Conversations I never had with my son, Vol. 1

We all know boys and girls are different, yadda yadda yadda-- I won't bore you by spewing back some old saws you've heard and said a hundred times yourself. I just feel compelled to begin recording some of the noteworthy quips, statements, threats, and conversations with my 4-year-old daughter M- that definitely have never before come up with my 7-year-old son D-*:

M- (having described in detail, in the manner of a time-share salesperson, a water park/resort that a classmate was going to): ...So... can we go there, too?

Me (having known where she was going the whole time she was going on about it, and not in a mood to humor her): No... I don't think so.

M- (more than a little smugly): Well, when I'm bigger, in college, and I'm on a date with my friend, we will go there. We'll stay there and go on all the rides and have SO much fun. ...When I'm in college and on a DATE, with my friend, together.

---

* And presumably won't come up with their infant brother, E-.

Things that amuse me, Vol. 10

Here's another selection of items that have been amusing me since the last time I posted a collection of these:

1. At 7 months old*, my son E- discovered that pulling one's tethered pacifier out and forcibly unclipping it instantly creates a devastatingly effective set of nunchuks with which one can threaten people to meet various demands.

2. It's come to my attention that I've recently been keeping about the same hours as a house cat. Except, without all the naps. I guess that's not really amusing, but instead subtly tragic. Maybe I should go find myself a sunny spot on the floor by a window somewhere... after I finish thoroughly licking myself and then staring alertly out the window for a few hours.

3. My wife's very simple explanation for the baby's sudden crying jag in the other room, "Oh, he just got really excited about the thing in his hand, and he fell over."

4. In case they needed another reason to pity them, basketball coaches for 7-year-olds have so many fewer weapons than those of older kids. The kids are too oblivious to respond to the tried-and-true psychological torments that are the hallmarks of coaching; they don't really much care if they make a shot, so long as they get to take one; and, for example, when sternly warned that continued misbehavior would mean one of my son's teammates would, "have to run to the end of the court and back", all his teammates immediately leaped up, hands in the air, shouting, "I wanna run! I want to run!!!"

---

* Now outdated, as he's currently 10 months old and thinks pacifiers are SO lame.

Corporate intelligence: A new Lowe

Well folks, someone has finally done it. After all these decades... well, centuries, really... a business has found a way to break through all the advertising noise, to make all the overloaded, tuned-out consumers around them sit up and take notice, to come to the table when they're called, without having to bang a drum or shout over the constant dull roar of inferior pitchmen.

You may not, nay, almost certainly have not, yet gotten to see what I am about to reveal to you, as I am one of the elite few privy to the rare, twice-daily, special messages from the ritziest of the insanely enormous home-improvement stores, Lowes, a store in which I can't particularly remember the last time I thought about setting foot.

I, as a presumably-now-part-owner of "MyLowes", was just offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance to... wait for it... Get a SNEAK PEEK at their NEW COMMERCIAL!!!

Who wants to wait in line with the common horde for the chance to evaluate Lowes' latest evaluation of their own product offerings and pricing, when can't-miss line-jumping opportunities like this are available?? I can hardly even remember a time when I wasn't this kind of special.

Hopefully, someday, you too will be so lucky to ascend to the airy heights at which I'm now soaring.

A conversation between M- and D-: Truth and Consequences

I'm not sure that there's a lesson to be found here in this conversation between my 7-year-old son D- and my 4-year-old daughter M- as they got ready for bed recently, but it is what it is, and I swear this really happened:

Me (to D-, who's given to sleeping shirtless solely to save himself seconds of time in the evenings and mornings): Get a shirt on, or you'll be sorry-- this morning you were huddled up in a freezing ball again.

M- (gleefully butting in): He should have "CONsequences", Dad!

D- (seeming to have temporarily forgotten his deep familiarity with this word): What?

M- (in a rational, expository tone, with only a slight hint of smugness toward the end): Consequences-- you have to sleep with no shirt, and you're very cold. That's "consequences" of what you did.

D-: BANG! Two socks in the face-- that's YOUR consequences!

---

You may enjoy my previous M- conversations, D- conversations, and (wife) J- conversations.

A conversation with M-: The letter of the law

Here's a puzzling conversation I just had with my 4-year-old daughter M-, as she hit the home stretch in her quest to write out the whole alphabet.

Me (singing a portion of the song, since I couldn't bear to sing it all again for the 50th time): And the next letter is.. Q, R, S; T, U...

M-: Vee!

Me: That's right, now write that down.

M- (hesitating at the paper): Uhhhh...

Me: It's like the U, but pointy on the bottom, like this: (writing in the air)

M-: ...

Me: Remember... it's like an upside-down A, without a line across the middle?

M-: Oh! Like a V!

---

You may enjoy my previous M- conversations, (7YO son) D- conversations, and (wife) J- conversations.

A monologue from M-: Keep your powder dry, and your crayons sharp

All three* of my children are very intelligent, but they definitely have different ways of manifesting these smarts. This is in part because they just have different ways of thinking, and one way my 4-year-old daughter stands apart is that much of her thought process happens out loud, and usually far beyond what would be considered necessary volume.

For example, the following puzzle is excerpted from a longer chain of thoughts idly expressed --without interruption by me-- as we colored a life-sized outline of her body for her dance class:

M-: ... If you need any crayons** sharpened, I'VE got a crayon sharpener... It's really nice, because you can sharpen any crayon you want, anytime, and you can never lose it, because it's attached to the big box of crayons, and that would be really hard to lose. ...Actually, I don't know where it is right now... I think we lost the big box of crayons... I lost my crayon sharpener, Dad.

---

* Updated banner coming, someday, someday...

** Notable fact: We were using markers, there was nary a crayon to be seen.

Classic quotes, Vol. 33

Here's a selection of some recent quotes from my 4-year-old daughter M-, my 7-year-old son D-, and my infant son E-:

M- (referring to E-, known to be a bit drooly as his teeth come in): I kissed him on the head... because I don't kiss babies on the mouth.

D- (after I helpfully pointed out that he might not like working for the Lego company so much, since they'd make him WORK, and turn his fun hobby into a chore): Oh no, I would LOVE that job, because Legos are... (at a temporary loss for words, eyes suddenly bulging) my LIFE!*

M- (eagerly, when told I also made a necklace of Fruit Loops when I was a kid): Do you still HAVE your necklace??

E- (every chance he gets, expressing himself through mime, as he's only 9 months old): Here, let me hold your face still with one hand, so I can better rip those elusive glasses right off your face.

M- (when told she has a very big vocabulary): What does that word mean?

---

* These days, it'd be hard to argue with him... well, I should say, harder to argue with him on this topic than on every single other topic that comes up.

A conversation between M- and J-: They call me MISTER Princess!

The following short but sweet conversation between my wife J- and my 4-year-old daughter M- speaks volumes about what we face these days with our little "senior in preschool".

J- (obviously quite serious, calling her over a second time for a reprimand): Excuse me, ma'am!

M- (pointedly referring to her ongoing game, to explain her previous lack of response): Do you mean, "Princess"??

J-: No, I do NOT mean "Princess"!

---

* She'll have put in two and a half years before kindergarten!

---

You may enjoy my previous M- conversations, J- conversations, and (7YO son) D- conversations.

Classic quotes, Vol. 32

Here's a selection of some recent quotes from my 4-year-old daughter M- (who's clearly very into music lately) and my 7-year-old son D-:

M- (referring to my new organization for all the outside toys): You are the Superman of balls, Dad!!

D- (when asked what was so funny while walking into the room, as if casually relishing a tasty morsel): Oh; M- told an UN-appropriate joke a minute ago... (chuckling some more)

M- (singing): There was a farmer who had a dog... whose name was Bingo... (slowly remembering, without much concern, that she 1) doesn't know how to spell things, and 2) didn't perfectly memorize the lyrics to work around this handicap) ...G-L...I-N!!

D- (trying to cushion the blow to the chef's ego on omelet night): THIS part I don't like? (pointing to the "egg" part) ...but everything else I like... (forcing an encouraging smile)

M- (emphatically, while eating "fruit on the bottom" raspberry yogurt): When you stir it all up and smoothen it out, D-, it's REALLY good. It's like a strawberry sur-VEY* or something. It's a really good strawberry sur-VEY!

M- (practically screaming, while strumming a toy guitar): I'm going to start a BAND!!! (after being asked if it will be a loud one) OH yeah!!!

M- (part of a much longer, and clearly very inspiring, song she was cranking out on her guitar and microphone): "We arrrrrre kiiiiiiiiids... but we will grow uuup one dayyyyyyy... and weeeee willll have a houuuuuuse... // And we will have to pay our mortgagggggge, eeeeeeeveryyyyyy dayyyyyyy..."

---

* Maybe a cross between "sorbet" and "parfait"? Either way, it was said about 100 times in that snooty tone of voice people use when trying to authentically pronounce the only foreign loan word in a sentence.

A conversation with M- and D-: I see your unbeatable strength, and raise you my imagination

While setting up a sort of industrial-strength collapsible steel bin in the garage yesterday, I stood on it so I could reach each of the sides at once. My 7-year-old son D- and 4-year-old daughter M- were immediately shocked that this device could EVEN hold up DAD!

I informed them that it could probably hold up an elephant, since it's made of centimeter-thick hardened steel bars crisscrossed in a grid of one-inch squares, supported by large, thick, solid-steel feet. I made the mistake of adding, for effect, that they couldn't break it if they tried.

They immediately took this as a personal challenge, and sought to undermine it the only way they knew how.

D- (conversationally): Well, the Incredible Hulk, if he was here, he could just SMASH it like that. Right?

Me (distracted): Sure, I guess... since he's not real, and they can make up anything they want about him.

D- (strangely triumphant): Yeah, so he could...

M- (looking to contribute): And they made up that he's the strongest guy in the whole world... so HE could break this if he wanted to, but we couldn't.

D- (exultant, but now totally off topic): HE could break ANYthing... he's so awesome. ERRRRRRGGHHH...

M-: Yeah!

This went on for a few more idle minutes. Meanwhile, thoroughly put in my place, I continued to feebly assemble this contraption as their own personal ball- and toy-storage bin. And of course, I then had to lay down for a few hours to regain what meager strength I manage to muster each day.