Kira was blogging about her son and his expression of being 'mad'. It reminded me very much of my own son.

M. isn't one to remain very silent when he's mad. Sure he has the pout down pat, he can brood once in a while. But he has come up with the Greatest Insult that he can imagine and he uses it at will.

"NO, you cannot have more cookies," I tell him after he's eaten about 5 of the yummy cookies that the fabbo boyfriend made.

"Yeeeesssss, I wannanuther one!" He looks heartbroken, I have earned another notch on the Evil Mother tally sheet. When he sees that I have made up my mind and will not cave, he looks straight at me and says: "Well. I am NOT your bes'frien' then. I am not Randy's bes'frien', I am not Justin's bes'frien', I am not Mark's bes'frien' and I'm not gramma's bes'frien'."

And off he goes, feeling justified that he is not ANYONE's bes'frien'.

He get's about ten feet away, turns on his heels and asks: "Are you sad?"

Just to make sure that the insult has done it's job.

There are really only three emotions for him at the moment. Happy, Sad, Mean.

Happy is what we strive for. Sad is when we don't get our way. And Mean is anything not happy or sad. The best thing about vocal almost four year olds is that they will tell you how they feel, you don't even have to consult a manual.

"Mommy? Do you know why I am mean?"

"No, honey, why are you mean?"

"Because I wanna cookie and you won't give me one."

"I understand."

"Don't say dat! Unnerstan is a BAD word."

Everything placating is a bad word, by the way. Every word that comes after NO is a bad word too. Mothering is SO FUN!