My Little Winos

Ding-dong!

The man in the brown truck came again today, this time with a package from a family member who has some serious connections in the wine industry. This person usually sends a pre-shipment of fine wine to keep us in supply while this person visits, this time for the holidays. It is quite a luxury, and much appreciated.

I drug the heavy case in the house, and the littles, as littles often do at this time of year, inquired about what might be inside.

"It feels like wine from you-know-who!" I announced.

"A-gain?" groaned Po.

"Is it kid wine?" glowed Cam, my little enthusiast.

Though disappointed in the realization that Santa was not delivering early Christmas presents for him, Po eagerly helped me unload the package so he could make a rocket ship-mountain cabin-tunnel-bridge-hat-finish line out of the protective styrofoam, only to pepper my carpet with "snow." A-gain?

Stop the Violence

Po and I got into a pretty heated discussion today as we were getting ready to go to the library. We were all scrambling around to find one long lost book under the couch or another in the hamper, and we eventually constructed the complete mountain of books we checked out a couple of weeks ago.

One thing I understand about Po, if nothing else, is his sentimentality for inanimate objects. He has a love/hate relationship with library day because, although the lure of new reading material is exciting, he is heartbroken over letting go of the friends he's read countless times over the last few weeks. He is spawn from the gal who, as a little girl, had a secret stash of her father's empty Marlbro boxes, thinking she'd saved them from a dark, lonely death. Though I've gotten over that freakishness, I can sympathize with my son, so I allow him to renew one book each time. And then I am tortured as I watch him agonize over which one will make the final cut.

Today's three finalists were all teen-geared Transformer comics. I told him that I didn't really like the books for him, and that I thought I'd made a mistake by allowing him to check them out in the first place. Po is Transformers-obsessed, so sometimes I am a bit to lenient on the matter.

"But MAWMMY! I love them so much. And you let me check them out before, and I love Transformers, and they aren't really that violent. "

Funny, I'd never mentioned violent. He sealed his fate.

"No, Po. These are going back, and I'll help you look for some more appropriate Transformer books. We'll find some," I reasoned.

"Well, Mommy. If you think these books are so inappropriate, then why did you let Daddy take me to see the Transformers movie in the movie theater. I mean, they are doing stuff in the movie, and a book doesn't do anything. It just sits there and it turns its pages!"

Nice of him to give me practice for his teenage years, eh?

A Good Bite

Cam is really good at sharing. She's a people-pleaser. Po, on the other hand...we're working on it.

Whenever Cam has a treat, Po asks for a bite, and she always lets him. When Cam got a Popsicle tonight, Po asked for a bite. She said "yes" before she had even taken a bite, herself. He put his mouth on it, and said to her, "no, you have to slippery it up so the bite will come off."

The Wisdom of an Older Brother

I just caught the tail-end of a conversation between Po and Cam as they lay in their beds for nap time. I was fully prepared to intervene as soon as inaccurate information was provided. The conversation was about death.

Cam was talking and I caught her say "...but I don't want to die. We don't want to die."

"Well," Po said with authority, "don't worry about it, but everyone dies."

"No," said Cam.

"Yes," said Po, "and dying is when your heart stops beating and you go to the doctor and he can't fix you."

"Oh," said Cam, with some wonder in her voice.

"And you have to eat food so you don't die."

"Oh."

"But don't worry. Mommy will be with us every day forever and ever and ever."

"Oh."

I said I'd intervene if anything inaccurate was said, but I just didn't have the heart. I think this conversation between a four and two-year-old is best left as-is. I hope he doesn't move on to sex education.

Learning about Patterns

Cam and I were having a "discussion" this morning about whether or not she could have taffy for breakfast.

"Please."

"No."

"Puhleeez!"

"No."

"PLEEEEEEASE!"

"No."

Po interjected with a huge "a-ha" grin on his face. "Hey! We learned about that in preschool!"

"You learned about what?" I asked.

"Patterns! That's an arguing pattern! please–no–please–no–please–no..."

Who could argue with that?

Ungulates

Po chose a Smithsonian video at the library. No surprise. He's watching it now while I'm getting some work done. He just approached my desk and asked, "Do you know that cows are ungulates?"

My first thought was that he made up another word, a common practice for him. He'll give you the definition of the made-up word, and everything, so it's pretty believable. I told him I didn't know that cows are ungulates, and could he please tell me more about it.

"Sure. There are different types of ungulates. Cows are the milking kind, and a gazelle is the not milking kind. And a giraffe is also an ungulate."

"Ah," I said. "Thanks for teaching me something (totally made up) new." Then I started to wonder. So I looked it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungulate. It's way too early in the day to feel this stupid.

More than it Seems

Po has been a bit reluctant to go to preschool, but the one thing he's been pumped about is getting a Transformers backpack and folder. We went on a hunt for perfection today. He proudly wore his selection through Target, and we couldn't wipe the smile off his face if we wanted to.

Now that we're home, he won't let go of the folder. Papers in. Papers out. Papers in. Papers out. In the backpack. Out of the backpack. In the backpack. Out of the backpack. He sat contemplating the folder, inside and out, and finally said "this folder is really inspirational."

Huh? "You think so, Po?" I asked. "Why is that?"

"Well," he explained, "you can open it and put stuff in it, and there's a Transformers logo and the letters to make the word and there's a picture of Optimus on the front and on the inside. And I love it so much. So that's why it's inspirational."

College, here we come!