Fast-ee Ant and the Automatic Pickle

Lots of laughter in the house, in spite of exhaustion from the inevitable sleep issues as daylight savings time wreaks havoc on the kids' schedules (and therefore ours as well). BB is discovering new words and the idea of "nonsense" -- this morning, her favorite word was "automatic." As in, "I'm a automatic kid! Dis a automatic sink!" Or, my favorite, while we were making lunch: "Want a automatic pickle!"

Another favorite word game of hers is making up nonsense descriptors, based on a single repeated word. "Dis is 'bing-bing'!" Or, "Mommy is 'vrum-vrum'!" And then she grins at us, knowing full well that she's being amusing.

BJ is full of funny phrases these days, too. When the kettle was boiling yesterday, he informed me, "Mommy, your tea is yelling!" Another recent observation: "Divers have perpetual bandaids." (I'm not sure what he meant by this, exactly, but I found it very funny. Who knew that my kid knew the word "perpetual"??? I asked him if he knew what it meant, and he said, "Forever." So there you go. I do know that he was talking about scuba divers. Perhaps a reference to their wetsuits?)

Of course random questions are always entertaining. While we were talking about "sailing around the world" (which is referred to in one of his books) he asked, "Would they have to go through Connecticut?" This week, he has also asked, "Can God walk?" and "Do houses die?" and many more that I forgot to write down as they were asked.

And just in case we didn't have enough excitement in our lives, the kids have taken it upon themselves to institute a nightly nudie time, right before they go into the bath. They'd been doing this for quite some time, and recently BJ added another element to the game: he has decided that I am an anteater, and he and BB are ants. Or, to be specific, he is "Fast-ee Ant!" Because, of course, he runs really fast.

The result is shrieking chaos as the kids dash through the house in their birthday suits, wanting me to stop doing the dishes so I can run around with them and pretend to gobble them up. All the while, BJ is yelling, "Don't eat me up, Mommy! Don't eat me up!" and BB is chasing me, hollering, "Eat me up, Mommy! Eat me up!"

After a while, BJ collapses on his bed, declaring it his anthill and therefore safe territory. But the game isn't over yet: he gets on his "phone" (made from duplo Legos) and calls me to tell me that he wants to be friends and to inform me that I should be "an anteater who doesn't eat ants." (At least not until tomorrow night, when the game starts all over again.)

I have to say, exhausting as this game can be at the end of a long day, it feels really good to be reliably playful with my kids. I spend lots of time having fun with them, of course, and most of our time is spent playing. But much of our day is also spent in the quotidien details of keeping everybody fed, clothed, clean, and rested so we can stay on something of an even keel, and that takes some managing.

Sheer physical goofball stuff is not my specialty. Not as part of my general personality, and not as part of my parenting style. (I'm working on this, though, having learned that motherhood is both more fun and more efficient when Mom Isn't Always So Serious!) The game started last week on a night when S was working late and I was doing bedtime solo with the kids, and I had the good sense to run with it (literally) instead of try to squash it in favor of Staying On Task. And I'm glad that I've allowed it to continue, to include a time for us to be utterly silly together. It's good for me, and it's good for them.

And here's an unexpected bonus: I know for a fact that at least one door-to-door solicitor has peeked through our front window, witnessed this mayhem, and turned around without even bothering to ring the doorbell. Score!