Just so you know...

"YOU'RE OFF THE LIST!"

That's what he says all the time. Mostly to Daddy and Budgy and friends at school. Luckily for me, I don't hear it often.

I get it, though. Caleb needs power. Caleb needs to be in control. It's a Carter trait that extends back at least three generations... (are you kidding? I'm not taking any ownership of the need for control, tee hee) But, when you are the littlest person in the house and there is so much out of your control, you'll take back a small slice of it, any way you can get it.

For Caleb, preservation of control manifests itself in the form of THE LIST.

We've come to understand that it's some mysterious mental LIST that includes all the names of the people he either approves of or who haven't ticked him off in the last 20 minutes. How do we know? Because anytime you deny him a snack or tell him it's bedtime or insist that he needs to find his "lost" shoes himself or we don't turn on his TV show as quickly as he demands, he squishes up his face and with furrowed brows and a loud voice, declares, "That's it! You're off the LIST!"

Now what really happens when you're off the list? Who knows. None of us have experienced any harmful side effects. And quite frankly, it might be a reprieve from all his demands to be OFF THE LIST. But as this momma's luck would have it, I spend most of my time ON the LIST and the demands continue on..... :)

Well Caleb...we love you anyways...whether or not, at the moment, we are ON or OFF, the list. :)

ETA: tonight I had to give Caleb a haircut. He hates them! Seriously, hates them. So tonight for the first time in a long time... I'm OFF THE LIST. :(