Time for a Cotter Tale

It's been a while since I've had a post dedicated to Cotter, so I figured I'd share a couple of his recent funnies. He's quite a humorous little boy at times.

One of these instances happened a day or two ago when Aidan and Cotter were in Kaitlyn's room working one of HER puzzles. (This puzzle was an awesome gift from a friend for Kaitlyn's birthday. It has really big wooden pieces that can't be swallowed or bent, and it has pictures of all sorts of animals on it. Gotta like that!) Roy and I were working on something in the kitchen, and we hear an argument ensuing. We sort of tune it out for a while until that is no longer possible, so we then begin listening to what is actually being said.

Cotter: "NOOO... don't tell me what it eats, tell me what it IS!" (With a loud whine of frustration.)
Aidan: "I SAID it's an ANT EATER!" (With even louder insistence.)
Cotter (now with tears): "AIDAN...Why won't you just tell me what it is?"

[I could go on, but you get the point. Cotter ran to us to get the answer he was looking for. He wasn't exactly expecting us to say, "It's an Ant Eater!" Poor guy. He can laugh about it now. :-) ]

Also, Cotter and I were talking today about the Christmas story. It's fun to ask a four-year-old questions to see what they'll come up with. When asked what gifts he thought the wise men brought Jesus, Cotter replied with a smile, "I think they brought him Transformers, Bionicles and Ben Ten guys." And when we talked about shepherds, Cotter proclaimed convincingly that shepherds could read. Hmm... now that's a fact that even I didn't know! When asked to explain why he thought shepherds could read, he replied, "They had to look for the star that said HOLY STAR. Not a shooting star, a holy star!" Too cute.

A Monkey with Chicken Pox?

Kaitlyn beat the odds this week by actually contracting chicken pox from the chicken pox vaccine she received last week. The one saving grace is that she is too young to scratch the pox to a pulp like many older kids are inclined to do. And, she didn't actually get many on her face either. I guess she got a milder version, because, although she had well over 100 pox, they didn't really scab over like most pox do. But she was pretty miserable for a few days there, as were we!

Yesterday was the first day she started seeming to feel a little better and was totally back to her old antics--and then some! She accomplished two new feats yesterday, neither of which my boys ever even attempted at this age. The first happened while I was in my bedroom typing some emails. Kaitlyn wandered from the bedroom to the "child-safe" family room to play. I heard her making happy noises and banging toys. All of a sudden she got really quiet. As you parents know, that's when you need to go check on them. I sent Cotter in there to see if she was okay. He came back in saying, "She's fine. She's still eating." Hmm..."Eating what?" I wondered out loud. I ran into the family room to find Kaitlyn sitting peacefully in her highchair eating leftover crackers on her tray. There is absolutely no way for her to climb up the highchair and get around the over-sized tray to enter the seat. The only way she could have done it is to climb up the back of one of our living room chairs, step precariously (over the "air") onto the tray of her highchair and into the seat. Needless to say, I was a little amazed. She's definitely a problem-solver.

Kaitlyn also figured out yesterday how to scale a baby gate, which is actually a little depressing. I'm not quite sure how to contain her now! She didn't officially get to the other side, but she climbed the gate, her waist even with the top, and she was leaning over the ledge about to fall to the other side (kind of like a gymnast flipping over the uneven bars) before I caught her.

I'm guessing it won't be long before she finds her way out of her crib. Maybe I should invest in one of those crib tents!

You Like WHAT?

Right before Thanksgiving, Aidan had a Thanksgiving "feast" with his class at school, where parents brought in various dishes. One "mystery" dish sat on the table, and we as parents didn't want to offend the provider of this dish by asking what it was, so we just dutifully served it to the kids without really knowing. After the meal, I asked Aidan was his favorite foods were. He replied, "My favorites were the cornbread and the other yellow stuff that I don't know what it is." Hmm...now I had to know. So, I politely went to the Mom and told her that Aidan really loved that dish, and what was in it? Well, ends out it was rutabagas! Rutabagas?? Who serves rutabagas to a room of second-graders? She must be from the deep south. But, now that I know how much Aidan likes them, maybe I should try to include them on my menu. But, how exactly does one cook a rutabaga? And, would I even recognize a rutabaga in the store if I saw one? Anyone with ideas, please let me know!

[Oh, I did find out one of her tricks: she adds sugar to them. ]