Arghh Matey's

There is a new show on Disney Jr that has captured my son's fancy (I don't really dig it). It's called Jake and the Neverland Pirates. A bit of a spin off Peter Pan but only Captain Hook and Mr. Smee appear in the show.

The other morning after watching the show Steven asked me, " Why do pirates wear that only on one eye?"

Mom, "Why do you think?"

Steven, " Oh, because it is hard to keep one eye closed to see through their telescope."

The fix to a broken zipper

The zipper on Lyla's winter coat is broken. I told her that I would try and fix it. She asked, "with eye drops?"

I guess we've had pink eye one too many times this year.

But that's upside down

I've always wondered why Yoplait yogurt containers were made the way they are. The reverse cone shape is very frustrating when you want to dig out that last bit of yogurt. Or when your two year old insists on doing it herself and gets her spoon caught up on the lip of the container resulting in sour smelling shirt all day long.

Then during our roadtrip, Steven says to me: "mommy, but I want it this way."


He's brilliant, I tell you! He intuitively knew that the container was designed incorrectly. Do I have a budding industrial engineer on my hands (oh, I hope so!)? Seems to me that if a 3.5 year old questions your product design, you should be thinking about doing something new.

And the best part about the container design is the message stamped in red under the UPC code:

"Protect Wildlife Crush Before Disposal"

Just google it, you'll get a good laugh or two.

Questions

Lately Steven has been asking a LOT of questions. But most of them take the form of, "what is INSERT ITEM made from?"
What are clouds made from? Water
What are carrots made from? Carrots

This morning at breakfast he asked what are Pina Coladas made from? I told him they were made from pineapples and coconuts. Then he asked if Papa Gene was going to go to the jungle and find him some coconuts. You have your assignment, Papa Gene.

(For those of you who didn't go on the beach vacation last summer, Papa Gene and Steven had a thing going about pina coladas. It was completely nonesense but really funny. I can't believe we still talk about them!)

Linear thinking

We have a magazine in our bathroom for Lyla to read when she is on the potty (helps her focus, I guess). The current edition is National Geographic, I don't know what month but it has a fox on the front cover. There is also a story about Kung Fu and a big photo of the Chinese flag.

Steven happened to be in the bathroom with Lyla and me tonight (yes, it is always a fun family gathering spot) and he asked what the photo was. I replied, "the Chinese flag." He immediately looked at me and said "that is where we get babies from." Whoa.

Back story ... We've been checking out books from the library about adoption to read with the kids to get them familiar with what adoption is at a level they can understand. We currently have a book checked out where the family adopts a baby girl they name May from China. At least we know he is listening!

Things he said at church on Sunday

Steven has been doing great at church ... when we go ... and this Sunday Lyla did pretty good for 3/4 of mass. But while at church, Steven did say and do some pretty funny things ...

First, during the Lord's prayer I held Steven's hand while he continued to play quietly until he thrust his superman toy at me so that I could hold his hand while praying. Wow, superman and the Lord's prayer - what could be more powerful?!?

And then, Steven's timing was impeccable. I am not sure if it was coincidence or if he was truly paying attention but at the exact moment that Fr. Glenn raised the Host, Steven whispered "Blast Off". I was very thankful that he whispered it so that only I could hear. That would have been quite embarassing!

More things that they say

The last two nights I've tried to drive up our street after picking the kids up from school. Both nights I have been totally unsuccessful. I've had to reverse down the street and drive around the neighborhood trying to find a less steep hill that isn't snowpacked. Tonight I was frustrated and yelled, "Go away snow!"

Steven replied with "It can't go away because it doesn't have feet."

Things they say

Mommy, "Steven, what do we do at church?"

Steven, "be quiet."

Mommy, "what else do we do at church?"

Steven...blank stare.

I've got to work on that.

Tonight at Bedtime

Steven wanted to read If you Take a Mouse to the Movies before bed tonight. There is a line in the book where the mouse wants to listen to Christmas Carols and the boy turns on the radio.

Steven asked me "what is a radio"?

I said "it is like daddy's IPod."

Steven replied, "ohhhh."