The Fifth One

I know people are different. So, you wouldn't think that it would surprise me to discover that my children are different. But it has surprised me how different they are.  If I had to pick one word to describe my fifth child, Lucas, it would be. . .opinionated! He doesn't really talk too much yet, even though he is almost two. His discernable words are "snack, truck, and socks." I think it's fairly impressive that he can make his opinion known so clearly without too many words.  

Take yesterday for instance, we stopped to check out something at our local Alco store and when we got out of the car, Lucas spotted a candy bar wrapper on the ground beside the car next to us.  He pointed at it and grunted towards me. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that, being in a hurry, I had no intention of picking it up. Lucas however, refused to move and kept pointing at the wrapper. I finally reached down to pick it up and before it was even in my hands, Lucas was trotting towards to store door.  

Or earlier this week when I was changing Lucas for bed.  I had him all cozy in his pjs and he started pointing at his feet, saying "socks, socks, socks."  Well, normally I don't change his socks before bed, but I decided to indulge him since he was quite insistent and I changed his socks.  Then I told him to put his dirty clothes in the laundry. He looked at me like I was crazy. And, honestly, before this whole process was over, I would begin to think I was crazy. I told him again and he grunted his sound for no. This was followed by me giving him the stern mommy look and telling him he needed to obey. He picked up his shirt. All the dirty clothes, Lucas. He grunted, but picked up the rest, and took a step towards the laundry basket. Good job, Lucas. It's important to praise obedience, right? Perhaps not to Lucas, because as soon as I said that, he dropped all of the clothes and stared at me, seemingly informing me that my interruption was not appreciated. I finally got him to pick all of them up again and we got to the laundry basket where he put everything but the socks in. He refused to put the socks in and told me in no uncertain terms why he shouldn't put them in. Unfortunately, I could not understand anything he said. So I had him show me where he wanted to put the socks. Turns out he wanted them where his socks belong, in his sock basket. And I gave up. I let him put his dirty socks in with the clean ones and I put them in the laundry basket later, when he wasn't looking. 

He knows what snack he wants, whether he wants milk or water, what pants he wants to wear, whether he wants to wear a jacket, whether he wants help getting down the stairs to outside or if he wants to do it himself, how he wants the men placed inside the toy truck cab. . .so, opinionated is how I would describe my fifth son.