Pattenders

I think Evan has a new personal goal in life to make me crazy by 8 AM.

We have a rule in the house that he has to stay in bed until 7 AM. He knows this rule. Yet, more often than not, he comes strolling into our room around 6:30 AM, LOOKS AT MY CLOCK, and then starts a conversation with my. And I remind him he needs to go back to bed until 7 AM, and he leaves. And like most mornings, he stops at the bathroom on his way back to bed and I have to get out of bed to ask him to stop singing, and tell him to finish up and get back in bed.

This morning, after our normal pre-7AM routine, I hear a weird noise from down the hall. I get out of bed to discover Evan in his room, NOT in bed, door open, light on, running a race car through a slinky. Hardly a quiet activity.

As I'm getting dressed, he comes in to show me the swim trunks he wants to take to camp, and I tell him I have already packed his swim trunks. "But mom, I wanted to do a pattender."

A what?

"A pattender. You know, like girl, boy, girl, boy"

A pattern. I guess he wants to wear certain swim trunks on certain days. Luckily he does not argue when I tell him today's pattender will be the black ones.

"Mom, you forgot to pack my swim shirt!" This was on purpose, but figuring I've been lucky enough to avoid a fight over the swim trunks, I let him pack the shirt.

"Oh, and Mom? Some of the kids wear goggles in the pool too." Find the goggles is the pool bag and hand them to him.

"And if you have swim shoes, you can wear them. But if you don't them, that's okay, you can just walk in the grass." So I don't have to go buy him swim shoes? Amazing...

And we haven't even gotten to breakfast yet, where he suddenly decides he no longer like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, even though he liked it just fine a couple of weeks ago. But somehow he manages to eat it after I slice some bananas on top.

It's going to be a long summer...