PULL OVER!

So Joe and Clara's Great Great Aunt Nyla gave Joe a bullhorn that distorts one's voice the last time she visited.  Naturally, it lives in the basement.  This morning, the bambini were down in the basement with Julie while she was folding the laundry, and the bullhorn was found.  Joe spent what seemed like an hour shouting "PULL OVER!" into it.   A police officer visited Joe's class the other week ago, and Joe apparently now believes that a bullhorn's only purpose is to holler "Pull over!" at someone.  He could not be dissuaded on this point for some time.  And Julie tried.  She highlighted alternative uses from both the athletic and law enforcement arenas, and offered up attendant alternative phrases.  Nonstarters.  (You can see some of this scene here, though we apologize that you cannot get the full effect as our stringer camera person might have made her finger over the speaker.  The B team, you know.  Note that Joe tries the bull horn at his ear about 58 seconds in.  Another B team moment.)

We went to Wendy's for lunch and picked up another fantastic noise maker: a microphone that distorts one's voice!  The phrase the bambini took to hollering into the microphone was--ironically, as Ted pointed out--"Quiet down there!"  (Fans of In the Night Kitchen will recognize this phrase.)  Here is a brief clip of Clara chanting it.

Ted reports that yesterday, Joe was chanting "MGM Liquors," from his perch in the shopping cart as they tooled around the electronics department at Target.  Apparently Ted had taken Joe to purchase beer there after they'd gone to the Whole Foods next door, and Joe asked what the letters said.  "MGM Liquors!"  Poor Ted.

Before we draw the seemingly disparate strands of the post together, we must report that Joe spent a good portion of the late afternoon learning the subtle distinction between Pump It Up, and Pump A Dump.  Enunciating--it's a drag.

We arrive at the point: much of this weekend was spent listening to Joe and Clara roam around chanting, Rain Man-like, "PULL OVER!" and "Quiet down there!" and "MGM Liquors!" and "Pump a dump!"  Often into voice distorting toys.

May we be delivered from voice distorting toys.