What the Heck?

Joey is giving me all my material lately.  I swear, the minute that kid overcomes a challenging behavior it just makes room for a new one.   Yesterday, as we arrived home from a fantastic day of pond, sand, playground, and friend fun, Joey turns to me and says, "What the HECK?"  

What the what?

Blue eyes glinting, wide smile, "What the HECK, Mommy?"  Ummmmm, he's three.  THREE!  This kid is full of so many parenting curve balls that I just don't remember encountering with Natalie.  Yes, as we discovered, she came with some typical behavior, but it was all behavioral.

I spent more than an average amount of time thinking about this last night.  Why do I feel this is somehow worse than when he says,  "Shoot, shoot, shoot" or "Tata, do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"  Perhaps, because I know this one didn't come from me, and my protective bubble around him is bursting much earlier than Natalie's did.   Maybe it's because in the same week I have one child spelling out "cock" with fruit and the other saying "What the heck?"


Shoot, shoot, shoot.

But He's So Cute, Part II

I know it was brazen of me, but this morning I left Joey unattended so that I could go to the bathroom.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I probably should have known he was up to no good, because he didn't come into the bathroom with me.  I came back to this:

I was without words.     The black sharpie began on the white tiled counter and continued onto the yellow walls.  And there stood my little boy, chest puffed, smiling face radiating, "Mommy, I made you a present.  Ta-da!  It's a rainbow!"  He was so proud and ll I could say was, "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"  His faced dropped, knowing that he had done something he shouldn't have.  Dan came and whisked him away while I frantically tried to erase this permanent marker with a sponge.   The day continued with a series of artistic mishaps including, but not limited to, finding Joey, laundry dumped on the floor, basket turned over as a step stool, and a little three and a half year old boy painting his face with makeup.

I hung my head-- defeated.  Why?  Natalie never did this...or did she?  Each time I looked at the "present"I shook my head, and then I remembered a little girl, about three and a half who had sound some primer in her soon to be new room.  Primer+three year old+leather chair = Kristen frantically trying to remove with a wet sponge. And while she never really got into makeup, there was a "Vaseline Party" incident that required quite a bit of clean up, and the time I had to take her to the doctor for an inexplicable rash starting at her armpit and going down the side of her little body...culprit?  She was putting on deodorant.  

Sometimes I wonder if it a boy thing, today I realized it is a three-year-old thing.   

But at least they are cute, right?