Over. And over. And over again. This happens particularly when I'm busy getting dinner together, sending an email, etc. and can go on for 25, 30 minutes straight, so that means hearing "Daddy" anywhere from 100 to 200 times in a very brief period. Still more joy, but I must admit that I find the persistence/consistency amazing.

Update: Forgot to mention that, while we were at the zoo playground and Elijah was beginning to melt down, I was crouching to, um, help Elijah, um, work out his feelings. There happened to be another kid next to him, and Elijah said in a nice loud, clear voice, "I want to throw wood chips in his eye." There was a mom next to us (though not the boy's mom, I believe), and I looked up and smiled a "how-about-this-little-kid-huh?" smile. She smiled back, but seemed a bit disconcerted by the whole thing.