Don’t let the big smile in this picture fool you. He was epically pissed about 5 minutes before followed by 10 minutes of happy, then another 10 in timeout.
This age Kendall is at lends itself to a lot of extremes: extreme moods, extreme likes, extreme DISLIKES, all subject to a 180 at ANY MOMENT. There is very little “middle of the road” with him.
Among the many things that 3-going-on4-year-olds are hot and cold about, literalism is possibly the funniest. They are either lost in their imagination and fully expect you to buy into and believe that they are a sword-toting bullfrog from a spooky bog, or they balk at your suggestion that they imagine to be anything or anywhere other than what is plainly true. Again, all subject to a 180 at ANY MOMENT.
“Momma, today I was a blue Power Ranger, and Kyle was the red one, and we played with yellow samurizers!” Kendall told me as he described his school day.
“Oh yeah? How fun! Who else did you play with?” I asked, hoping to encourage the conversation as we laid in the quiet dark of his room before bedtime.
“Sierra,” he replied.
“Ooh! And what was she? A pink Power Ranger?” It seemed a logical follow up question.
“No…. she is just a TALKING GIRL, mom,” he said in a tone that made it obvious, even in the dark, that he was rolling his eyes at me.
After I gave him a good night kiss and tucked him in, I whispered, “Good night, blue Power Ranger.”
To which he replied, “MOM, I am a TALKING BOY,” and sighed as he rolled over.
“Right… okay then” I laughed as I left the room.
Kendall is about one month shy of FOUR.. I can’t believe it.
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Ha, I love how he so clearly expects you to read his mind. Who says girls are harder?
This conversation reminds of my current favorite children’s book “My Name is not Isabella”. I think it is a series of 4 different books now and one of this is for a boy “My Name is not Alexander”.
i agree with abigail. i was always told girls are so much more dramatic. guess i get to look forward to eye rolling from my little boy a few years. woohoo! :-\
And right when he becomes that easy going boy, you’ll have yourself an opinionated daughter! Don’t worry, I’m in the same boat. 2 y/o boy, 5 month old girl. heaven help us!
You are so right! My 3 1/2 spends all day going from boy to puppy to kangaroo to talking monkeys to a Pirate. And you may not address him as anything other then what he is at that moment.
Like I recently posted on FB, playing with someone else’s imaginary friends is very tricky business. You have to tread lightly! You can’t take it too far nor can you take it too lightly. Very tricky indeed.
My son is 3 and exactly the same way! He is really into bugs right now. He’ll go on and on about how fierce/dangerous/poisonous his plastic scorpions are and how they’ll put me in a trance with just one sting. Then when he leaves them lying around the house I try to use this to my advantage, telling him, “you need to pick up your scorpions, they almost stung me” to which I get… “they’re just pretend, mom”. It’s all about what works for them in their mind, in that moment. Fun, fun!! Thanks for the chuckle.
No, no, NO! My daughter just turned three and needs to be cured of this insanity before she turns before she turns four,
Last night at bedtime she screamed at me, “I NO NEED YOU. MY PAPI READ MY STORIES.”
Shortly after my husband finished reading she walked into the livingroom and said, “Mama, you my best fwend. You tuck me now?”
Some days I want to bang my head against the wall and I teach over a hundred 13 year olds every day.
LOL! This is totally my kid right now too.
This totally reminds me of that Katy Perry / Elmo video that got banned from Sesame Street a few years back. I know they were trying to teach kids about opposites but it’s pretty representative of 4 year old’s mood swings on playdates too.
http://youtu.be/YHROHJlU_Ng
This is totally my son right now as well and he’s also 3 and a half! Some days it will drive me crazy and I’ll feel like he is 3 going on 16 with an attitude but I guess it’s just more, normal toddler stuff. The three’s are something else!
Oh I can’t wait until this phase. I have a barely 2 yr old and the looks I am already getting from her just kill me.
I saw you on tv tonight about BPA. Great job!! I agree with you.
Was this title *intentionally* a Katy Perry song reference? Just wonderin’… 😉
Amen! My son Ethan will be 4 in June and he can have the most vivid imagination, and the most serious comments in the series of 2 seconds. And it never fails, I’m in the wrong. The teenage years are already in sight!
Wow, I don’t think I have ever been a little more grateful for Ian’s speech delay. I know once he catches up this will be my life.