No Sleeves: On Life with a 3 Year Old
Once, when I had just graduated college, I was in the grocery store dairy aisle. These were the glory days (grocery shopping-wise), when a trip to the grocery store did not mean putting on 3 coats and 6 shoes to get out the door, unbuckling 3 people, trying hard to make sure no one died in the parking lot, trying to execute a pre-planned route through the store before the inevitable melt down…
Children are poets
I love language. I never met a 25 cent word I didn't like. Original metaphors make my heart beat faster. But best is good, clean simple language. Words that are crispy. That is why Wally Ben is my new favorite poet. Like most preschoolers, he is a very literal-minded guy. As an example, he was watching TV and some 3 inch high little guys were on the screen. He turned to me, like this reminded him…
Kids Say the Darndest Things: Summer Edition
Wally has been even more interesting lately in the way he thinks. He has been trying to understand and reason his way through the stuff of life lately. Most recently were about 100 straight questions about digestion. A snippet of this conversation is below. As a non-scientist, I tried to work with him to tell him how it is, but even I can't answer some of the things he wonders. Note to self: read…
Kids Say the Darndest Things: Kid Logic
My Auntie Sara and I were talking a few months ago about the amazing logic of kids. Ever since Wally turned 3, he is trying to reason out the world, and sometimes the way he makes sense of things is funny, but it really does make good sense. Without further ado, a few quotes, some classic kid logic, some adult-speak, and some just goofy. On moving WV: Why are we moving? W4: We are getting a…
Kids Say the Darndest Things, November 2012
And for you today, we have a random assortment of recent thoughts from our 3 year old. --------------------------------- On the Lawn Maintenance Business. The lawn maintenance workers were doing fall cleanup, leaf-blowing outside. W4 was leaving for work. WV: Bye Daddy, have fun at work! Say hi to Bill and Marc for me! [He says this every day about the guys Daddy works with.] Daddy: Okay! WV: Say…
Kids say the darndest things: Conversations with a Two Year Old
WV is two, which means he works things out with two-year-old logic. Which can be rather amusing sometimes. Here are some of Wally Ben's thoughts from the past few months. On old people illustrations: My automatic Nook screen saver is black and white illustrations of old authors. Most of them are looking old and grumpy. Wally was messing with my Nook and thought he figured out how to switch to a…
In case you ever wondered if a 2 year old is listening...
Every night after dinner, we all hold hands and Wally IV says a family prayer. Since Wally Ben started talking, we taught him his own prayer, "Thank you, Jesus, Amen," which he could say at the end. Then we let him get down from his chair. (This process, of course, has morphed his prayer into, "Thank you, Jesus, Amen, Out, out, out, out," so we will hurry up and let him down.) Because Wally Ben…
Kids say the darndest things, wake up edition.
Vivi didn't sleep well last night. (Her pattern for the past few weeks.) Last night she slept so poorly, in fact, that at 2:45 after I had fed her and rocked her and was awake for a few hours trying to get her to stay asleep when I set her down, I gave up and decided to let her cry. She was fed, she was tired, so it was my only option if I wanted a wink of sleep myself. After a half hour of…
Kids Say the Darndest Things
New names for things...close but no cigar. WV: (walking by a park with a big tube slide) Look at that really big big tuba! -------------------------------- His American Idol WV watched this show a few times with his dad, and always asks everyone's name. Then I watched it with him a few weeks later. WV: What's him name? Me: Phillip WV: Phillip Phillips? Yes, that was this idol's full name. Which…
Kids Say the Darndest Things: Potty Edition
The potty training thing makes for interesting toddler conversation—some in private, and some of the most amusing in public bathrooms. We haven't done diapers since February, but it is still a challenge requiring constant reminders and fights in heading to the potty. We've found one of our greatest motivators, though, is that he really cares about our feelings. This is a daily conversation: WV: I…