I lose.

Three is kind of a hard age.  No one properly warned me about what a three year old is really like.  Some days it's a real challenge.  Among all of the wonderful qualities that Aiden possesses, the quality that is most prominent these days is his strong will.  It's strong guys, like hulk strong.  Like I may or may not have cried for a minute today because he wore me down with his constant arguing.  He is a professional arguer.  One thing that makes him so good at it is that he can come up with the most random arguments and justifications.  Sometimes it drives me nutzo but on occasion it's just straight hilarious.  Let's go ahead and forget about today's arguments and focus on the hilarious ones instead.

1.  Yesterday Aiden kicked me and today he hit me.  For the record, he is not usually a hitter or kicker and he wasn't mad. It was playful but totally out of the blue.  But anyway, it's not ok to hit or kick so I asked him "why did you do that?" and with a straight face and without even hesitating he said "oh, because I thought you were a ball."  And that is how he wins.  I couldn't keep a straight face long enough to punish him.  dangit.

2. His new favorite way to pass time when we're at a restaurant is by going to the bathroom every.five.seconds.  So inevitably when we're standing in the stall waiting for him to "go" he'll say "oh, sorry...I guess my pee didn't come yet." And then I say "why did you tell me that you had to go to the bathroom if you don't have any pee?" to which he quickly replies every time "mom, I didn't wie. I didn't wie, ok?"  In case you're wondering...wie = lie.  And that's all he'll say over and over and over and over is "mom, I didn't wie".  And that's pretty much the end of the conversation because no matter what I ask or say he just responds with "I didn't wie".

3. If he makes a bad choice and I ask him why he did that he'll say "because I left all of my good choices at home."  or sometimes "because I ate all of my good choices."  And then I'll say "you need to find your good choices now and he'll hold his chubby little hands against his stomach and say "I can't find my good choices because I ate them and they're stuck in my heart."  And it doesn't matter how much I encourage him to find the good choices...he'll refuse because they're stuck in his heart.

So see. You tell me how it's possible to look at this face and keep it together during arguments like these.  I lose every dang time.

To his credit though...he is still so sweet, adorable and hilarious most of the time.  I guess I'm just struggling with the fact that it's possible to be out argued by a three year old.  His cuteness always wins.