Leprechaun Hunting

My son has leprechaun fever.  I'm not sure why he has chosen to become obsessed with leprechauns, but he has, and it's kind of hilarious.

This week at daycare a leprechaun snuck into the house and left some sneaky footprints on the kids' snack table and turned the milk for their cheerios green.  Since then, my son has been obsessed with this leprechaun.

I came home Tuesday night after class, when he as supposed to be in bed already, and got dragged upstairs to hear all about the leprechaun.  Ben was very concerned that Ms. Holly needed to catch it fast so it doesn't turn our milk green.  He was also very determined that once this sneaky leprechaun was caught, he was going to make a little bed for it and buy it some green shoes so it would play toys with him.

Yesterday we spent our whole car ride hunting for the leprechaun which, oddly enough, we never spotted.  While I was at work, Ben convinced his Dad to build him a leprechaun trap.  Said trap consisted of a cardboard box propped up with a plate of cheerios underneath.  Apparently, this wasn't enough to please Ben.  He woke up this morning and insisted that Dad's best friend Tim build him a bigger trap.  Good call on Ben's part, since Tim is an engineer and a propped up box and cheerios is a pretty lame trap, even to a three year old.

Since St. Patty's day is this weekend, I've got to admit that I'm dying to buy the kid a box of Lucky Charms to celebrate with.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I haven't had Lucky Charms since I was twelve...nope...nothing to do with that.  I might just have to send this leprechaun a note and ask him to leave a box in the leprechaun trap.  You know...for Ben to enjoy....

Control!

It would appear I'm losing control.  To my three year old.

We have reached the phase in which my son thinks he needs to control everything.  Including me.  Sometimes it's kind of funny:

"Mom, I asked you TWO times to move this off my chair.  Mom.  Move it off my chair!"

"Mom.  I don't liiiiike those choices.  Those are not good choices.  I need new choices."

Other times it's annoying:

Half way through a bowl of cereal:

"MOM I DON'T WANT THIS SPOON.  This is the WRONG spoon.  I DON'T WANT IT."

Cries for five minutes, finishes cereal and eats two more with the same damn spoon.

And then there are mornings like this past Monday when I'm fairly confident none of us are going to survive to four:

"I DON'T WANT TO GET UP.  I DON'T WANT TO GET DRESSED.  I DON'T WANT TO GO TO HOLLY'S.  I DON'T WANT TO FEED MY FISH.  I WANT TO SLEEP."

"We're going to be late, let's go."

"I'M NOOOOOOOT GETTING UP.  I'M NOOOOOOOOT GETTING DRESSED."

There was a lot of yelling, door slamming and temper tantrums.  Not all of them Ben's.  I'm not proud of this.  But it is what it is.

I keep reminding myself that this is a phase.  That he's testing me.  He's trying to get the upper hand.  I'm the grown up and I can handle this.

But let me just tell you.  I don't waaaaaaaannnnnnnnnttttttt tooooooooooo.