Saturday, September 03, 2005

Friday Night Drive

Quick note about Friday night first. On the way to Tulsa in the minivan, Ben announced “piece coa.” Fairly certain Ben didn’t want to join the Peace Corp, I looked around until I saw a police car on the right shoulder of the road. We acknowledged it and said that it was a police car, very good. He repeated this over and over for several minutes. Not far up the road, after he had stopped, we saw another (they were out in full force for the Labor Day weekend). He started repeating it again, “piece coa, piece coa.” Later, after he once again had stopped, Shannon saw one and told Ben about it.

Nice.

Although we were trying to talk about something since we finally had a large chunk of time to cover topics from the past week, it didn’t bother us. We just rolled with it and he eventually tired of it.

When I was inside a convenience store for a “pit stop,” Ben looked at my laptop computer bag and said, “Daddy purse.” Well, my lovely wife knew I would not like that, so she said, “No, Daddy doesn’t carry a purse. Girls carry purses. Daddy’s a man.” I don’t have many hang-ups about what is appropriate for one sex versus the other, but living in Texas, you just don’t want your son telling people that his daddy carries a purse.

“Daddy mayun,” Ben said. He repeated this a few times after I got back in the van.

Shannon told him, “Mommy is a lady.” I let that one slide.

A mile or two down the road, Ben said, “Mommy yady,” and repeated it. Shannon loved it and encouraged him.

I carried it one step further and told him “Ben is a boy.” He repeated that back to us, then started making the declarations repeatedly and at random. “Daddy mayun, Ben boy, Mommy yady.”

We started dreaming of other things we could start teaching him when his brain is such a sponge. They are amazing at this age. I sit in the living room of Shannon’s family’s main Tulsa gathering spot, alone and up way too late, typing this after preparing the online photo album and the links to connect it all.

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