trade

We were gardening in the rain, David with his fork and me with the digging stick. The digging stick is really much better at getting dandelions, but David suggested we trade, and I was so flabbergasted that he knew the word and the concept that I said, absolutely.

dammit

Well, maybe I should title this words I wish he didn’t know. David was pushing his tricycle home from the library, and I was trying to make it steer a straight course and not end up in the bushes or the “Dammit” I said, I thought sotto voce as the wheel slammed into a parked car. David immediately said “Dammit” quite plainly.

twinkle

So, we are getting into the car and David starts singing twinkle, twinkle and looking at me for the rest. Poor neglected second child, I can’t remember ever having sung this childhood staple for him whereas his high needs sister got the entire song book plus. But he seems to be picking it out of the air. We had just seen a 25 minute Alice in Wonderland play at the Children’s Museum where Alice asks the audience’s help in getting the song right. Now, David is probably convinced a tea tray is an integral part of the song.

once upon a time

Ah that poor neglected second child again, he knows “the end” quite well because many of the stories Rose reads aloud have “the end,” but he doesn’t get a made up bedtime story and I’ve only just started using fiction as a means of discipline. “David, do you want to hear the story about the frog and the rabbit? Ok, hop in your car seat.” Even so, I don’t always start with Once upon a time, so it took me a moment when he asked for onceuponatime to get going on my job.