Zeke and I have this thing we do when we go to the park. I push him on the swings and he sings "Old MacDonald," but instead of animals, on the farm there are light posts and dirt and various other inanimate objects that don't make noise. And then we'll make up silly noises that the window or wagon or juicebox make.
Josie has started to sing Old MacDonald, and particularly likes repeating "E-I-E-I-O" over and over. She started doing this in the car on the way to school this morning. So I sang along with her, and then Zeke picked it up.
We went through cows and chickens and goats and sheep.
Then Zeke sang, "Old MacDonald had a farm. E-I-E-I-O... And on that farm he had a what."
Me: He had a what?
Zeke: He had a what.
There was no question-like inflection in his voice, so I thought he was being funny with the song, as is our wont, and doing a "who's on first" kind of thing.
Me: He had a what?
Zeke: A what.
Me: A what what?
Zeke: A what.
Me: What the what?
Zeke: He had a WHAT!
Then he started to cry. "What did he have, Mama?"
I realized he hadn't been playing and was waiting for me to fill in the blank, i.e., identify what Old MacDonald had. And he thought I had been mocking him.
This is what happens when you establish a rep as a little smartass.
And here's how to use that rep, pull the old switcheroo, and make Mama feel like a grade A asshole.
Aw Wendy - he won't be scarred for life, and hopefully he sprang back pretty quick :) What a cute little "tradition" with that song, though!!
ReplyDeleteMoosie- he'll survive. He was over it in about 2 minutes. But I felt really bad. As for the little tradition, I can't take any credit. It's all Zeke.
ReplyDeleteOh, poor little pumpkin! I can see this kind of exchange happening with us down the road.
ReplyDeleteLisa - I felt awful for him, but he recovered quickly. And you will undoubtedly have similar conversations down the road -- one of the craziest things about living with short people is the insane conversations that you get into with them. They have ways of looking at things that make the world very interesting.
ReplyDeleteYep. Been there. Walt and I have a game where he uses nonsensical words in songs and sentences ie, "Old McDonald had a doots!" And I say, all incredulously, "A DOOTS?!?! That's not a word!" And we laugh and laugh. One day I thought we were doing this when he was saying, "a wally pap." And he got so upset because he was saying, "lolly pop". Woops.
ReplyDeleteOh, Anne, I so wish we lived in the same city! We and our kids would have such fun together.
ReplyDeleteHey, Josie and I sang "Old MacDonald" on Sat while waiting for Jason to pick up the car. Actually, it was just me singing, and every time I suggested an animal- "Cow?" - Josie said, "Yeh." I was surprised at how fast I ran out of animals and said 'Water Buffalo' once but quickly retracted since I don't know what sound they make...
ReplyDeleteHahaha! She says "yeah" to pretty much everything -- a very agreeable child. And you could have made any noise you wanted, she wouldn't have known the difference!
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