Thursday, October 7, 2010

Is Our Kid Weird? No, Really....

Our daughter, S, is three years old. I find her brilliant, funny and loving. Of course, I talk about her all the time. (Yes, I'm one of those annoying moms with yet another anecdote every morning for my co-workers. They wait on the edge of their seats for me to walk in so they can hear them, I know.)

Here are some recent ones:
S was muttering something under her breath, so I asked her to repeat what she'd said, and she told me she was just talking to herself. I suppose that's something we learn to do eventually, though I think it was more a choice on her part than absent-mindedness. :)

A couple of weeks ago I switched out my purse to a brown one for fall, and when I got out my keys, S said, "Mommy! That bag is soooo cute!" I told her thank you, and she said, "When I get bigger, I can have your bag. And your keys." It's good to have goals.

Apparently she has some that take the keys to the next level. The car itself. The other day I picked S up from my parents' house after work, and she climbed into the front seat and pretended to drive while I talked to my mom. Mom said, "Hey! I didn't know you got your driver's license already!" S gave her a bit of a quizzical look, and I shooed her into the back to get in her car seat so we could meet one of her friends at Chick-Fil-A for a playdate. After the kids ate, they were in the playplace and S got into the cow car. She banged on the window to get my attention and yelled, "Hey, Mom! I'm gettin' my driver's license!" Then she climbed down and pretended to hand it to me to hold for her while she went to play on the slide.

Of course, some of the funniest things kids do is parrot us. When my dad would start to get frustrated with us when we were kids, he would say, "You're pushing your luck." That was always the yellow light that told us to proceed with caution. Now I sometimes hear S say it, and I do my best not to smile because I know exactly where she got it from.

She's also taken to saying, "Sure, sure." I didn't really get it for awhile, and then one day it dawned on my that I say that all. the. time! "Could you pick up the girls earlier Wednesday?" "Oh, sure, sure." "Does that make sense?" "Sure, sure." I had no idea it was a catch phrase of mine.

Occasionally S does something weird, and I just laugh it off, "Kids! They do the weirdest things!" But then I recount the tale to others, and they give an awkward laugh or squirm in their seat or have a slightly puzzled look on their faces, and I think, "It's just because she's smart for her age. They don't understand," or something.

For example, yesterday I was telling a co-worker the following story. I have been trying to teach S things like DH's and my first and last names as well as what street we live on in case, God forbid, she gets lost. So Tuesday on the way home from preschool, she asked me what street the preschool was on. I told her, and then I asked her what street she lived on.

S: "Tangtong Street." (See Kiddos.)

Me: "You do? Hmmm, that's interesting. I thought we lived on A--- Road."

S: "Yeah, you and Daddy and Baby R live there. But I don't."

Me: "What? Why don't you live with us?"

S: "Well, I will, but right now I need to stay with Tangtong."

Me: "I see. Well, I wish you lived with us. I will miss you."

S: "I know. But it's not too far."

I thought this was an amusing interaction. But after I finished telling about it, my co-worker gave me one of those reactions, so I said something about kids being weird. Then I thought, hmmm maybe she really is weird? I mean, not in the standard everybody's-a-little-weird kind of way. Do other 3-year-olds imagine they live away from their families like it's not a big deal? Anyone else have a weird kid story?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I see most kids are pretty careless, my kid is weir...errr, meticulous. Before she plays with or reads anything, she likes to set everything out in order and look over each of them and then pick something.

My wife and I both like to chew gum and we told D1 that she can chew gum when she gets older. So the last few weeks, we've found wet rubberbands around the house and the other day, I see her smacking her lips like she's chewing gum and she's chewing a rubberband. "I'm chewing gum, daddy!"

Not Just Another Jennifer said...

Oh, yeah. We went through a fake chewing gum phase, too. S likes to be organized as well. On the one hand, she really is smart - she is 3 and does puzzles that 5-6 year olds do. Not the single piece shape in a cutout space, but actual 40 piece jigsaw puzzles. So I think a lot of it is that, but sometimes I wonder if maybe it's more. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

naložba v delnice [url=http://www.nepremicninenet.info]nepremicnine.net[/url]

Real Time Analytics