The Development of Bo

So, I want to post about Bo. He's growing up right before my eyes and it's just crazy to see it happening so quickly. His has a different smile now. His body is becoming lanky. His humor, sometimes a step ahead of mine. That's mostly what I want to document. He's made me laugh out loud several times in the last week. Every time I laugh there's this huge sense of pride that he has such a great sense of humor.

The other day I was holding Danyo on my lap and squeezing his cute little face up against mine. I said, "Oh my goodness this is just the sweetest little face on the planet! And you're pretty cute too Danyo." I heard Bo chuckle. Granted, my joke wasn't that funny, I was still pretty tickled that Bo got the joke.

Last week we were going through the drive through at the bank and Bo noted, "Hey mom, check out that cloud, it looks like Russia!" I do what I always do---I responded absentmindedly. I said, without thinking, "I can see Ressia frem my beckyahrd". You know, in my best Tina Fey, imitating Sarah Palin voice. All three of my kids burst out laughing and immediately began imitating it. It was very entertaining to me.

Well, after a couple of days of THAT, Bo knew it was time to up the ante. So, we were at breakfast and the kids were quoting it adnauseum, even though it's kind of against the rules to do that kind of crap in our house, a 3 year old imitating an Alaskan accent is awesome a billion times.

J started to tell a "story". In retrospect, I see that it was the set up for a "joke". And yes, it needs quotes. He said about two sentences (that gave no indication of where he was headed) when Bo suddenly interrupted and said, something about living in Florida and "I can see Cuba from my back yard". I didn't hear the beginning. But I whipped around at the sheer smarty-pantsness it takes to make that joke, and then burst out laughing. I looked at J incredulously that our 7 year old just made such a joke and J said somewhat indignantly (mixed with pride), "That was where I was going with that!"

Since then, there have been several variations. Including, Canada from our front yard.

The other thing that made me laugh out loud was a story he was relating to me. I must confess, I don't hear a lot of what that boy says. He talks nonstop sometimes. And most times, it's a variation on the same question/remark he's had for the last 3 days of his most recent obsession. I think he's asked me 5 different times in 3 different ways, who my favorite president is. And he's tried asking 3 different ways which assassination or assassination attempt on a president was the most "uncared about." The overly preachy mother came out and he got a sound lesson on the value of life and how not matter how disliked a person may be, there is no reason anyone should ever be shot. Of course, he was just trying to fill in the space of his mental spreadsheet of "the mostest". At least now he knows assassination is not okay. Good job, me.

So, he's going on, and suddenly I hear a punch line. And it's hilarious. So I make him back up. And this is what he'd said.

J took the kids over to watch our friend "prep" a pig before smoking it. And pulling it. Because, we subsequently had pulled pork. So, he pulled it, right?

I was at work. The pig still had a head. It also apparently had a stamp or branding on it, which Bo asked about. Our friend explained to him that it was just a branding, it was just on the skin, and it wouldn't affect the meal because we don't eat the skin.

So Bo recreated this dialogue in his head.

Bo:What is that marking on the pig?
Friend: Oh, that's a stamp.
Dad: It's on the skin, so you don't have to worry about the stamp. We don't eat the skin of a pig, so we won't be eating that stamp.
Bo's side note: (just pretend people don't eat pork rinds, so that what Dad says is actually true)
Bo: Well, that's weird, I always thought it was okay to eat food stamps.

I could NOT believe this little rewriting of dialogue for a punchline. I was insanely proud, you must know. But I was also very VERY surprised that the kid knows what Food Stamps are.

Welcome to Iowa, I guess.

He made another pun-type joke this afternoon and for the life of me I can't recall it. I just remember when he said it, that I realized his humor was evolving and he was a really funny kid.
Of course I've always thought he had a really sharp sense of humor, but it's so nice to finally reap the benefits of it.

He does NOT like me blogging about him. Tooooooooo bad.

Tonight I let him stay up a little later with me. He sat next to me on the bed, reading. He was cursing his 5 year old self that had scribbled on parts of the book, spelled things stupidly, and torn out pages. It was kind of funny how annoyed he was, knowing he was the one who had done it. When it was time to go to bed, he didn't give it up easily. He skulked to the door and then turned brightly and said, "So, what did you and Danyo have for lunch today? Was it good? Do you want to have it again tomorrow? Did Danyo eat his food or did he just play with his drink?"

He totally got me too. I started answering and chatting away. He's sneaky. Always has been insanely creative about bedtime stall tactics.

We got food poisoning last week from Tim Tam cookies. In defense of the Australians, whom I love dearly, they were Pepperidge Farm Tim Tams. It was just a bad batch and it got me and the kids and a visiting friend. I learned a lot about each of us in this trying time. First, I would have been fine if I had only had one. I ate 3, and I felt every ounce of them. Ugh. Bo is a bit of a ninny. I'm sure he was uncomfortable, but no more uncomfortable than the rest of us. But he was practically wailing about it. Of course, as soon as I offered him a Sprite to sip on, he never complained again. Avee on the other hand, barely mentioned in passing that her stomach hurt as she was going to bed. Then the next day when we were all miserable, she was bouncing all over, and begging me to let her have another cookie. When I tried to tell her that they were the reason we were sick---her response was, "So, we're already sick, what does it matter if they make us sick!" That kind of logic in a 6 year old is hard to resist. Mostly because I think the same way.

Danyo didn't complain once but basically crapped his way through a package of pullups. TMI? Sorry.

I just told J I'd be done blogging in 4 minutes. He said he didn't believe me for one minute.
But really, I just wanted those Bo stories recorded. And to pretend I exist once again in the blogging world. Mission accomplished.

Life is good for me right now. I love my classes. I don't love group projects, but c'est la vie. I am about 3 weeks away from a successful completion of one semester. That will feel good.

I love Spring. I have good friends. Our needs are met. Life is good.

The End.