Arguing With a 3 Year Old

In the last post I mentioned how my son will argue until proven wrong. Last night was a perfect example.

My mom looked after E. yesterday because E. was coming down with something. J. went to the babysitter's as usual. While E. and Lao-Lao were here at the house, they had a snack of granola bars. Thees were the last two granola bars in the house (I will not insert here how wonderful my last 10 days have been - totally sick, husband away - very minimal grocery shopping/errands/house cleaning/cooking going on). Anyho..... after supper J. wanted a granola bar for dessert. I told him there weren't any left because E. and Lao-Lao had eaten them. The following 'conversation' then took place:

J: 'Lao-Lao no eat granola bar.'
Me: 'Yes, J. Lao-Lao was here and she and E. had a snack and they ate the last two granola bars.'
J: 'E. eat granola bar?'
Me: 'Yes.'
J: 'Lao-Lao no eat granola bar.'
E: 'Yes, J. Lao-Lao eat a granola bar. Mei-Mei eat a granola bar. Il y en a pu (there aren't any left - um, 'pu' should actually be pronounced 'plus').
J: (starting to get mad) 'Lao-Lao NO eat granola bar.'
Me: 'Do you want us to phone Lao-Lao and ask her?'
Wait for it........
J: 'Yes.' (He really, really would not take our word for it).

So, we call Lao-Lao, he asks her, she verifies our story.......the subject is dropped completely......never mentioned again. He eats some chocolate chips for dessert. Good lord.

Farmer in the What?

Here's J.'s version of the old classic 'Farmer in the Dell'.


Yes, for him it's 'Farmer in the Cow'! I think he's actually got it now though.

He also does a great rendition of 'London Bridge', but he always sings it to the tune of 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' so when he gets to the end about the Fair Lady it just doesn't work. He insists it's like that though. He's very big on being right on almost everything and will argue his point with me until one of us gives up (usually me) or is proven wrong beyond a shadow of a three year old's idea of a doubt (which is very loose and not always very logical).

Yesterday he was telling his dad about how E. had gotten a time-out for scratching...uh, not because she was itchy.... no, for scratching J.'s face because she was mad. His version of reality was just a little different from mine.

He said, 'Mei-mei go time-out.' (insert happy/self-righteous tone of voice)
DH: 'Oh, what happened?'
J: 'Mei-mei scratch me (shake of the head to show deep disappointment in Mei-mei).
J. cry and Mei-mei go to time-out.'
Me: 'Did Mei-mei go to time-out because you were crying?'
J. (Very, very serious tone) 'Yes.'

Hmmm..... I wonder why he cries a lot????? Might have some work to do on how I respond to situations between these two.....

Fun

Here's what the kiddies are doing for fun these days. Excuse the singing.

All I can say is thank goodness J. gets 'boy' stuff at the dayhome.

Puzzles

The other day while I was busy in the kitchen E. completed these two puzzles completely on her own. The one with the bears is even missing a piece, but she still figured it out. The strangest part (for me anyway) is that she doesn't do the whole outline of the puzzle first and then fill it in. She completes it section by section. She's not doing it willy-nilly though. She's very methodical, flipping pieces around, trying one then another until she finds the piece she wants. She's really thinking about what she's doing, but she's singing and flipping her body around on the floor at the same time. Oh and she's not really that into doing a puzzle more than once. Now that she knows that the bear puzzle is missing a piece, she won't touch it. Santa-she likes and she'll do it again if I really beg her.

Oh, by the way, E.'s Aunty Catherine (my side of the family) gave her that shirt for her second birthday. Yes, I do believe it is in reference to E's french culture. Umm...E. wants to wear it all the time these days.

School, School, School

The first week of school is done (angels singing) and I'm exhausted. Things have nicely fallen into place at school though. My class schedule and subjects have been figured out, my supervision has been assigned (it is supremely cushy) and....... I'm working with two terrific teachers.

That, my dears, is a VERY big deal. You see, I got out of teaching three years ago because - among other things - I just couldn't take the negativity anymore. The griping and complaining about what parents were or weren't doing, the demands placed on us with extremely limited resources, the hour long staff meetings where people argued about whether or not we should demand silence in the halls, the complaining about too much professional development or not enough professional development, and the people unwilling to try things a different way, but hating the way things were being done. This time I told myself I wouldn't get involved with that stuff. I would do my job and go home. But it looks like it's going to be fine. Yes, they complain about decisions the administration makes, but they go and talk to the administration about it or they say what they don't like and then we move on. We have meetings, we decide things together and then the things get done.

The classes I'm working with are great too. I've been pleasantly surprised. There doesn't seem to be a single 'hard case' in either classroom. It's unbelievable. There are kids who talk too much or are a little immature, but not a single child has refused point-blank to do what I've asked them to do or freaked out on another student and no one is bouncing off the walls unable to control themselves.

So, it's shaping up to be a very good year school wise. Home life however is still a shambles.

I'm not used to teaching and having responsibilities at home. I didn't have kiddies when I taught before. Now I have two of them and they have to be picked up from the babysitter's on time and they need to eat supper at 5:30 (I can't just keep working until 7:00 because I'm on a roll) and they need Mama to talk/play with them once in a while (even if she still has another 2 hours of work left to do on her yearly plans). It's been really hard to not have these unlimited blocks of time to get things done. I'm sure it will get easier once I've got the major part of my planning done and I just have to prepare a few things here and there for the next day, but at the moment I feel all over the place. My planning for work is not up to snuff, but I haven't been available for my kiddies either. Pulled in two directions, but not doing either one very well. Thank god Jean-Pierre has been around this week otherwise we'd have nothing to eat in the house and I'd be dead.

I sure do miss the quiet mornings and easy-going days of being at home though.