It’s difficult to explain the concept of Lenten resolutions to a 3 year old, but my wife and I have a small list of things our 3 year old Christopher could work on these next 40 days.Christopher has reached a milestone…he’s halfway through his preschool years. And quite frankly he’s come a long way. When he started preschool, he spoke to us using a confusing assortment of words in random order. We never really knew what he was talking about. Yet now I can carry on a good-flowing conversation with him on just about any subject, ranging from Scooby Doo plot analysis to election-year politics, and even some intermediate theology. The progression of these little preschool kids is really amazing.
But for all of his gains, there are still a few pesky trouble spots Christopher is struggling to overcome. First, he has a sleeping problem. We rarely have a hard time getting Christopher to go to sleep in his bed, but for some reason he will awake the next morning in some place in the house other than his bed. Sometimes it’s on the floor somewhere, quite often it’s the living room couch, and even more often it’s my bed, using my pillow. And he doesn’t climb into our bed on his own…he’s very polite about it. Instead he will walk over to my side of the bed and stand and stare at my face until my eyes open. Many times I hear him walking in the hallway coming toward our room, but for those times I’m in a deep sleep, I can tell you there’s nothing more startling than opening your eyes and seeing someone’s face 6 inches from your own. Even Christopher’s cute little brown eyes can look very scary when you’re not expecting to see them at strange hours of the night.
The next area of concern for Christopher is his tendency towards aggressive behavior. We have, I feel, a very peaceful household. Aside from the occasional Daddy vs. Sons Friday Night Wrestling matches, and the periodic DVD viewings of "Rocky I-VI", my kids are not subjected to many acts of physical violence. Yet for some reason, Christopher has developed a peculiar habit of walking up to his oldest brother Alex and punching him squarely in the back. We'll hear the thud from another room, and by the time we get there Christopher is already covering both ears to block out our upcoming stern lecture. Alex, a good sport, shows great restraint and never hits back. No matter what we say and do, Christopher refuses to change this habit. We keep telling Alex it's his way of expressing affection. Alex doesn't quite buy it. The dynamics between siblings is always an amazing thing to witness. I have three brothers and a sister myself, so I can attest to some peculiar sibling habits. Christopher and his other brother, Adam, have a unique bond. In fact whenever something seems to be bothering Christopher, it is invariably Adam who can tell us the problem. Adam is in many ways Christopher's conscience and personal legal counsel all in one.
The final area of concern for us is Christopher's steel-willed desire to run the show at all times. He chooses the TV programs, he picks the fast food restaurants. It can sometimes be said Christopher rules our household with an iron fist. There is very little documentation on what infamous Dictators such as Hitler, Stalin, Musolini, and Hussein, may have been like as 3 year olds, but I am concerned about the path Christopher is heading down. Need an example? Christopher must be the first to open every door our family enters. Always. If someone else should open the door to, say the car or a restaurant or church, Christopher makes everyone come back to his side of the door and do it all over again. Failure to do so?...its no longer worth debating. We simply comply. Granted, this is a minor example, but all the famous Dictators probably started with small, petty stuff. They just kept pushing the boundaries little by little. The good news is, we still have another year and a half of preschool to iron these things out, plus these 40 days of Lent. History will tell us how well we did.
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