The pot and the kettle

I just came to this realization as I was considering the content of this post. I'm going to tell two stories - one that has to do with my daughter and how she's obviously self confident, but also not very modest. The second story is an example of my son's genius nature. Pretty modest of me, huh? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I suppose!

So, I've been really struggling lately with a characteristic my 4.5 year old has of announcing all the things she is able to do, in an almost braggy, sing-song kind of way. She'll even go so far as to repeat something she's asked me about in front of someone else to get their praise as well. Case in point - today after our garage sale, I took her to a friend's fifth birthday party. There was food out on the table in the kitchen and after perusing the options, I decided that she could have free reign over the food and get whatever she wanted on her own. When she told me she was hungry, I told her where the food was. She looked at me with this look on her face that said, "Really? You're going to trust me to not come back with nothing but Cheetos?". I responded with a look of, "You know what the good choices are and your legs aren't broken, missy". So, she goes off and gets a plate and loads it up with her choices; cheetos, pretzels, and grapes. Not too bad. But then she has to come back and announce that she got the food all by herself. "Yes", I say, downplaying it and hoping that she'll catch on and keep her voice down. Which backfires, because I'm pretty sure what she heard was, "What? What did you say? You got your very own food? Wow! That's amazing! Did everyone hear that??!". She turns to another friend's mother and announces loudly that she's "big enough to get my own food now", very matter-of-factly.

Hi, pot, here's where you meet the kettle.

I'm constantly astounded by my son's brilliance. Maybe it's just that I have low expectations for my youngest, but he is seriously so smart! Just now, he had manuvered through the "toy barrier" that is meant to keep him from our CD racks that hold roughly 500 CD's and DVD's. He managed to get behind the toys and was busy pulling on the baby gate that is haphazardly placed in front of the CD rack, as if it's the Berlin wall. I tell him "no touch", which puts that gleam in his eye that he gets when he knows he's being mischevious. His eyes dart between myself and my husband, as we barrage him with a chorus of "No Touch! Bennett, noooooo tooooouuchhhh!". Obviously, this makes him giddy at the possibilities, so I go to a different tactic. Distraction! "Bennett, where is your phone?". He lets go of the baby gate and comes wandering back through the "toy barrier", which happens to have a walker, which distracts him for a moment as he goes toddling down the hallway. I don't think anything about it, and then the next thing I know, he goes over to the gate that allows you to leave our Living Room and go into the Entry Way and Playroom. He's acting like he's going to open it (no, he's not that genius) and then gets frustrated and starts yelling for me. Because I'm really obtuse, I tell him, "No, we aren't going to open the gate". He goes back over to the CD rack. Rinse, Repeat. Only this time, he skips the walker step and when asked where his phone is, he goes directly back over to the gate. It then dawns on me that he's TRYING TO GO GET HIS PHONE. We have more than one, but his favorite one is part of his sister's kitchen in the Playroom. So, I go over to the gate, open it and help him navigate the step down into the Entry Way (which he actually signed the sign Help for!! 1st time!) and into the Playroom. He goes directly to the kitchen and grabs the phone. We go back to the Living Room and all is well. He's busy "talking" on the phone. Genius!!