Yogi-master or criminal mastermind?!

TODAY Jack shared a clearly articulated memory from his day with me -- unprompted and out of the blue, which was kind of unusual. It came at bedtime when I was reading him books. He said:

"(insert cousin name here)* went to jail."

I said: "He went to jail? What did he do?"

"He took away my bike. He got a time out."

Me:  "Did he tell you he was sorry?"

Jack: "Yes. He was naughty to Jack. He took my bike. He got a time-out."

Not sure where he learned about jail. Smart that he related it to time-out. Toddlers do have genius, criminal minds when it comes right down to it.

I decided to write about this little conversation with him because I was so surprised when he randomly and calmly brought up this event (*names have been changed to protect the innocent. After all, I wasn't with him when the recalled event happened, and Jack has been known to let his imagination run wild). I found it interesting that this memory just happened to make him look like the good guy being picked on by the (ahem, younger) bully cousin. Then I remembered what I learned in my yoga class yesterday: our brains relish (and for adults, often get stuck in) re-running memories that feed our ego and remind us of just how superior we are in our manners, brains, etc. etc. to others. Obviously, the ego starts its feeding early--and toddlers are famous for their ego-centric selves.

As a side note, Jack is WAY better at yoga than I am. I came home from my class, only to find him doing a yogi-worthy down dog. Cats and toddlers--can't beat them at the yoga.

Back to toddlers who should spend some time in jail... The SAME day as aforesaid yoga class, I was rushing to get ready to go, only to find that while I had made a quick stop in the bathroom, Jack had used his lightning-fast criminal mind to locate the gigantic re-fill bottle of bathroom hand soap in the hall closet and was as busy as Jackson Pollack in an orange jumpsuit laying down his design on the floor when I emerged. Genius artist? OR criminal master-mind. You decide, once you have a toddler living with you.

By the way, in recalling this memory of him and sharing it with you, I don't feel superior to the toddler mind. Instead, I feel extremely ill-equipped to keep up with that curious, incredible brain! Oh well, at least he is keeping our synapses snapping...and sometimes our patience too!

Down dog! Good dog...