Who Called You Butthead?

When I picked up my 4 year old son from daycare today, I knew we would have some quality time together. My wife was with our infant son and my 5 year old daughter wanted to stay late at daycare for her summer camp instead of coming home early like she usually does. What I couldn’t predict was that because my daughter was staying late again, my son was really sad and didn’t want to leave.

I had to think quickly and we just went to check on her before leaving. Because my son saw his big sister, he was sad, but agreed to leave and pick her up later (like we did yesterday). Crisis averted. When we got home, he wanted to play with a magnet tile set that had cars driving on it if you built the track. We got to build a bunch of different tracks and put in new batteries (and change out the batteries a few times) in the cars. Since changing the batteries needed a Phillips screwdriver, I taught my son the differences vs. a flathead screwdriver. He had so much fun changing the batteries and building the tracks. It was quality time well spent.

After picking up my daughter, my son was so excited to tell his big sister about everything he did and learned. He was talking about the track on the entire car ride back and when we got home, he was telling her about flathead screwdrivers. When my wife overheard, she (mistakenly) was taken aback and asked my son who called him butthead! Before my son could process what my wife said (and especially because I didn’t want him to learn or hear the word), I quickly chimed in that he said flathead, not butthead. She started laughing and my son went on talking about screwdrivers with his big sister.

I love that spending individual time with him is helping him become his own person. He loves his big sister and always wants to be around her (and like her), but when he is by himself, he has his own little personality that I love. He’s independent (just like his big sister) and loves learning new things (just like his big sister). It’s just great that he can do things on his own terms. The fact that he is so excited to share his day with his best friend after pickup also shows me that the quality time is making a positive impact on him (while also being tons of fun)!