Mr. Smarty Pants

A couple of vignettes about Cally-wag. You probably won't think they're as funny as I do, but as his mother I feel compelled to share the joy.

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This morning we made fruit smoothies with our breakfast. It was just funny listening to a four-and-a-half year old explain to a two-and-a-half year old what a brain freeze is. It sounded something like, "No, Monica-- a brain freeze! Like, my BRAIN is FREEZING!"

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Two nights ago in the car Cal started intently pounding out a rhythm on his booster seat and asked me to guess what song it was. I listened a couple of times. "Is it from a movie?" "No, it's from church." Hmmmm. I started going through all the recent primary songs in my mind, to no avail. Jeff couldn't figure it out either. Finally after about 3 or 4 more times I said, "I don't know. Do you want me to keep guessing or do you want to just tell me?" "It's Death Shall Not Conquer, Mom." Jeff and I looked at each other. We were both pretty sure there's not a hymn called "Death Shall Not Conquer." "I wish there was a hymn called that," Jeff joked under his breath to me. Then after a couple of minutes he (Jeff) started humming "Praise to the Man." We all sort of had it on our brains because the choir had just sung it in Sacrament Meeting, but Jeff had made some subconscious connection that "Praise to the Man" has a line that says, "Death shall not conquer the hero again." Aha! And sure enough, the rhythm fit.

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We live by this open space that is populated by some kind of cotton tree variety. On a summer afternoon the wind picks up and tufts of cotton blow through the streets. Sometimes it looks like it's snowing. Yesterday we were driving somewhere and saw some fluff floating around and Cal said, "Mom! Guess what! Cotton candy is a kind of pink fluff.... that you can eat!! It's like you think you can't eat it, but you CAN! It's weird!"

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On the return trip I noticed that a crayon that had been sitting in the sun in our car was a little squishy. I thought the kids would get a kick out of it, so I showed them how I could bend it and tried to explain that that's what wax does when it's warm. Cal wanted to try to bend a couple of the crayons on the way home. When we did arrive home and get out of the car, his whole face lit up and he said something like, "Mom, I have a GREAT idea! I'm going to put these crayons in hot water and bend them, and then put them in cold water and bring them back to life!" He then turned our upstairs bathroom into a crayon-bending factory, with hot water in one sink and cold water in the other. Now he calls them rainbow crayons, so if you want any let me know. I know someone who would love to make some for you. :)