Strategery

Ted taking on the local customs: note
the gumboots and the vuvuzela.

Teddy Danger.  

I am sure I am going to rue the day I thought it would be fun (or funny, I'm not sure which) to give my kid such a name.  Luckily, it won't go down like it does in "A Boy Named Sue": Teddy Danger is way cooler than that though I am sure there is a reckoning coming some day.

Ted is not yet four.  He hits that milestone in about six weeks.  Nevertheless, he has already proven that he can outsmart his parents with pretty solid strategic thinking.  

Last Friday was "Wear Pajamas to School Day", but we the parents were never notified of this.  When Ted woke up Friday morning and said he wanted to wear pajamas to school, we said no way.  He threw a pretty big conniption, and we were late to school.  When we got there we noticed that all the kids were wearing pajamas.  I am pretty sure that he was the only kid in clothes. Needless to say, we felt really really bad.

Fast forward to Sunday night, bedtime.  Ted was giving us grief about putting on his pajamas, and we reluctantly agreed to let him wear sweatpants and a t-shirt to bed.  The next morning I woke him up and picked out some clothes for him to wear, and then I left the room to go make coffee.  A few minutes later I came back in and Ted had just finished brushing his teeth and he had a big smile on his face.  The clothes I got out for him were nowhere to be found, and he was still wearing the sweatpants and t-shirt from the night before.  I was initially pretty annoyed (many of our most ferocious battles are directly related to getting him in or out of pajamas), but when I realized what he was up to I told him he could indeed wear the sweatpants and t-shirt he had worn to bed as long as changed out of his nighttime pull up into underwear.  Big smiles.  "I already changed," he blurted out proudly as he quickly pulled down the front of his pants so he could show me his undies.  

"Alright, let's get some breakfast," I replied, and we continued our morning.  It didn't occur to me right away but I was later struck by just how much thinking went into his little plot to make up for his missed pajamas at school day.  

Well played, young man.

I am proud of him, but also a little scared that he is outwitting me before his fourth birthday.  That just isn't fair.