Salt for Dinner

This morning was the first in a long time that didn't start with a temper tantrum. I woke up at 5am and by 5:20 was pretty sure that I wasn't going back to sleep, so I got up and actually did about an hour and a half of work and washed all the dishes from the past 3 days that have been sitting in the sink. I was ready for a nap by 7:30 which was when Simon woke up and David left. I was so tired and not sure how I was going to deal with Simon's daily temper tantrum by myself, but he was in a great mood, possibly because he went to bed a little bit earlier than usual and woke up by himself and we didn't need to wake him. We played in the den for a few minutes and I got him dressed with no arguments. Then he readily agreed to watching tv in my bed while I took a shower. He said "you need shower, Mommy. You very dirty." When we got to Yaya's house, he ran inside and immediately started playing catch with Jasmine. Then Josh got there and noticed that he, Pam and Simon were all wearing blue shirts. Simon ran over to Josh sticking out his tummy saying "blue shirt, blue shirt" and they did this cute tummy-bumping thing.
David picked Simon up after daycare and when they got home, I asked Simon if he played outside. He said "no. It is very very very very hot." I had made fish and corn and spinach for dinner. Simon loves corn, but he accidentally took a bite of the end of the corn and spit it out saying "I don't like the corn pit." He tasted some horseradish sauce with his fish and he did not like it at all. He did, however, like the salt. He saw David put salt on his corn so of course he wanted to do the same. He pretty much filled up his whole plate with salt and then ate it plain and kept saying "mmm." I made the mistake of eating some of the spinach that he left on his plate--it tasted like salt and was gross.
I went out to get the mail and Susan and Sophia were just getting home. They came inside to get the apple juice that we bought for them to replace the bottle that we borrowed from them last week. Simon came running as fast as he could when he heard Sophia's voice. They were dancing around the living room together and then they played in the den with Baby Elmo. Then they started their own band with Simon on the piano and Sophia on the guitar (Simon had the guitar first, but Sophia took it from him and said "you play the piano" and he willingly obliged. The things boys will do for true love).
I guess no temper tantrum in the morning means there has to be one at night. Simon threw a huge fit because he wanted to put on his pjs himself but he really doesn't know how. Then he threw another fit after we read a book twice and then I turned off the light to sing songs. I told him we could read one more book but then he had to go right to bed with no songs. Of course he said yes and then asked for songs when the book was over. I distracted him by letting him look out the window and then he got into bed. I was almost at the door when he stood up and said sadly "I need my Mommy." I can never resist that, so I picked him up and he asked me to sing Tikvah song. I sang it and he put his head down on my shoulder and played with my hair--again, I just can't resist that. Then he took my hand and put it on his neck and said "Yaya does that for naps." She had told me once that she rubs his neck to try to get him to calm down and go to sleep when he is too hyper at naptime.