More quotable kids (and parents) from the past week:

• "I don't want to find out if I'm good at the Heimlich Maneuver tonight."
• "I think your tooth went into my skull."
• "Hey mom and dad! Lydia said her first word today! She said it with her head, like this." < nods >
• "I'm the ice cream man. I sell pizza, ice cream, sprinkles and formula for babies. But I'm out of ice cream, so here's your pizza with sprinkles."
• "If she didn't have that monkey under her butt, she could roll over."
• "Let's make a circus. I'll be the ringmaster, you and Lydia can be the clowns, and Daddy can be the ostrich."
• "I think she has rice up her nose."

And my personal favorite, which is this week's Brutally Honest Bumper Sticker: 

• "Stop trying to pretend this is normal."

A Budding Artist

Last weekend, Christopher (my 4-year-old) asked me to play a game. He said he was going to draw something and I had to guess what it was. Since he has the usual drawing skills of a boy his age, I was obviously a little nervous. Aside from a better-than-I-could-draw sailboat last week, his drawings usually require translation.

So he made his first drawing on a magnet board (think Etch-a-Sketch with a pen instead of knobs), and turned it around toward me. It looked like a bunch of random marks. He said "Guess what dinosaur this is, Mommy."

Whew! A hint! I thought about all the dinosaurs that he knew, and I said "A brontosaurus."

"That's right!" he said.

After a quick erase and a few more strokes of the pen, he said "Here's the next one" and turned the board around.

"Hmmm...a triceratops?"

"YAY! Good job Mommy!"

Cool. This was going to be easier than I thought.

Again, he drew. Again, he turned the board around and asked me what it was. Thinking of the dinosaurs in recent conversation, I said "A pterodactyl?"

"Nope."

"A Tyrannosaurus Rex?"

"Nope."

Uh oh...running out of dinosaurs. I couldn't tell at all what the drawing was, so I decided to be funny. "A Christopher-saurus?"

<laughs> "No, Mommy!"

"A Mommy-saurus?" "A Daddy-saurus?"

He's getting annoyed now. "No, Mom."

I'm starting to feel guilty. How can I tell him that I can't tell what his drawing is?

"Okay, I give up. What kind of dinosaur is it?"

"It's not a dinosaur, Mommy. It's a scribble."

Leave it to my kid to be practical.

Don't Quote Me On This...

Since I became a parent, I've found myself saying things I never thought I'd say, and listening to things I never thought I'd hear. In the past week, there seem to be a few more than usual. So, here's a few things I heard (or said) this week:

• "No, Yoda isn't a pig."
• "Please keep your feet out of your dinner."
  
• "Did you know our son thinks Yoda is a PIG??"
• "Santa and Bob the Builder got flushed down the Lego toilet."
  
• "Maybe Yoda is a pig...we don't really know what he is, do we?"
• "I don't need to hear the play-by-play of your poop."
• "She'd be smiling even if her hair was on fire." (that one's about my daughter)
• "We'll have to thank Pappaw for adding the Power Rangers to our Christmas village."
• "I don't believe you when you say you are scared of corn."

And how was YOUR week?