Little Pitchers Have Big Ears

During dinner we had one of our many discussions about Mtoto coming home. Tommy has had some anxiety about whether or not Mtoto will be taking his things, although mostly he is concerned that there will not be enough food for both of them (picture Tommy asking, almost every day, whether or not Mtoto would be taking whatever he is eating- oatmeal, cereal, banana, hamburger, etc). We have managed to shift the conversation- now we try and focus on what Tommy and Mtoto will do together, and this has for the most part taken Tommy's focus off of his fears of what he will lose and onto what he will gain.

So, there we were discussing that Mtoto will come home to share a room with Tommy, with a heavy emphasis on Tommy still being in the family, in the room, and not being replaced.

I said something along the lines of, "Tommy, we are a family and families live together and you will always live with mom and dad." Quick pause while I realized that that statement is not entirely true because we really hope that one day he will be a functioning adult who has his own family that does not live under our roof. Quick addition: "That is, you will live with us until you go to college."

Tommy immediately responded, "I don't want to go to college."

We were dismayed by his emphatic negative reaction to the suggestion of higher education, and asked why. His response: "Because I can't suck my fingers at college."

Flashback: The day before we were in line at Aldi, and Tommy was sucking his fingers. The cashier asked me how old he was, and we had a very brief conversation about finger/thumb sucking that ended with me saying, "I'm not worried about it. I know he won't be sucking his fingers when he goes to college."

Yikes. He really does listen to EVERYTHING.