Mr. Lover, Mr. Fighter

James has become much more demonstrative with his affections in the past few weeks. He's gone from giving us the occasional peck on the cheek to grabbing our faces and turning them in all different directions so he can blanket them in kisses. He'll also come up to me while I'm in the midst of something, grab my hand, press it against his cheek for a moment, and then kiss it and give it back to me. So adorable.

At the same time, he's also become much more openly defiant. The other day, I was doing dishes in the sink and he was holding a book. Something about the book annoyed him, and he came over to the sink and tried to pitch the book into the dishwater. I told him to go put the book back in the crate if he was done with it, since it would be hurt if it went into the sink. He stepped back for a second, took a look at me, made sure I was watching him, and flung the book into the dishwater.

Mind you, if he was going to throw one of his books into a sink of dirty dishwater, "Pajama Time!" was not a bad candidate. It's filled with little rhymes about dancing in your pajamas that I find irrationally maddening, and I'd be glad not to read it again. Nonetheless, we can't establish that kind of precedent.

Fortunately (or not), the book was salvageable. I had James help me rinse it in clean water and set it to dry on top of the colander.