Bee Wise
While Azul and I were playing outside, there was a bee that kept following him. Every time he heard it buzzing around him, he would scream, “Go away bee!” And then run away himself. When he ran back from his safe place, wherever that was, he would ask, “Did you see it?” I did not. This pattern of events repeated a few times. On the last time I replied, “It’s just a bee, swat it. You are much bigger than it is, I’m sure it’s more afraid of you than you are of it.”
In all his five year-old bee wisdom, his wide-eyed response was, “And when it stings you, it’s 100 times stronger!”
We laughed and agreed he was right, swatting the bee was not wise.
You say tomato, we say…
Linguistics sucks. It’s a hard subject to get a grasp on, there are so many rules to follow and double meanings and proper use and slang, even some adults have a hard time, but listening to kids try to master the topic is pure entertainment!
While my five year-old was eating his lunch, which consisted of a grilled cheese sandwich and a side of cherry tomatoes, I was picking up the kitchen. Just as excited as could be I heard Azul proclaim, “Look what I invented — Suck Balls!”
WHAT?! was my immediate thought, well a lot of things went through my head at that moment, so I looked up to see what he was talking about.
“See,” he said holding up a cherry tomato with a small bite off the top. He proceeded to put the tomato against his puckered lips and suck the juice out while squeezing it, then he popped the whole thing in his mouth and ate it.
Once he was done with this display of his new invention he said, “You suck all the juice out and then eat it. Suck Balls!”
“Try it,” he said handing me a tomato. And on his insistence I tried it and it was good, and fun! We finished the Suck Balls together.
I don’t think so.
Today was a beautiful day, and to celebrate, Azul and I took the car to the car wash and washed it. He likes riding through the tunnel of soap and revolving brushes, screaming when the rinse water sprays us for the last time, imagining we are being shot by enemies in space. Then we pull out of the wounded darkness and vacuum the floors and seats, Azul likes having his own nozzle and sucking up his pant leg instead of the cookie crumbs and random pieces of whatever happens to be stuck to the back seat. When we’re done, we cruise!
There is really nothing cooler than cruising in a clean car and listening to music on a nice day. And to bring back the nostalgia of my youth and cruising (you know, when your car was all you had and your most pressing issues were getting gas and cleaning your car), we were listening to old school music. Although my five year-old was sitting in his booster chair in the back seat cruising with me, instead a car full of friends, I still felt pretty cool! And then to make it even cooler, guess what song came up? Well, in an instant, we were “Going back to Cali,” with LL Cool J!
Oblivious to the lyrics I listened to millions of times over the years, instead I heard Azul, who was singing along even though this was the first time he heard this song, speak up from the back seat. “He said ‘beach’ and ‘peach,’ those rhyme!” I started to laugh and then stopped for a split second to think about the words we were singing and then laughed some more. With a shrug and an “Oh, well,” in my usual encouraging tone, I said “You’re right they do rhyme.”
The song continued in the background and Azul started to laugh again and said, “He said suntan lotion!”
Oh, we were rolling hard! And loving it!
Carmelina Hart 