The mind of a 3 year old
Just a suggestion - never leave a 3 year old unattended at rest time with a bottle of baby powder.
Sometimes I wonder what goes through J’s head. Other times I just shake my head and go on with whatever I was doing. No point in trying to understand.
Today after rest time, J came to me, obviously smelling of baby powder. This is not his usual aroma. His usual scent is a mixture of Avon’s pink bubble bath and freshly dug dirt.
J told me that he cleaned up the mess, but I have found that his definition of “cleaned up” is distinctly different from mine! I went into J’s room to find his yellow toy pickup truck and his green toy pickup truck on his window seal. Both trucks were filled to the brim with powder. I immediately thought that J must have recently watched a show about snow, or heard a story about snow - especially considering the “patches of snow on the ground” (carpet). Well, this is how my mind rationalized it. I went to find J to ask him why he covered the trucks in powder. J replied, “I wanted to make the tree feel better.” Tree?! There was no tree - real or fake in his room. Huh?!
J came in his room with me and either pointed to a spot on the window or outside to a tree (bush in the flower bed?). I’m not sure what he was referring to. It was going to take too many particles of brain energy to decipher J’s rationalization, so I just let it go and told him not to play with the baby powder. Remember, J had already “cleaned it up” in his opinion.
Also today, I had to remind J that worms like to live outside, and not in the kitchen. J said that the worm was his friend and that he was going to “keep him for a long time.” C was busy calling the worm, “wormy.”
After J took the worm outside, it must have immediately wiggled into the soft dirt. (Smart worm.) J came inside complaining that he still wanted to play with it, but the worm “went away.” I assured J that he could play with the worm next time he went outside. No point in overwhelming him with the fact that there are tons of worms in the ground and chances are slim to none that he will find the exact worm again. However, this is J and J might indeed find the exact worm again. Stranger things have happened - like baby powder making a tree feel better.