Words of a Child

Yesterday I fixed fish, macaroni, and green beans for dinner. As usual, it was a challenge getting Rowdy Rebel to eat his food.

I said, “My little man, you at least need to eat some macaroni.”

He got really mad and wrinkled up his eyebrows and said really loudly, “MOMMY!!!! I don’t WIKE WACKY WONY!!!!”

PS. Though this story is about Rowdy Rebel’s aversion to wackywoni, he actually doesn’t like any food. Except candy (of course).

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My first grader (nickname Deep Thinker) always pays very close attention to the rules and almost never breaks them. Here is an example that illustrates his enthusiasm for rules gone overboard.

He told me that he didn’t play with his friends at school last week because they played tag, but tag isn’t allowed.

So I asked, “Are you sure? Maybe it’s okay as long as you don’t hit too hard when you tag another player??”

He said, “I guess you need to read the RULES again. Remember MOM, the ones you SIGNED at the beginning of the year?!” Hm. Guess he told me.

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First, let me tell you that if there were any such thing as a cute pronunciation contest, my little Rowdy Rebel would win hands-down. He has the cutest pronunciations EVER. A few examples include:

bafroon (bathroom)
kajamas (pajamas)
shpozhbob (Spongebob)
shwawich (sandwich)

I love listening to him express his thoughts–especially when he uses these words.

His grammar is also…adorable. (I know, adorable is admittedly a strange way to describe a person’s grammar). Anyway, we were talking about his new teacher in pre-school a few days ago. Her name is Ms. Anna. So, I was asking, “Do you like your teacher?” He said “Yes!”

Then I asked, “Does she like you too?”

Rowdy Rebel answered, “Yes he do!”

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Tonight, Rowdy Rebel looked sooo cute as he said the blessing. His eyes were closed, he grinned the entire time, and instead of putting his hands together, his arms were spread out like he was ready to give the world a big hug…or a big speech. Here was his blessing:

“God, thank you for my brothery. Thank you that my brothery is eating. Thank you that my Mommy is eating. Thank you that my Daddy is eating…God, thank you that Daddy is going to bring me a big, purple toy. It’s not my brothery’s toy. It’s mine.”

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I love Deep Thinker’s questions about God. They are never ending. We are going to church finally, so hopefully he’ll start getting some answers. It’s so sweet that he keeps asking me new questions, despite that I am almost never able to answer any of the ones he’s asked so far…Here are some examples:

1) Question: “Mom, was God ever a kid?” (He means God as opposed to Jesus. He feels he understands stuff about Jesus, though he still wants to learn more.)

2) Question: “Mom, is there a Mrs. God?”

3) Actually, this is one of his answers–it’s about God and the sun. We were talking about the sun and how it’s just a bunch of burning gas and how it stays in the sky in a spherical shape. I asked, “I wonder why God made empty planets and suns in the sky?” My son responded without hesitating, “Because he wants people to go to space! If there were no planets, people wouldn’t go!”

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Rowdy Rebel is such a sweet little three-year old. But he does love playing rough, yelling loudly, not sharing, and other toddler behaviors. He’s not the nicest playmate in the world, but I don’t let him get away with it.

Of course, I give him time-outs and explain why these things are bad. But we’re still dealing with Rowdy Rebel here. He’s not going to be the calm and gentle type (even though he is warm and loving.)

I guess that’s why his new favorite phrase cracks me up to no end: “THA NO NICE!” (That’s not nice.)

PS. This photo is Rowdy Rebel’s “tha no nice” face. It was taken when he was 1.

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Rowdy Rebel was sooo irritable yesterday. I think it’s due to having potty training accidents. Poor thing. Poor me and Deep Thinker too…Anyway, we had a hard day.

So, at one point Rowdy Rebel was having a fit. At this moment, Deep Thinker asked me if he could sweep the living room. (Note that Rowdy Rebel cannot see Deep Thinker sweeping the living room under any circumstances ever. The few times he did, he grabbed the broom and the scene got very hazardous very quickly. Then to take the broom away is impossible and involves a lot of screaming, and I can’t bear to go through it again to make a short story kind of long.)

SO, I said no. Then Deep Thinker asks why and explains that it’s just to help me clean, and this, and that, and so I should let him. This whole time, I am trying to calm Rowdy Rebel down as he screams and punches me.

I responded to Deep Thinker with slight annoyance, “NO. You can’t SWEEP, alright? I can’t talk about it with you right now!” He seemed ok with this and started playing with Lego’s.

That night when I tucked them in, he said, “Mom, I’m very disappointed in you. You used a mean voice when I was asking you to sweep. I was just trying to HELP you.”

I said truthfully, “Well, I was having a really hard time with your brother, and I was in a bad mood. I’m sorry.”

Deep Thinker got the last word when he insisted, “Well, that isn’t a good reason to be mean to me, Mom. You can say it in a nice voice.” I love it when my own words are repeated to me and teach me things I should have already known.

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My little Rowdy Rebel was harrassing his big brother Deep Thinker, and eventually Deep Thinker hit him. Rowdy Rebel was crrr-yyyyyy-ing.

So I sat with him and hugged him for a long time, as I tried to explain that he can’t bother his older brother like that. But that his brother also should be patient, and so on, and so forth.

My little guy seemed to be feeling better after several minutes, so I asked him if he felt better.

His response: “No. My skin and my feelings still hurting.”

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Today in church the message was that we need to let God shine and work through us, since he uses our hands and bodies to change the world and do good things.

On the way home, I was explaining this to my six-year old.

Nodding is head, he asked, “Oh, is that why God gave Santa Claus powers?”

Love it.

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We think we’re ready to have a third child. I had the sweetest conversation with my three-year old.

First, I asked him if he’d like to have a baby brother or sister. He said he’d like to have a baby brother. He added, “I don’t want to be the baby. I want to be big boy. I want other brother be baby.”

Then he explained how babies cry: “They say ‘aaaa haaaa.’ Sometimes they say ‘AAAA!'” That was very helpful:)

So, I said, “That’s true. Babies cry a lot. You know Mommy would need to do a lot of things for a baby brother. Would you help Mommy with your baby brother or sister? Would you help Mommy get a new diaper for the baby, or get his bottle in the refrigerator and bring it to me?”

His response: “Yes! I will get the baby’s diaper Mommy! His diaper will be TINY. And he can’t close it, so I will close it. And I will get his milk bottle in the ‘frigiator,’ and I will feed it to him.”

And my favorite: I asked, “Would you help me give the baby a toy if he cries?”

His answer: “Yes. I will get the baby’s toy. First, I will play with it. Then I will share it with baby to play with.” To make sure I understood, he repeated this answer three times.

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