Saturday, September 22, 2007

Inside the mind of a 3-year-old

Lukas' normal morning routine is: get out of bed, run to the bathroom, empty his bladder, remove his pull-up (he gets a piece of chocolate if he's dry during the night, which has only happened twice), wash his hands and come have breakfast. He usually gets dressed for the day after breakfast.

Yesterday morning, since we were out late the night before at Ikea, the kids slept in until after Tom went to work. I heard Lukas in his room, so I went in to greet him and found him getting clothes out of the bottom drawer with his bottom bare. He said something about "not knowing how to go potty" and I discovered he'd taken his pull-up off in his room and emptied his bladder on the wool rug.

When I asked him why, he said he wanted to change his Spider Man pajamas so they wouldn't scare me. Huh? He's worn those pajamas for several months.

We had been planning to get that rug cleaned before the new baby, but now it was immediately necessary, so a rug cleaning place was one of the stops we made yesterday morning...after Lukas called Tom at work and told him what he did, and after I rehearsed over and over what he's supposed to do in the morning. Is this going to happen again? I won't bet against it, knowing my son and his strong will and idiosyncrasies, but I sure hope my repetition of our expectations will avoid it.

So what am I thankful about after this incident?
1) That we have hardwood floors in the house and rugs can be easily removed and cleaned.
2) That he hasn't done other stupid things that are even more expensive to this point. Isn't that what children are all about: costing their parents money in broken and damaged possessions as they grow out of childishness and learn how to function as adults? Fifteen years to go, so lots more opportunities for learning!

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