I Think We Are In Trouble...

Who knew 3 year olds could be so sassy! Sometimes I don't know if Evan is 3 or 13. He has gotten quite sassy lately and kind of full of himself as well. For example, the other night my mom was watching the kids while Matthew and I went to dinner. Evan had been eating a snack and my mom kept asking him where it was. Finally he answered her by saying, "GrandMOTHER, it is in the living room now I don't want to hear one more word!" He is also growing a conscience. He knows when he is doing something we would disapprove of and he feels guilty if he does something wrong (and gets caught), but along with that knowledge of right and wrong comes sneakiness. As you know, Matthew and I are both teachers... of middle school kids... and yet you'd be surprised how many parents will come in and say "My child would never do such and such". Our favorite is, "My child has never lied to me." Parents out there, please never say this. I promise that the majority of teachers do not just sit around making up stories about your little angels. Think back to when they were three and doing things like this...

Evan wants a bird as a pet, like from the pet store. Mommy says no way, Jose. Birds are gross (in my opinion), carry diseases (in my mind), messy (I am not cleaning up after one more thing), loud, and they live a REALLY long time. But, at least once a week Evan asks for one and pleads and cries. After one such episode last week, he got Matthew off by himself and said, "Let's go to the pet store without mommy and when she's not looking we'll buy a birdie!" Good try, but luckily daddy is smart enough to know that mommy would eventually notice the new member of our family. I caught him using this trick again the other night... "Dad, come on, please, please, please can I have a popsicle, Mommy's not here."

Evan is also into everything! He was such a good little two year old, honestly. He never really made any huge messes or got into anything dangerous or anything. He was very content with his boundaries and his toys and he never really pushed it. All of a sudden, he knows no boundaries. He rifles through drawers and cabinets and ends up with things we didn't even know we had. He then takes these things and hides them in various places. Lucky for us, right now he can't keep a secret and so he ends up telling us that he has found something but he can't tell us what it is because we will be "angry" and say no and take it away. We know then we'd better start looking. The other day, this "treasure" was Chloe's rectal thermometer... eww gross, I know, we do use covers, so it's not that bad, but still. We still haven't found it. I sure hope she doesn't get sick anytime soon. Today he found a paperweight in the kitchen drawer that is super cute, has a place to put a picture of the kids. I swear I have never seen it before. I have no idea where it came from. It is now in the decorative box we have in our living room which is his "treasure box". The only way I was allowed to see that treasure was if I promised not to be angry first and not to speak. "Mom, don't say any words or you can't look."

Ok, the real trouble is that we pretty much don't know what to do with him! As I said before, he was such a good little two year old... three years old hit us like a ton of bricks. The tantrums, the sassiness, the sneakiness, the crankiness... half the time we don't know whether to laugh or cry. We need to "train him up right", but sometimes he's so darn funny! I guess we'll figure it out, but right now the score is Evan- about a billion... Frazzled Mom and Dad-Zip.