What Day is Today?
The 3-year-old doesn’t know the days of the week. That may or may not be normal at his age but he’ll learn them soon enough. What’s funny is that he has come up with a way to track which day of the week it is without using the actual names.
To whit, Sunday is
Church Day. When he wakes up on Sunday and isn’t sure if he should be getting
in play clothes or his Sunday clothes he asks, “Is it Church Day today?”
The week continues
and we get to Monday. But not the 3-year-old. He gets to Garbage Truck Day.
Monday is the day we get our trash can emptied by the (awesome) garbage truck,
so the 3-year-old never has a case of the Mondays. He gets the thrill of seeing
a garbage truck.
The 3-year-old’s
system isn’t perfect and Tuesday doesn’t have a special name. If a day
transpires and it doesn’t have a name, does it actually occur? Yes. And if
you’re the 3-year-old it’s probably Tuesday.
The 3-year-old is
back on his game for Wednesdays though. He has to be since he has two names for
Wednesday that he alternates depending on the season. If we’re in Lent and
having evening church services he calls it, “Night Church Day.” If it’s during
one of the brothers’ baseball seasons it’ll be “Baseball Practice Day.”
My wife schedules
the weekly grocery pickup on Thursday, so that’s Curbside Day. You might not
think one small errand could define a day for a 3-year-old but you’d be wrong.
I mean, if a municipal vehicle stopping in front of the house for approximately
30 seconds to empty a trashcan can be the high point of your day, then
certainly getting groceries loaded into the car and getting to help unload them
at home can be.
I grill something
for dinner on most Fridays, so Friday is Grill Day. Even I get a little excited
for Grill Day. I guess getting to cook meat over a fire is to a dad what
getting to see a garbage truck is to a 3-year-old.
I joked that I
made pancakes for breakfast one Saturday when our oldest was five and he
declared it a tradition and we’ve been having pancakes on Saturday ever since. The
oldest is 12 now and he helps keep Pancake Day going strong by assisting with
the pancake preparation.
The 3-year-old’s
system for naming days is so set in his head he will wake up on Saturday and
come out and say, “Is it Pancake Day?” I’ll say yes while I’m in the middle of
mixing pancake batter and he’ll say, “What’s for breakfast?”