Most every transition has been tough with him. Like all three year olds, he is a creature of habit and routine. But Thing 3 takes routine to the extreme. His daily routines sometimes border on the bizarre. Every detail is important, from which episode of Diego to watch, which color cereal bowl he uses, who opens the car door, and on and on. It’s a delicate act that we have all but perfected.

Until a new milestone occurs that throws a wrench into his carefully scripted world. Moving from a crib to a bed was a big deal. New shoes? Watch out. New classroom at daycare? Forget about it.

And so, we have dreaded potty training. We’ve been casually introducing him but he’ll have none of it. Now with just one month to go before he moves up to preschool, where being potty trained is a requirement, we are forcing the issue.

Yesterday was 12 hours of potty training bootcamp. We threw away the diapers (or so he thinks) and I watched him like a hawk all day, and offered him bribes of candy to sit on the potty. I had to clean pee off the carpet more than once but cold turkey is the only way to go with him. It was marginally successful.

Today we sent him to daycare in underwear and with four extra changes of clothes. He came home wearing underwear but with a pull-up underneath. For him, that’s actually progress.  It’s going to be a long, long week.

We’re officially in potty training with Thing 3. To say it’s been tough is an understatement, but there has been some progress lately. This potty scene should hardly be surprising given his history.

Yes, that’s a potty in the middle of the family room.  And of course he’s wearing a football helmet.  Doesn’t everyone?

We have been trying to get him to give up his diapers in favor of pull-ups for months. But he goes into a tantrum at the slightest mention of a pull-up.  So this weekend I asked him if he wanted to wear underwear.  To my surprise, he liked the idea.

He didn’t just like the idea of wearing underwear (which we let him do around the house).  He just really loves the underwear and it has now become another one of his odd comfort objects like the flashlights, my ratty old t-shirts, and his broken Buzz Lightyear toy.

He carries the underwear around.  He takes it to pre-school with him, keeps it in his cubby, then takes it back home.  Tonight, he wanted to sleep with the underwear.  Not wear them, mind you, but just next to him in his bed.  That is, until he decided he does want to wear them.  But I won’t let him do that because he’ll end up soaking wet during the night.

So he is now wearing the underwear on the outside of his pajamas with a diaper underneath.  As I said, it just keeps getting weirder.

But he is VERY particular about what he eats. So much, in fact, that he prefers to do his own grocery shopping. Lucky for us, the local supermarket caters to just his demographic: three year olds who watch a lot of movies.

With a pint sized shopping cart, Thing 3 makes his way through the aisles, until he finds all his favorites. First up, the mac and cheese section. The store is very smart to put the Toy Story themed boxes within his reach.

Unlike SuburbanDaddy, who zig-zags across the store looking for items on his list, Thing 3 knows his way around like a pro.

Of course, his favorite spot is the dairy aisle. With the amount of milk he drinks, it’s like the opening scene from Leaving Las Vegas when Nicholas Cage dances with a shopping cart down the aisle at the liquor store.

No trip to the store would be complete without a tantrum.  In this case, it happens when we need to take all the items out of his cart and pay for them.   Here he is sitting on the floor and crying in protest.

Not to worry, they have free balloons on the way out.  Balloons are a sure fire tantrum stopper.  Just make sure not to let go of the balloon in the parking lot.  That would be the nuclear bomb of tantrums.  Trust me.

Rather than breaking into a tantrum because he wants Apple Jacks instead of Fruit Loops, or the green bowl instead of the blue, or because he only will wear white socks, we want him to just say what he wants. I’m more than happy to give him the green bowl.

So we encourage him to use his words. At preschool they do the same, teaching the kids to say “Don’t hit me” when their friends hit them, instead of hitting back.

He is making progress and often uses words instead of a tantrum. But sometimes he uses the wrong words for the situation and the results can be quite entertaining.

In one situation at school, he didn’t like what was for lunch so he said “No, don’t fight!”. The teachers were a little puzzled until we explained he says that when he doesn’t like something. He probably picked it up from me telling his brothers to stop fighting a hundred times a day.

Then, in another situation, he mentioned something about Mommy picking him up. When the teacher said Mommy wasn’t coming until the afternoon, he said “No, Don’t hit me!”

Now the teachers were a little concerned. When he talks about Mommy, he uses words about hitting and fighting? They asked if anything is going on at home.

This wasn’t the only time “Don’t hit me” may have concerned someone. When we are out, and Thing 3 is doing stuff he shouldn’t be, like knocking everything off the shelf at the supermarket, and we ask him to pick it up, his response is “Don’t hit me!”. You can see how someone passing by might get the wrong idea.

Still, words are better than tantrums. Even if they aren’t the right words.

But it also represents another special event worth celebrating. The end of the Terrible Two’s! Starting today, no more tantrums, right?

“Don’t throw your toy or it will break and we’ll have to throw it away. Is that what you want?”

“Nooo!”

Or when he doesn’t want to leave somewhere:

“OK. I’m leaving without you. Bye”. I usually start walking away for added effect, and after 10 seconds he gets upset and comes running.

It’s a strategy which generally works well, but now I think Thing 3 is onto me.

He insists on standing on his chair at the kitchen table. Literally, every 30 seconds I’m saying “Sit down” and he may or may not listen.

So I tried the idle threat strategy.

“Do you want to fall down and get a boo boo?”

It’s actually not idle, because he has actually fallen down on more than one occasion from standing on the chair, and got hurt. So I know he knows what I’m talking about.

His response: “Yes”

“You want to fall and get a boo boo?”

“Yes”

What do I possibly say to that?

Thing 3 was more interested in the dirt on the ground than the animals.