My three year old’s favorite Bible story these days is the story of Samson. We’ve been reading to him from the toddler bible and he thinks Samson is great because he has really big muscles and fights lions. Today we read to him from the Picture Bible which goes into more detail. We got to the part where Samson meets a Philistine woman at the well and wants to marry her. Jude looks at the pictures for a few a while and finally asks — “Samson likes the girl because she has pretty earrings, doesn’t he?”
I get home a few days back after being gone for a few weeks and what do you know… my two year has learned to argue! Of course, I should have expected that sooner rather than later being as being Paones, it was just a matter of time before they started to partake of the family tradition of huge debates at every family barbeque or gathering. So I’m putting my kids to bed and my daughter ticked her brother off somehow. His response?
Him: “I’m going to break your clothes!”
Her: “If you do that, I’m going to lock you out of the room and rip up ALL your clothes!”
Him: If you do that, I’m going to hit you with my bat!”
Her: Then I’ll hit you with the light saber”
Him: “But my light sabre is lost.”
Her: “Then I’ll hit you with the piggy bank”
Him: “Then I will poop on you.”
This is when I realized this was just going to go down hill and corrected them for being mean to each other. Anyways… so much to look forward to.
My 2 year old is going through that phase where he revels in anything that gives him a little more power over everyone else. Right now that just happens to be door locks. He will run ahead of you into a room and quickly lock the door. He’ll sit on the other side and “play” while we try every trick in the book to get him to open up. While visiting family in Austin last week, he pulls his lock trick just as we’re packing up and trying to get on the road. Justin and I tried everything we could think of for about 10 minutes. The only thing that worked was when I call out to his sister… “You want to watch a video?” He immediately threw open the door not wanting to miss out. My daughter just cracked up that the technique worked and kept going on about how smart I was… heh. (Yes, I’m enjoying it while it lasts) 
Anyways, so fast forward a few weeks. My mom now how a litter of newborn puppies which she’s keeping in her room for safe keeping. Well, what do you know, Jude decides to lock himself into her room to play with the puppies. Justin and my mom are freaking out, again trying everything. My 5 year old strolls up and offers to try. She call out… “I think I’m going to go eat all the Cheerios!” Sure enough, the door flies open within a few seconds. My smart little girl. We’ll see how long this tactic lasts.
