You're a Bagel, Poopyhead!

Sometimes, after Julie reads Joe books, she chit chats with Joe. Sometimes, it's because she has something specific she wants to talk to him about. Such was the case tonight, when she wanted to rediscuss why we do not call anyone, especially our sister, a poopyhead. It was bound to happen, given the currency of poopyhead right now at the KinderCare, and the fact that Our Hero is, after all, three.* When we went into their room after nap, Joe was gleefully calling Clara a bagel. Yes, Fans. You read that right: a bagel. The bagel label was reprised at dinnertime and followed by a quiet, sort of experimental poopyhead. It was so soft that Julie almost didn't hear it and so when she said, "What did you say?" she half meant it literally. Ted was at the table though and between his response and Joe's immediate shrinking into himself, Julie deduced that he had in fact called Clara a poopyhead.

So we reviewed why we do not call others poopyheads, especially our sister, which we are very lucky to have. Joe admitted that he did not want anyone to call him a poopyhead. Julie said if that happened, he should ignore it, figuring it is never too soon to teach the "be a bigger man" lesson. But it is, admittedly, a tough lesson when one's little man is so little.

After the Poopyhead Summit though, Julie asked Joe what his favorite color was, and his favorite animal, and his favorite thing to eat. The answers were blue and purple, a giraffe (because it's big), and chicken nuggets (revised to chicken nuggets a birthday cake after we called up to Ted to ask him what his favorite food was, and he said cookies, to which Julie said her favorite food--if we were going in that vein--was birthday cake). He delivered these answers while bouncing around the sofa, periodically saying, "Who do you think you are?! Queen of the Trampoline?!" (from Olivia), and "Are you kidding me?!", this last, also apparently, all the rage at the KinderCare.

We are not kidding you, Dear Bagels, about any of this.

*"As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs

an sauntered off the beaches into forests

working up some irregular verbs for their

first conversation, so three-year-old children

enter the phase of name calling."

From Child Development by Billy Collins. The same port who brought you the snippet from the August 15 post, Late Summer, Early Evening.