School’s out, school’s out … which means Jodi’s Bizzy Day Care is in full swing. I overslept a little this morning, took a late shower, and emerged to find 10 – count ’em, 10 – kids in the house. Our four, and six more. Ten.
Tomorrow I bet I get out of bed on time.
Yeah, so I’m plugging another blogger. Just found out my children’s author friend and coach Jacqui Robbins (mentioned in a another post last fall) is now blogging in public where we can see it and observe her madness firsthand.
Excellent.
Two things: one, her blog sounds just like she does, which makes me pretty happy, because we don’t cross paths that often, and two, I predict that some of you folks (Ephelba, Minnie … Jinglebob, even) will really enjoy it. Read the May 13th entry first. I’m still laughing.
So take a minute to visit Jacqui’s Room, right next door to Hubba’s House in the menu at the right. And go ahead and comment. It’s great fun. Really!
I could hide out under there
I just made you say underwear …
– Barenaked Ladies, “Pinch”
Our youngest, three-year-old Trevor, applies a certain, consistent logic to the new words he’s learning in order to figure out what they mean. For example, out of the blue he will proudly announce, “Mom, I know why we say toothbrush – because we clean our teeth with it, and because it’s a brush … toothbrush!”
He applies this equally to simple and compound words, so that the results are often unintentionally nonsensical and funny, e.g. “I know why they’re called suckers … because you suck on them, and because they’re ers!”
So last night we’re enjoying a small dish of ice cream, and he begins: “I know why we say ice cream … because it’s really cold, and because it’s cream – ice cream!”
“That’s right, Trevvy!” says Jodi, and I ask, “Trevor, why do they call it chewing gum?”
“Because you chew it, and because it’s gum!” he says proudly.
“And why,” I ask, “do we call it underwear?”
He stumbles a moment, working it through in his head.
“Because it goes under your pants,” he says, “and then it’s like it’s gone!”
* * * * *
Blogger’s Note: If you aren’t laughing, don’t worry – it took us a moment, too. Homophones are great fun, aren’t they?
Additional Note: On a mostly unrelated note, this morning, Trevor approached Emma, placed his palm on top of his head, and said, “Emma, this is how tall I am. I’m this tall!”
So we’re eating dinner as a family, a rice, broccoli and cheddar concoction with beef. Quite tasty – even the kids seemed to enjoy it! Jodi and I were taking turns asking the kids what they liked best. Gabe is a broccoli hound, so of course, he said the green stuff.
“Gabe,” I said, “do you like rice, too?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Cheese?”
“Yeah.”
“What about dirt and sunshine?”
Gabe twisted his face into a question mark. “Huh?”
“Isn’t that what broccoli is? Broccoli takes nutrients from dirt and energy from the sun to grow – so aren’t you eating dirt and sunshine?”
Gabe grinned. “Yeah!”
I turned to Brendan. “And it’s that way with all plants. So if cows eat plants, isn’t beef dirt and sunshine, too?”
“Yup!” said Brendan.
“And if we eat broccoli and beef, aren’t we also dirt and sunshine?”
And then I stopped. I was acting silly, of course. But then I looked at Bren and Gabe laughing together. And at Trevor, smiling back at me.
Dirt and sunshine.
And the next morning, I watched Emma walking to the bus in her girlie clothes and grubby shoes …
And me. And you, even.
What are any of us except dirt and sunshine?
We did a bit of running around this morning. Trevvy does some of his best thinking in the minivan, so when he saw the first group of motorcycles on the road, he said, “Dad, I want you to get a motorcycle!”
“Really?” I said, thinking Talk to your mother.
“I want you to get a reawwy, reawwy long motorcycle, so everybody in the whole world can ride on it!”
He didn’t say much else until the ride home. Then he said, “Dad, I know how to spell DVD. It spells D-V-D.”
“That’s so easy,” said Emma.
“Yah,” said Trevvy, “because there’s two Ds and a V, like this: D-V-D.”
Exactly.
Archangel Stomp 