Thing 3
It’s a time honored tradition. Each class in the school puts on a winter show. The kids rehearse for weeks and all the parents come to watch. Here are the highlights from this year.
In case you can’t pick out the Things, here are some clues. Thing 1 is strategically positioned between the two girls and loving it. Thing 2 is the kid who jumps up and waves “Daddy!” when he walks into the room. And Thing 3, well, you won’t miss him. He is the center of attention as always.
Last night we embarked on Phase II of the great migration in preparation for Thing 4. Last week, Thing 2 moved in with his big brother. Other than staying up late talking and playing together, it has gone remarkably well.
Yesterday was to be the day Thing 3 moved out of his crib and into 2’s old room and toddler bed. He didn’t want any part of it and desparately wanted back to his crib.
SuburbanMommy suggested we have him sleep in the new room but in the crib. So I started to wheel it over. Except it wouldn’t fit through the door. So I took the door off. Then I couldn’t get the crib past the railing and had to backtrack back to the original room.
All the while, Thing 3 was crying while watching me take his beloved crib out, flip it upside down and all around, probably traumatizing him to the point that he’ll be the only Kindergartener who sleeps in a crib.
Bottom line: we caved.
Today I took a different approach. I went for cold turkey. I’d rather have a few days of hell than weeks of a slow, painful, drawn out transition.
Incredibly, it actually worked. Once he realized there was no going back, Thing 3 embraced the new room and bed, and he was sound asleep before long.
Now, if only potty training could be this easy.
What do you see in this picture?
You probably see a normal, well organized shelf full of toys. In fact, it’s from Thing 1’s Kindergarten class. But that’s not how Thing 3, a troublemaking two year old, sees it.
I stopped by the Kindergarten classroom, which was empty, to get Thing 1’s jacket. Thing 3 was with me. I got the jacket while he explored the rest of the room. There is a lot of interesting stuff in a Kindergarten room, especially to a two year old.
We were only there a few seconds. That’s all it takes. Thing 3 saw the same normal shelf and thought it would be fun to dump everything on the floor. So that’s what he did.
Do you see the largest bucket with about a thousand teeny tiny Legos? He dumped that one on the floor first.
In the movie Unforgiven there is a line “When confronted by superior numbers, an experienced gunfighter will always fire on the best shot first.” They have a sixth sense about them.
Thing 3 went for the bucket which would do the biggest amount of damage first. I now know exactly how this incident happened.
Disney couldn’t be happier that Thing 3 had a total Toy Story Christmas.
Talking Buzz Lightyear? check. Toy Story DVD? check. Toy Story book and pajamas? Check and check.
This picture is right after he woke up. He slept with all these items in his crib. And he will carry them around with him all day.
File this under I didn’t see that coming. Today I got an email from Thing 3’s teacher. It was cryptic enough to send my imagination racing.
The teacher said, “Are you able to see the room? (there are web cameras) We need to talk when you come to pick him up”
I couldn’t imagine what I’d see. I figured he injured himself. Or trashed his clothes. Or broke something expensive.
This is what I saw. The one screen capture doesn’t do it justice. The classroom was completely trashed.
What you don’t see is the other half of the room, where there were shredded scraps of paper everywhere.
Thing 3 had been on a tear. Picking up containers and dumping them out. As soon as the teacher tried to clean up one mess, he was on to the next. He wasn’t angry or having a tantrum. He was just having a good time.
“It just happened so fast. I’ve never quite seen this before,” said the teacher. Coming from an experienced teacher with a room full of two year olds, that says something.
When I tell people Thing 3 is very active and into everything, even for a two year old, I don’t think the full impact comes across just how much work it is to keep up with him. This gives a glimpse. He is off the charts.
Thing 3 is the master of destruction, leaving a path of wreckage wherever he goes. Why should Christmas be any different?
We took the usual precautions and put the breakable ornaments out of his reach. Or so we thought. He’s already managed to break three ornaments. Usually by throwing the ball shaped ones. I have no idea how he gets them down. I suspect he throws things at the tree until one falls, like a squirrel getting acorns.
Preschools everywhere have an annual Halloween parade. Kids dress up and parents, family, and friends watch as the kids parade around the parking lot.
Our preschool has infants through kindergarten, with two or three classrooms for each age group. There were easily 150 kids in the Halloween parade.
As we watched the kids walk by, every single one was wearing a costume. Firemen, princesses, Spiderman, witches and all the usual suspects.
Except for one kid. This poor kid was in the parade in street clothes. Jeans and a red shirt. What terrible parents forgot their kid’s costume?
Any guesses who this kid was? Yes, it was Thing 3. For the second year in a row.
In our defense, we did bring the costume. A Yoda robe, hat, and ears. He just refused to wear it. Perhaps “refused” is the wrong word. More like the king of all tantrums despite the teachers’ best efforts. We weren’t surprised.
Here is Thing 3 as Yoda. Minus the Yoda.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving football, here is a recent game of pillow football between Thing 1 and Thing 2. The game is played by charging your opponent with a pillow and attempting to knock them down. It isn’t very complicated. Usually the game ends when someone gets hurt and cries.
While the game is going on, Thing 3 plays his own game of try to touch the video camera.
Happy Thanksgiving!