Kidisms

Just as Art Linkletter used to say, kids do say the darndest things. Especially, it would seem, around here. In the last few days I've overheard the following:

While Laura was playing with her dolls, she apparently grew tired and wanted to eat a snack. Since I was holding one of her dolls for her because the doll was sick and needed some loving, she noted that I wasn't going to be able to get a snack for her if I were holding her doll. Being the brilliant child she is, she came over to me, took the doll out of my hands and said "Come here, Baby. I'll put you away now to sleep". Oh if only it were that simple sometimes...

The boys were playing together - bionicles this time - when Laura happened upon their 'game'. She quickly ran to get her own 'guys' to add in. Never mind that they were dolls from her Sweet Streets set. And the boys could have cared less. Apparently it doesn't matter if your 'guys' wear pink or purple. Just as long as they fit right in. I watched casually through the door crack to see what happened. I overheard Laura saying "Bang, bang, bang" as she pointed her dolls arm at a much bigger bionicle. Matthew reminds her that they don't shoot guns, they shoot lasers so she adjusts on the fly. "Bang, bang, shew, shew, shew" Yeah, she gets it. :)

As we were out and about last week in the warmth I overheard a conversation between a rather nosey neighbor and Jonathan. Apparently he is being quizzed about school. To what end I can only imagine so I don't go there. I am, however, exceedingly proud of Jonathan. He answered practically, honestly, and with more information that I think she expected. After droning on and on about WWII, how ancient architecture is mirrored in some of the buildings in town as well as some famous ones, how neat it was when he got the times tables memorized so well he could do them in under 5 minutes, how he really liked writing but hated that he had to actually edit what he wrote by being sure it was spelled correctly, made sense and had all of the proper punctuation and grammar included that it lost some charm, (yes, he said "charm"), and then went on and on about rock formations, chemical and physical weathering, erosion and how to prevent it and oh so many other things in science, he finally realized her eyes were glazed over and she wasn't really able to take in all he was saying so he ended it by saying "So, I guess that was a bit TMI. Did you want me to answer a specific question instead of going over what I learned last week?" Ah, the wisdom of youth.

Matthew was watching an old episode of Green Acres because we'd been singing the theme song around here lately. He looked up at me after a few minutes and said "You know, without the canned laughter, it just wouldn't be all that funny." Hmmm... maybe he has something there.

And finally, Laura was trying very hard to get attention from someone. Anyone, actually. It wasn't going well and she was quietly expressing that dogged determination that is becoming her hallmark. When calling all of our names, pulling on our body parts, and even standing in front of us and attempting to climb on our laps didn't produce any results, she regrouped and came up with a new tactic. She collected a few of her dollies and started taking care of them, murmuring to them and patting them on the back. Then, when one was apparently inconsolable, she brought them to me. Amused by her new efforts at getting attention, I took the baby and started rocking it, soothing it and patting it. I told it a story and was cooing over it. Laura, thinking I might have lost a few marbles, gently touched my shoulder and said "Mommy, you know dat's not your baby, right?"

Kids. They say the darndest things!