The logic of a two year old…

Just by the title of the post – you already know that I am not going to reveal anything earth shattering.  Anyone who is a parent of a child (who is at least two) certainly already knows this.  And for anyone who is not a parent – there is nothing here that will come as a big surprise.

But it’s funny none-the-less!

Obviously, two year olds are miraculous creatures.  In just a few short months – they have mastered enough of their “native” language to be able to communicate effectively – and for the baby sign language users – they have mastered two languages.  They have learned to navigate through their environment.  They have made monumental achievements in coordination and motor skills.

But logic?  Not so much.

Here are three prime examples of the logic that our two-year-old has…

Diaper changing has become quite the ritual at our house.  It starts normally enough.  Off with the shoes (if they were on to begin with).  Then off with the pants.  Then you try and take the diaper off.  That’s when the disagreements begin.  Mike begins saying “no mommy – no!” and raising his feet in to the air and squirming around.  And so it goes.  A minor disagreement to be sure.  But Mike is resolute.  You can ask him why he isn’t letting you change his diaper.  His answer?  “I’m taking my socks off”.  To which the logical parent replies, “but honey, you don’t have to take your socks off to change your diaper”.  And the response?  Mike will look at you as if you have a toe growing out of your forehead and says “yes you do mommy”.  So – for the last couple of weeks, we simply let him take his socks off (and he insists that he has to throw them on the floor) and diaper changes proceed smoothly.

And speaking of diapers – we’ve been introducing Mike to the “potty”.  He has taken to it pretty well.  He is curious when we go “potty”, and he seems to enjoy “putting pee in the potty” himself.  He is also excited about “drinking more milk because it makes more pee”.  So we are considering starting “potty training for real” fairly soon.  Especially since we had a “major” breakthrough this past weekend.

You see – Mike has one funny quirk when he goes to “sit on the potty”.  He has to be completely naked.  No socks.  No shirt.  Nothing but naked baby.  Why?  Two-year-old logic.  Our big breakthrough?  This weekend, Mike peed in the potty with his shirt on!  We are hoping that the trend continues.

The last little episode of two-year-old logic (man – I should save all of these.  In the 365 days that Mike will be two, I bet I could have 365 examples of “two-year-old” logic!).  This one happened while taking Mike up to his room for bed.  Remember – two-year-olds have no logic to begin with.  And when they are sleepy, they have even less (is there such a thing is a “negative” amount of logic?).  I was carrying Mike up the stairs to his room when in that sleepy whiny cry-like voice he says “I want down!  I don’t want to go upstairs any more right now!”.  So – I put him down.  And he immediately started crawling up the stairs.  “Where are you going, buddy?”  He turns around and looks at me with an expression that can only mean “DUH!” and says, “I’m going up stairs”.  Since this is what I wanted in the first place – I let him continue on up while I followed behind.  Halfway up the steps he turns around and looks at me with pleading eyes and says “hold me”.  And I thought to myself, “Hmmm – this is right back where we started…”

I’m sure that logic skills will come soon enough.  But until then – it’s fun to try and figure out what is going on in their little heads.  Who knows – perhaps they have it right?  I don’t wear diapers anymore – so I can’t try the sock trick.  But I do use the “big potty” – maybe next time I’ll try it naked…