Matthew - what a funny guy!

While everyone (ok mothers) will tell you that 2's are terrible - 3 is really the age to look out for.
Mom's know this, but not until their precious darlings turn 3. Then they realize that those other mom's who warned them that 3 would be worse than 2 are right, and they vow to warn everyone else of the 2 and under set that it will get worse before it gets better, and THOSE mom's won't believe it until their kids turn 3, and so on and so on.

So Anyway, My wonderful beautiful precious middle son turned 3 with a vengeance a few weeks ago, and while I could easily make this a blog about how horrible 3 is, instead, I'm going to write about the positives of 3, or rather, the positives of Matthew being 3 - because he is unlike any 3 yr old I've ever met - including his older brother - who is now 4.

Matthew is physically 3 yrs old - cognitive development has been assessed as 29 months and his speech and vocabulary often exceed his 4-1/2 yr old brother. So he's a 3 yr old that talks like a 5 yr old with the comprehension of a 2-1/2 yr old. - Got that?
Makes for some funny situations.

He and his brother were horsing around upstairs - running from room to room, and since I've essentially babyproofed everything up there including putting locks on my bedroom so they can't get in there, it doesn't really bother me when they play up there. The worst they can do is pull everything out of the linen closet and throw it over the banister to watch it drop to the first level in a big heap. They've done this of course, and I used it as an opportunity to organize my linen cupboard - which had become a dumping ground for mismatched towels, ugly towels we received as shower gifts and never used, and sheets and bedding for a double bed which we no longer have since we upgraded to a queen. I made them help me of course, and they grumbled horribly at being forced to run up and down stairs bringing me stuff to refold and put away, and it took much longer than just doing it myself, but they learned a valuable lesson - that if you spend 10 minutes gloriously pitching stuff over the banister, mean old mummy will make you spend the next hour cleaning it all up. Happy to report that my linen cupboard is neat and tidy, and they haven't ventured near it since that incident.

So anyway, Matthew came looking for me, in a tizzy one day because his brother was running into his room and closing the door, not letting Matthew into his own room. This "you-can't-come-in-here" game is quite popular among the 4 yr old set, and although Matthew is actually probably stronger than his older brother, the fact that he is 2 inches shorter still serves as some sort of indication of the hierarchy of brothers. Bigger means 'I win and you lose sucker', which inevitably caused Matthew to come wailing downstairs in search of the almighty problem fixer (me).
"He's not letting me in" he whined in my general direction.
"So come here and let me read you a story instead' I suggested, using the old redirect-their-interest tactic employed by mom's around the globe.
"But I need some privacy" Matthew continued on.
Hmmm - Where did that word come from? Possibly from me, trying to pee in the bathroom with two kids banging on the door, and trying to peek under "Mommy are you in there? What are you doing? Are you doing a big poo? Do you pee out of your bum?"
Yes, kids are marvellous sometimes, and they make it difficult for me to actually get a moment to sit down with my Uncle John's Bathroom Reader and escape for a few minutes, eventually causing me to pawn them off on my unsuspecting husband - "Hey I need a little privacy - Go see daddy, I think he has a treat for you...."

Matthew has perfect grammar you see. Most kids start out with good grammar as they are learning to speak English, and then around 3 they clue into the way the language works and start extrapolating on their own - unheeding the many exceptions that english has to offer. For example - they start pluralizing with 's' and putting -ed as a past tense - so my 4 yr old might say "I eated my lunch already" applying the past tense rule, but Matthew will say "I ate my lunch" because he has memorized English, and doesn't apply rules.
As a result, he sounds like a little intellectual, spouting off long and complex sentences with nary a mistake in them - leading strangers who overhears us to think he might actually converse with them, except that if you start talking to him, he reverts instantly to "yeahboy" and will only say "yeah", even if he means no, until he gets to know you and then he'll talk your ear off.

We have central air now, and this being the hottest summer I can remember (aside from the summer I was 9 months pg with Matthew) we have to keep all our windows and doors shut to keep our house from turning into a little sweatbox.
A common refrain heard around here is "shut the door" as the kids head out to the backyard.
No matter how many times I explained to them that we need to keep the hot air out and the cool air in - it just didn't connect with their brains, until I used a different tactic - a scare tactic. "Keep the door shut, to keep the bugs and birds out Matthew". Matthew doesn't like birds. He likes looking at them, but doesn't like the thought of them invading his space - so birds must stay out of the house, and of course out of his room (which is what the baby gates are for).Bugs he's not keen on either, but birds are a definite no-no. Of course, while we were up at the cottage (which was airconditioned) Grandma and grandpa employed the bug tactic so that at least 5 times a day they heard "shut the door - to keep the bugs out".
Today as Matthew opened the refrigerator, hunting around for his juice cup that he'd put in there earlier, I reminded him gently to shut the door, and he looked at me very quizically and said "To keep the bugs out of the fridge?"
Uh, yeah.

Later on today he came up to me and quietly pressed 3 pennies into my hand, and said "Candy Necklace"
This is his (not so) subtle little way of saying that he wanted me to use the money to buy him a candy necklace - which he thinks is the most fantastic thing on the planet aside from lollipops. I thought it was very sweet that he is starting to grasp the concept that things cost money, and candy necklaces simply do not grow on trees the way VCRs do.....in their eyes of course.