He Knows More Than We Realize

Teddy is a charlatan. Actually, he's the exact opposite of a charlatan.

A charlatan, according to dictionary.com, is noun. 1. a person who pretends or claims to have more knowledge or skill than he or she possesses; quack. 

Teddy pretends or claims to have less knowledge or skill than he possesses. 

For example, he drags the entryway bench to the basement stairs and launches it down the stairs. I tell him no, and he just stares at me. He pushes AJ or roughhouses AJ to the ground. When we tell him no, he stares at us like the word has no meaning.

Yet, this is the same child who this weekend found a dollar bill among the Christmas gifts. He walked into the kitchen and located a wallet on the counter. He grabbed the wallet and attempted to put the dollar in the wallet because he knows that's where money belongs.

It's also the same child who took every item from the silverware holder in the dishwasher and crammed each utensil into the silverware drawer. The pieces might not have been in the exact positions, but he knows that's where silverware is stored. (Thankfully, I was unloading the dishwasher, not loading it, at the time.)

So, Teddy, I'm calling your bluff. You're plenty smart enough to know the word no.

Now, if anyone has any brilliant ideas for us to reinforce the meaning of the word, I'm all ears. Things like timeouts don't work so well for a child who is constantly in motion unless I were to physically hold him in place the entire time.