In Greek mythology, Oedipus's mother(the Queen) went to an oracle when Oedipus was a baby and learned that her son would kill his father and marry his mother. She was horrified and knew she must prevent this from happening so she sent Oedipus to the country to live and never to learn of his identity. When Oedipus grew up, he did end up (for reasons that I can't remember) accidentally killing his father, which for some reason allowed him to marry his mother, whom he did not know was his mother because he didn't know his true identity, and thus became King (Rex) of the land. He later somehow discovered what he had done and burned his own eyes out. Kind of a gruesome story and that's not even all of it, but that's where the term Oedipus Complex come from, thanks to Freud. An Oedipus Complex is thus to be inappropriately attached to one's mother and jealous of one's father--toddlers experience this often, but grow out of it.
So my oh-so-appropriately named Rex has quite the Oedipus Complex.
Let me share some examples:
1. Friday morning after waking up with Rex at 6:30 am, I decided I needed a nap around 8:30 so got back in bed while Greg got ready for work. Before leaving for work, Greg climbed back in bed for a minute to say good-bye. In comes Rex. He immediately also climbs into our bed and begins to say "PUSH!" as he tried to push Greg out of the bed. Once Greg got out of the bed, Rex got right into Greg's spot and started to cuddle with me.
2. Friday afternoon, Rex woke up particularly cranky from his nap, so I was holding him on my lap on the floor while he got over himself when he sat up and started saying "PUSH!" as he tried to push my now fat belly back to it's previous six-pack (sure) state. He did not want to share my lap. Ok, so that's just regular jealousy, but I still thought it was funny.
3. On the weekends, Greg makes it a habit of eating breakfast and then getting into Rex's bed. Rex does not approve and does everything in his power to get Greg out of his bed. He jumps on Dad, pulls Dad's legs off the bed, shows Dad that he's sleeping on monkey sheets, which are obviously Rex's, and shows Dad where his bed it. I, on the other hand, am frequently invited into Rex's bed to sleep with Rex.
4. Rex has a habit of walking in on people when they are in the shower. He also recently discovered the difference between boys and girls while he was helping me change Reagan's diaper. Rex also just learned the difference between tiny and big. On Saturday, Rex walked in on Greg when Greg was getting out of the shower. Use your imagination on what went on in this one. In the end, Rex insulted Greg gravely. I thought it was funny.
We picked a good name for our little Oedipus Rex.
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