Friday, October 10, 2008

Older Than He Looks

Apparently Big is older than he looks.


A while back, I taught Big to hold up one finger and say he is "1". That lasted about 2 days. Obviously, based on his current behavior, he feels that I was in error and have no idea what I was talking about (just for the record, he turned 17 months old today). 

Now, when I ask him how old he his he says, "Eight!" When I question his honesty and ask him to tell me the truth he says, "Ten!" (He used to say "six" followed by "three"-- I guess he's aged since then).

His inflated age may be in his imagination, but his large size sure isn't! He is remaining true to his "Big" name-- as was illustrated today when I struggled to fasten his size 2T pants while he yelled "Tight! Too tight!" 

(Okay, I'm not practicing some form of baby torture by putting him in skinny jeans or anything-- they were fresh out of the wash and just needed to stretch a little. But, I know, really! Size 2T! Pretty soon he'll be wearing size 3 with a six inch cuff!) 

Big isn't my only child to suffer from delusions of age or maturity level. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with Pen right after she was accepted into preschool (she was not quite 4 years old).

Me: "Aren't you sooo excited to go to preschool Pen?"

Pen: (after a pause) "Yeah."

Me: "What's wrong? You seem really nervous. You'll have a great time, you know."

Pen: (with a little dismay) "Well, I just don't know what I'm going to teach the children."

Me: (after a shocked pause) "Ummm, don't you know that you are one of the children? You're not going to be a teacher there!"

Pen: "What?! Oh, okay. Then I'm excited."

I still find this conversation amazing. I knew at the time that she didn't really believe me when I told her she was one of the children, but I think she was so relieved that she wouldn't have to teach that she went along with it. She's still just "going along with it", I can tell.

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