Saturday, February 19, 2011

A Morning Conversation

I talked with my child this morning. This went beyond the normal conversation between Momma and Jacob (my 3 year old). It went beyond "PopTart. Handy Manny." (which translates into "Dear Mother. Would you be so kind as to cook me a breakfast pastry and then allow me to eat said pastry whilst watching my favorite cartoon character fix things?")

Instead, it went something like this:

(setting the scene: Katie on couch under blanket because she was rooted out of her bed by a 3 year old with a penchant for sleeping horizontally. Jacob wakes up to find her gone, comes running in the living room and the conversation ensues.)

"Good morning, Jacob..."

"Ta mornin Momma"

"Why were you sleeping in Mommy's bed last night? You haven't done that in a long time."

"Der were piders and snakes in my bad-tub and dey were cwawlin on the bad-tub and dey were..."

"Wait. There were spiders and snakes crawling in your bathtub?"

"Yes. And dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs were in your bathtub, too?"

"Yes. Cause my bad-tub was wheely, wheely, wheelllllly big."

"Well I guess it would have to be, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah and the dinosaur had red and blue on him and had wheelllly big hands."

"Wow."

"Yeah and the dinosaur was scared of the pider too and jumped out my bad-tub. And I don't like dinosaurs cause dey scare me and dey don't love Jacob. Jacob does not like dinosaurs but he does like Mommy."

"Well that's good to know. You know dinosaurs aren't really real anymore, right? I mean they were a long time ago (am I really trying to explain extinction to a three year old?) but they all died and they aren't real anymore."

"Why?"

"Well because there are only so many of some kinds of animals and once they all die there aren't anymore left."

"Why?"

:: silence ::

"Hey, how about a Pop Tart?"

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Distraction. It is every mother's favorite tool. I am often successful by saying something like "Your hair looks cute today. I like your pink ponytail." And then she tells me she likes my ponytail...even if I don't have one.
And then the dinosaurs are forgotten. :)