La La La-la, Danyo's World

Danyo. Our resident four year old. There should be a recorder on him at all times. I remember feeling this way about every other thing that came out of Bo's mouth at this age. And Avee's.

Just in the last two days, these are some of my favorites:

* Friend: It's my toy frog, Pink.
Danyo: Well, my grandma gave me a cute little bunny and then she died.
Me: Oh yeah, where is that bunny?
Danyo: Oh, he's upstairs on my bed, laying on his tummy. It's okay, he can breathe. He's a stuffed animal anyway.

Danyo loves stuffed animals. LOVES them. Before my mom passed away, I was cleaning out an area of her room (she had treasures stashed everywhere) for her and asking her where she wanted stuff to go. I unearthed a darling little floppy-eared bunny. It is about 8 inches big. I held it up to her with a somewhat scolding expression--why on earth is she buying stuffed animals and stashing them? She shrugged unapologetically and said, "I just come across really cute ones and I can't pass them up, so I get them to give to someone later--you can take it." I told her Danyo would probably love it, but that I wanted her to give it to him. I handed her the bunny and went to get Danyo. When I came back with him, the bunny was nowhere to be found. My mom was sitting upright in her bed and motioned for Danyo to come closer. She started talking to him and as she spoke, she pulled back some blankets/sheets that were bunched up near her. She revealed one of the bunny's ears. As she continued to talk, she slowly peeled back more covers to reveal more of the bunny bit by bit, until finally the entire bunny. Danyo was delighted. I was just so impressed that even in a little act like giving him a bunny, she made it fun and unique and memorable. I want to be more like that. Danyo carried that bunny nonstop for about two weeks straight.

*Later, Bo brought up the time I'd told my mom that Bo had learned his multiplication facts and she said to him, "Quick, what's 9 times 3!?" Bo was laughing about that. I immediately felt sad, that is the very kind of thing I will miss so much. Danyo must have spotted the sadness on my face (he is very attuned to that kind of thing) because he kind of shrugged and said consolingly, "It's a good thing we have another grandma." I heard my mom laughing at that one. :)

*This morning as I was getting dressed, AJ was laying on my bed sucking madly on her hand (she's my only child to do this and she does it a LOT). I had just fed her, but Danyo was convinced he was the expert on the matter. He kept saying she was hungry. As I was about to leave the room I heard him say, "Just give her the boob already!"

Not gonna lie. It's a little unsettling to hear a four year old say something like that. It was mostly funny though.

*This morning we had a battle of wills. Danyo's mildly (read:insanely) addicted to electronic usage right now. Video games, computer, tv, ipod. He could fill an entire day with these things and never stop to eat. So, I've been trying to subtly limit it. No computer until he's dressed and eaten breakfast. Then I do more sneaky things like, "I can't set you up on the computer right now, you'll have to wait a bit, until Dad can..." Well this morning that didn't fly. He got ticked. And he has a bad temper. So he actually lost computer privileges for the morning. It got ugly before it got better. He threatened to never be my friend again and everything.

So later, he was trying to convince J to buy him Mario Party 9. "It only costs one hundred and seven dollars I sink..."

J wasn't falling for his cuteness and kept telling him we had plenty of games already.

"I'll be your best friend Da-a-a-ad"

We laughed and I asked Danyo who his best friend was anyway. He answered, without skipping a beat, "Everyone except Dad! Unless he buys me that game!"

I love the way he rolls.