A 3 Year Old!

This little 3yr old's mother has taken off to wonderful Meridian Mississippi for 6 glorious weeks for her Navy Reserve training and has left him with us. I last had a 3 yr old in 1979. I am exhausted and I don't know if I will make it! Tomorrow will be day 3.

My 3 yr olds were not like this one. Of course, my memory may be clouded a bit but for example: Today, I had a heart attack and yelled at him when he took off after I took him out of the shopping cart at the store. I only had one bag, my purse and a gallon of milk to carry but he was out the door before I could pick them up. I told him to stay until I took his hand, told him to stop when he started to move and yelled his first and middle name as he headed for the door, then finally louder than I like to scream...STOP! My little ones would always listen to step one, stay until I take your hand. I would say up until they started school they trusted that what I said was well worth listening to. Up until then, I was the smartest person they knew. It never seemed to occur to them to question my authority on any subject. They themselves were brilliant of course.

Well, this little 3 year old is smart as a whip, too. However, he is people manipulated smart. Unlike mine he has had a lot of people in his life. He has full, large families...many people around him every day from the day he was born. There was a line at the hospital just minutes after he was born. So he knows people, and he knows how to use them. He can be so cute one minute and telling you he hates you in the next. He turns it off and on just like that. I know this will be some six weeks. I hope I survive.

Background info: I am Memaw and my husband is Papoo. We call our grandson Buddy. We were trying to get him to eat his supper. He said we were mean and was going to call the cops on us.

Story of the day: Buddy told us the cops were going to come get Memaw and bring her to the cop factory. The cops would bring me to the cop factory and put me in the cop store they would get a big knife and cut me up and put me in the cop store. They would not let me come back because I was mean.

While he was telling us this story and answering our questions and Papoo acted like he called the cops. Buddy munched on his supper and gestured with his hands. To shorten the story. I did not get hauled off by the cops, he ate most of his supper, and Papoo pretend called the cops and told them everything was o.k.