Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: Songwriter in the Making

Chase sang a very entertaining song in the car today:

I like the beans,
I like the beans,
I like the beans,
I like the beans!
(Repeat about a million times.  Then...)


I like the beads,
I like the beads,
I like the beads,
I like the beads!
(Repeat about a million times.  Then...)


I like the seeds,
I like the seeds,
I like the seeds,
I like the seeds!
(Repeat about a million times.  Now time for the chorus!)


Did you ever see a fish kissing a pool
down by the bay?


I like the seeds,
I like the seeds...
(You get the idea... Now another variation of the chorus!)


Did you ever see a fish poking a basketball
down by the bay?

I really think he has a future in this.  We're gonna be rich!

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: Pretty in Pink

I realized the other day that Chloe has some adorable dresses hanging in her closet that she hasn't worn.  On a day-to-day basis we stick with the more practical onesies, but she is getting bigger every day and it won't be long before she can't fit into those 0-3 month sized dresses in the closet!  So yesterday I decided to put her in one and she looked totally adorable.

Chase wandered into her room and I said, "Chase, look at Chloe's dress!"  He ran over and his eyes got really wide as he said, in awe:

"Mommy, she looks like a princess!"

It was just about the sweetest thing I have ever heard him say and my eyes totally welled up with tears.  What a sweet big brother he is!

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: Don't Beat Me!

Chase has recently become very competitive (that's ALL Brian).  He has to beat you at everything.  If you're walking up the stairs with him he has to make it to the top first.  If you're walking down the stairs he has to make it to the bottom first.  If he's behind he will start crying, "Don't beat me!"

That phrase is funny in itself, but the other day I decided the boy needed to learn he can't win all the time, so I beat him.  He did not like it... and cried.  A lot.  *sigh*

Apparently the next morning he turned to Brian and said:

"Daddy, Mommy makes me cry when she beats me."

Fingers crossed he doesn't start spreading that around daycare!  We expect a call from the authorities any day now.

P.S.  This is my second post of the day.  Check out the previous post for some cute pics, if you haven't seen them already!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Big Boy

Location: IHOP bathroom

Chase: Is this a big toilet?
Daddy: Yes.
Chase: Is this a daddy toilet?
Daddy: Yes, but you can use it because you're a big boy.
Chase: Yeah, because I have a big penis.

And so it begins. *sigh*

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: The Blame Game

Chase has this game he loves to play on his activity table in the play room upstairs.  He zooms his cars down the length of the table so they fly off the end.  Well, the table is about a foot away from the wall and a window, so we have a rule that he has to catapult the cars off the opposite end of the table, so they don't hit the wall/window.  Make sense?  Well today I noticed there were marks on the wall under the window.

Me: Chase, how did those marks get on the wall?

Chase: From the cars.

Me: Chase, maybe that's why I told you to use the other end of the table? (Insert that universal mom furry eyeball look here)

Chase: (Insert deer in the headlights look here, followed by cricket chirps while he thought, "Oh, no....  Uhhhhhh....  What do I do?  What do I do?  Ooh, I know...!")  Grandma did it.

Busted, Grandma!

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: The Origin of Stink

I walked into Chase's room yesterday and noticed it didn't smell great.

Me: Ew, it stinks in here!
Chase: Yeah.
Me: What is that smell?
Chase: My butt.
Me: Why?
Chase: Because I have a butthole and poop comes out of it.

No, Chase did not poop in his room.  He was just informing me that his butt, because poop comes out of it from time to time, could be stinking up the room.  This kid makes me laugh!

4th of July Fun

We celebrated the 4th of July twice this year.  On July 3rd we had a mini fireworks show in our backyard.  The boys were involved with the fireworks in the yard while the girls sat on the porch and prayed they didn't set the house on fire.  Chase decided to join us on the porch when the fireworks got too loud.

On July 4th Brian took my parents and Chase to the Fort Hood fireworks festivities.  Before they left, Chase asked if Chloe was going to come along.

Chase: Is Chloe coming to see the fireworks?
Me: No, Chloe and I have to stay home.
Chase: Why?
Me: Because Chloe is too little.  She isn't a big kid like you are.
Chase: Well, let's put her back in your belly and then she won't get lost!

Too sweet, huh?  He loves his baby sister (so far)!

Anyway, Chase had tons of fun at the festivities!

The fireworks must have made quite and impact on him.  A couple days later he farted, looked at my "What do you say?" face and said, "That was a firework!"

More photos are in our Photo Album if you're interested!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Mr. Princess

I just have to comment on some of my son's recent "daughter-y" habits. It's like he's training me for life with a girl!

Chase's favorite color right now is pink. Ask him what color he wants of anything and he wants pink. No problem! But then we went to Wal-Mart to get him a new toothbrush. I suggested a battery-powered one to make teeth brushing more fun.

Me: What about the Thomas one? Ooh, or Diego?
Chase: Ooh, I want that one!
Me: Which one?
Chase: The pink one!

The pink one was Hello, Kitty. Now, I was going to get it for him. I sighed, but I would have gotten it for him. Luckily for Brian he saw Spiderman right before we pulled the cart out of the aisle and he decided he needed that one instead.

A couple days later as I was drying my hair he decided he wanted to play with my barrettes. No problem. He's into stuff. He's 3! But then he wanted to put them in my hair. So of course I let him. But when he was done I said I had to take them out and he was not happy about it. So we compromised and he said I could take a picture of it so I could remember his work fondly (this is an aerial view):

A couple days later we were at Target and I decided it would be fun for him to have his own hospital bag with some activities, etc. to entertain him when the baby comes and my mom brings him to the hospital. We talked about how Mommy and the baby have a hospital bag, and now he will have one, too! He was all excited and we headed to the backpacks so he could pick one out.

Me: Ooh, what about Thomas? Or Diego?
Chase: I want that one!
Me: Which one?
Chase: The princess one!

I couldn't do it. I wanted to. I wanted to let him be who he was and express himself however he wanted to, but the image of him carrying around a Princess backpack was too much. I steered him toward the Diego one (because it rolled and that is way cooler!) and Brian thanked me when we got home.

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Singin' Fool

This isn't really a conversation, it's a song.  But whatever....  Here it is!

I sing to Chase pretty much every night.  I just find it funny that his favorites songs to sing himself are quite feminine.  For example, he likes "Shine On Harvest Moon," which is a pretty gender-neutral song until the very end.  I sing the last line, "So shine on, shine on harvest moon..." and then he jumps in enthusiastically for the last part: "for me and my guy!"

Well lately Chase has gotten a little bored with the same old songs, so he is always asking for new ones.  I'm starting to run out of songs!  So I will occasionally whip out whatever musical theatre song jumps into my head at that moment.  One night I chose the song "Oh Diogenes," which is a song I had to learn for my Musical Theatre class in college.  This one he loves and he will sing it with me in its entirety... at the top of his lungs... with as much gusto as he can possibly muster:

Oh, Diogenes, find a man who's honest.
Oh, Diogenes, wrap him up for me!
Oh, Diogenes, find a man who's solid, stolid.
Hook that fish, if he's in the sea!

Hunt him, trail him, catch him, nail him if he is free!
Have you got your stick?  Have you got your lantern?
Can you do that trick and produce him, please?
Catch that fellow, ring that bell
Oh, Diogenes!

It makes me laugh every time!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Potty Mouth

Chase and I read a book today that we don't normally read. In the book he has to identify various shapes, and in the very front of the book it has a picture of all the shapes and what they are called. When we got to the "moon" shape Chase called it a moon and I said, "Yes, but it's also a crescent." We practiced saying "crescent" a few times and we were good to go.

On the last page of the story we encountered our first moon.

Me: What is the shape of the moon?

Chase: Ummmmm....

Me: Remember what we called it? (Sounding it out slowly to prompt him) C... Cr....

Chase: CRAP!

I lost it. I honestly didn't have time to even think about holding it in. I laughed so hard I thought I would pee my pants. Of course then Chase saw how hilarious it was and every other word he said was, "crap." I pulled myself together a bit and said, "Chase, we don't say that word. It's not nice." We continued reading and things calmed down, but then as we read I would just think about it and start laughing again (trying to hold it in, of course). Chase always knew what I was laughing about because as soon as I started giggling he would look at me and say, "Crap, crap, crap!" Then we read a book with music in it and he started singing with me, throwing in the word "crap" randomly throughout the songs.

He was so proud of himself.

P.S. See my previous post if you haven't already!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Getting Serious

Chase makes us laugh all the time, but a lot of times I think, "It's hilarious to us right now in this moment, but will it translate to funny on the blog?" This may be one of those "You had to be there" conversations, but I'm going to post it anyway.

We have to get creative sometimes to get Chase to eat. Today he didn't want his mac & cheese. He has been obsessed with babies lately, so I tried this approach:

Me: Chase, do you know what baby birds eat?

Chase: What?

Me: WORMS!

Chase: Ew!

Me: Your mac & cheese looks like worms. Can you be a baby bird and eat them? (Yes, I know this kind of sounds like a scene in "A Christmas Story.")

Chase: (takes a bite of his mac & cheese)

Me: EW! I can't believe you ate those worms! You better not do it again!

Chase: (in a completely serious tone) Uh oh, Daddy.... Look. This is getting SERIOUS.

Conversations with a 3-Year-Old: Eye for an Eye

So I picked Chase up from daycare yesterday and he was just standing there, crying. I asked him what happened and after he finally calmed down he told me another kid hit him. I said, "Chase, you need to go over there and tell that kid he can't hit you, that it's not nice and you don't like it." He wouldn't do it so I just got him calmed down and we walked out to the car. I have been working so hard to get him to be assertive with his words, so when we got in the car I said, "OK, Chase. So what do you do if someone hits you?" His response:

"Jimmy says I should hit them back and then they won't hurt me anymore."

My jaw just dropped. At three years old he's already learning that it's OK to hit someone if they hit you first. Ummmmm.... NO! So we spent a lot of time in the car on the way home talking about how we don't ever hit back, yadda yadda yadda.

Now I know there are opposing views on this subject out there, but I struggle daily with my middle school students, trying to convince them not to fight. I mean, in the world it doesn't matter who hits who first. Did you hit someone? You're in trouble. In school: You're suspended. In the workplace: You're fired. In life: You're going to jail. My principal gave me this amazing quote that I will never forget:

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. -Ghandi

I didn't realize I was going to have to start teaching Chase this lesson so early in his life!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Baby Mine

Tonight after I sang Chase his bedtime songs we laid there for a minute and when I was about to leave he wanted to sing more, so I suggested he sing a song to the baby. I wasn't sure he would go for it, but he embraced the opportunity. He sat up in bed, looked directly at my belly, leaned in and said, "Baby, what song do you want me to sing?" I told him to pick his favorite song and he chose "Hush Little Baby." He proceeded to sing the entire song to my stomach by himself, stopping a few times along the way to look at me for a line prompt. When he was done he said, "Baby, what song do you want me to sing next?" I thought it was so sweet he wanted to keep singing so I told him to pick another one he thought the baby might like. He chose "Shine On Harvest Moon," and much to my surprise he knew all the words to the entire song! I thought that would be it, but nooooo.... My boy was just getting warmed up! "Baby, what song do you want me to sing next?" I told him to pick one more of his favorite songs and he chose "Baby Mine." That one is a bit tougher.

Side story: If you don't know the song, Bette Midler sang it in "Beaches" and I specifically learned the song before Chase was born because I have always thought it was a beautiful one and that it would make a great lullaby. Unfortunately after Chase was born he SCREAMED every time I started singing it, which totally broke my heart. So I am thrilled that he finally likes it. ANYWAY... back to the story.

So he started "Baby Mine," but like I said, it's a bit more complicated than the others and he was having some issues with lyrics. So I decided to help him out along the way by singing the first few words of a phrase to prompt him. My mistake!

"Mommy, no! I'm singing the song to the baby. Don't sing with me!"

I did as I was told and when he was done he leaned in and said, "Baby, did you love the songs?" I whispered a "yes" and his eyes got really big and his face just lit up with the biggest grin. He then gave my belly a kiss and told the baby goodnight.

Talk about a tear-jerker! I love this little boy! He's going to be a fabulous big brother.

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Halloween

So Brian was talking to Chase about Easter this morning, asking him if he remembered hunting for eggs last year, etc. He said he remembered and even recalled specific details, which is amazing to me! He definitely got his memory from his dad. Anyway, somehow Chase got started on Halloween. So Brian asked Chase what he wanted to be for Halloween this year. His response:

"A butterfly."

My boy wants to be a butterfly. Ha ha! I love it. If he still wants to be a butterfly in 7 months, you know I'm going to have to make him a butterfly costume! I promise to make it as manly as possible. Tee hee!

Conversations With a 3-Year-Old: Shut Up!

I'm in trouble. Over Christmas break I heard Chase saying, "shut up" over and over while playing by himself. I said, "Chase, we don't say 'shut up.' It isn't nice." I wasn't quite sure where he had gotten that. Then I figured it out.

It's me.

I say "shut up" a lot, apparently. Not as in "be quiet" but as in "no WAY!" Like:

Friend: Did you hear So-and-So got a nose job?
Me: Shut UP!
Friend: It's true!

Well, now I'm in trouble. Because every time Brian says something to me and I respond with, "Shut up!" I hear, "Mommy, don't say 'shut up.' That's not nice. You need to go to time out." My favorite was when I was talking to Brian on the phone in the car and Chase said from the backseat, "Mommy, if I hear you say 'shut up' one more time, I'm going to have to put you in time out!"

I have been to time out more than Chase has in the past couple weeks.

Conversations With a 32-Year-Old: New Addition

Brian and I are expecting a new addition to our family this July! Yes, Chase is going to be a big brother. I am due July 6th.

And yes, you read the post title correctly, by the way. This started out as a "Conversation with a 3-Year-Old" when we told Chase about the baby, but then my husband interjected and, well... the conversation took a whole other turn. See for yourself:

Me: Chase, do you know what's in Mommy's belly?
Chase: Ummm.... Food?
Me: Yes, but there's also a baby in there!
Brian: Yeah, Mommy ate a baby!

I'm sure Chase sleeps with one eye open now, afraid I'm going to eat him, too! Thanks, hubby.

Anyway, Chase isn't quite sure what's going on yet. He plays along with us but I don't think he'll really get it til I get bigger and he can feel the baby move, etc.

This is definitely going to be an adventure (can we REALLY handle TWO of them?!?), but we're excited.

I'll keep you all updated as things progress. At this point I'm a little over 14 weeks along. Not much has happened except we got to hear the heartbeat on Tuesday and it was good and strong (162). I have been struggling with some "morning" (all day) sickness, but it has been nowhere near as bad as it was with Chase (phew)! Hopefully that all goes away soon.

Here's to 2010 being another new adventure for us!

P.S. We asked Chase what the baby's name was and he said, "Two! Cuz I'm three!" So I guess this baby will be known as "Baby Two" before it's born, per his/her older brother's request.