Disturbing announcements made by my children

Timothy came to me in a state of great excitement today to say that he now knows that "peanut butter does NOT have the pee in it like when you go to the bathroom, it's a different kind of pea". I am now left to ponder the disturbing thought that he's believed that it does contain pee like when you go to the bathroom all this time, and yet he still ate it.

Christmas music

My music-loving kid, Timothy, has been learning some Christmas songs at school. This was a huge relief, because to tell the truth, if I have to hear "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" just one more time...

Anyway, he was singing them in the car for me today. His favorite is "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". Unfortunately, he doesn't have all the words exactly dead-on. He starts off with, "You'd better watch out, you better not kraut! You better not pout I'm telling you why..." I blame Chris' obsession with bratwurst and sauerkraut.

Doing our civic duty...

Yesterday was the Tulsa mayoral election. Our polling place is very close to the house, and is usually pretty slow in the mid-afternoon, so I typically go after I pick Gabe up from school and take both kids with me. Gabe is getting older and is more interested in how the government runs, so he wanted to know what we were voting for on the way inside. I told him we were voting for who would be mayor, but I failed to mention that there were a couple of other things on the ballot. He stood and read over my shoulder as I filled out my ballot for mayor, city counselor and several propositions.

Fast forward to this morning. Chris is off work for Veteran's Day and he generously offered to take Gabe to school. OK, that's a lie. When the alarm went off, I "accidentally" shoved him bodily from the bed and then mumbled, "Since you're already up, wanna take Gabe for me?" At any rate, on the way to school this morning, they were listening to the news report on the election. "Daddy," said Gabe, "What prepositions did you and Mama vote for anyway?" I feel that it would be best, when he gets home from school, if I explained to him that his father's answers of "About, For and With" might not be fully accurate.

The Five Senses

Lest this become the world's most depressing blog, I have a kidlet story. Today when I picked Timothy up from preschool, we were talking about his day as we drove to Gabe's school. I knew his class has been studying the body, so I asked if they were still talking about the five senses in group time. With a little help, I got him to name sight, hearing, touch, smell...but he was struggling on the last one. At last, he said, "Oh, I know! It's temptation!"

Trying to keep a straight face I said, "I think you might mean taste."

"No," he insisted, "it's temptation! Like, if there is a cake on the counter and you would like to eat some but you haven't had your dinner yet, you should probably wait till after dinner! That's temptation!"

You can't argue with that kind of logic!

When kids are literal...

The other night, Chris made stuffed bell peppers for dinner. There were two green ones, a red, a yellow and an orange. He gave Gabe first choice (yes, I know, my kids are really weird and will eat stuffed peppers!) and he chose orange. Of course, Timothy then wanted orange, too, but we didn't have another orange one. I gave him a yellow one and told him, "This one has your name on it!"

Skip forward 45 minutes, and Timothy is STILL at the table. This is unusual. He normally inhales his food in under 10 minutes. So I went back to check on him and he was dejectedly clearing his empty plate. "What's wrong?" I asked. "I ate all my dinner," he replied, "but I couldn't find my name written on my pepper."

All you need is BLAH

Timothy really likes music. He has rather eclectic taste in music, for a three year old. For instance, he's been wanting his own copy of "Yellow Submarine" ever since he listened to it in his Popple's car. So Mama T and Popple got him a copy for Christmas. We were listening to it in the car yesterday, and "All You Need is Love" came on. "Mama, Mama, it's my favorite song!" he cried. "Blah, blah, blah! Blah is all you need!"

Another of his current favorites is Paul Simon's "Graceland" dvd. For those of you who have never seen it, it's a concert in South Africa, featuring Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mabazo. He seems to really enjoy the African music, but he has his own take on it. His favorite song on the dvd is one that he refers to as "Bubbashoota". Since we don't really know what they're saying, we've stopped trying to tell him it's not called Bubbashoota.

As long as he doesn't develop a taste for rap, I'm not going to complain too much.

Growing up is hard to do!

Gabe is at a fun age. I enjoy watching him as he struggles to be more grown-up. He likes to use the proper words, the "grown-up" words for things. So this morning, I refrained from laughing when he informed me that Moses had stepped on his "crutches" with his full weight. Judging by the portion of his anatomy that he was clutching, and the fact that he doesn't currently own any crutches, I can only assume he meant "crotch". I feel that by correcting him with a straight face, I have done my parently duty for the day.