Vingettes of Boy Conversation....The Snake and the Tornado

A long haired brunette pushes a stroller with a 41 lb boy in it. It's a brisk morning and she's trying to haul fast enough to get her other boy to school on time. While walking, her oldest boy notices the ivy hanging from the sides of a cold, concrete retaining wall.

"Mommy", he says, " Do snakes like living in the poison ivy?" ( all ivy in his world... is "poison ivy")

He knows his mother cannot stand snakes but he felt the need to bring up the conversation anyway.

"Probably", she says, "though I don't want to talk about snakes. They creep me out."

"Don't let them creep you out, Mommy. They live behind glass, they won't eat you.", he says in a consoling tone.

"At the zoo they live behind glass, out here they're out in the open. Seriously, I don't want to talk about snakes. They creep me out."

A minute goes by and nothing is said. As they begin to climb the big hill he starts again.

"Mommy, what do snakes eat?", he asked.

She sighs...will this never end?

"Rats and stuff, maybe bugs, depends on the snake." she replies hoping this will be the end of it. Of course, we all know it won't be.

"I think the snake... ( now there's apparently one snake in the whole world and you can see his mind take off on this story through his big, dark jeweled eyes)

I think the snake eats the tornado!!! And it spins and spins in his mouth....
and tickles his epiglottis."

The end

Remember... when I was a littl' baby....

(A new series off of the boy vignettes.
They always start the same way.
He curls up in my lap and sticks his finger in his mouth.)

"Mommy, you remember when I was a littl' baby....and I went to China?"

(silence)

"Um.....no."

Vignettes of Boy Conversation..It's not the message but how you recieve the message.

So Veggie Tales is a very big movie venue in our household. Both boys enjoy them but the autisitc kid particularly gets a kick out of the singing vegetables and in his own style "dances" every time he sees me put a video in. ( In fact "God Made You Special"...is his favorite :-D...)
The whole series is very cute, very charming and the shows always crack me up. I appreciate silly humor but more importantly I love seeing the joy it brings my little boy.

So the other night we were watching one of the shows and the "Daddy" Asparagus told Junior Asparagus that he was going to bring some food to people on the other side of town who needed it. They had a bad experience and no longer had anything to eat. The moral of the story was to not put emphasis on the "Christmas experience" but to actually put Christian values to work. All fine and good as long as the intended listener gets the message. But remember, we're dealing with kids here.

My 5 year old hears this, and speaks up with a very concerned voice. "So Mommy, when we run out of food, my friends (and he names them) will come brings us food?"

My face drops. In a split second a whole nightmare unfolds in my mind of the things that could happen if he says this in public. If I don't stop this now I will undoubtedly be getting a call from the school.

"Um... son", I say. "If... and I do mean IF... we run out of food God will provide for us. You don't have to worry. DO NOT go to school tomorrow and tell your friends to bring you food...understand?"

"Ok , Mommy."