I needed to pick up the boys yesterday which means Isaac first, then Besh. As Isaac and I walked to the car, this scintillating conversation that can only happen with a one-year-old took place.
“So we’re going to go pick up Besh now.”
“Besh?”
“Yeah.”
“Besh.”
“Yeah.”
“Besh. Yeah. Besh.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Besh. Besh. Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Besh has been in a fun – albeit occasionally challenging – new phase for a few months. He likes to ask why. A lot. But, it’s usually relegated to asking about stories. “Why is Shrek an ogre?” “Why are ogres green?” “If Humpty Dumpty is so fragile, why did he sit on a wall? That’s not a good idea!” “Why is the big bad wolf going around blowing down houses?” I have tried the old parenting trick of “what do you think?” He then hazards a guess and says, “Mommy, I really don’t know. Please just explain it to me.” Often, I don’t have an answer (a lot of these literary inquests happen on the car ride to school in the morning.)
When I was in NY a few weeks ago, my sweet friend, Eva, gave me some presents for the little guy on the way and for Beshaboo. One of the things she gave me was a CD/book combo of There was an old lady who swallowed a bat. This was a huge hit. I hadn’t realized that Besh had read it at school. As soon as I showed it to him, he exclaimed, “That’s There was an old lady who swallowed a bat! I love that book!” We’ve been listening to it in the car. For those of you unfamiliar with this book, the old lady swallows a number of things in an effort to chase the bat. But, the narrator always returns to the refrain, “I don’t know why she swallowed a bat.”
For quite a while, Besh would ask me, “why did she swallow the bat?” To which, in the end, I would go back to the lamest answer ever: “because that’s how it was written.” Besh was dissatisfied. So dissatisfied, in fact, that he did not want to hear the story for a while.
This morning, he asked to hear it on the way to school. When the narrator got to the first “I don’t know why she swallowed a bat,” Besh said, “Mommy – please you can turn it off for a minute?” I did. He then says, “I am going to call that guy from the story.” He picks up one of the phones he has in the toy basket next to his car seat. This is what I hear:
“Hello! You’re the man from the story?”
“Why did the old lady swallow the bat?”
“Oh – it’s supposed to be funny?” <pause> “Oh, you mean it’s like a joke?”
“Oh, ok. Thank you very much! Bye, bye.”
Toddlers get away with asking any kind of question or making all sorts of observations. Case in point: last night at dinner we were all sitting at the table eating when Sara was beset from one of those third trimester stomach pains resulting from, you know, a whole person being inside of her. It’s been happening a lot these past few weeks, so Sara let out one of those musical sighs and put her head down on her arm.
Besher got off his chair and put his hand on Sara’s arm.
“Mommy, are you laughing or crying?”
As for the bonus movie, the cast of Hairspray appeared on a UK TV show last Friday, which marks the only official video I could find of, as Besh calls her, “our Tracy.” Wanted to share with those of you who’ve been following the Hairspray saga so you could see how great Chloe Hart is in the role. I think the performance is great, but also just a bit low energy–probably due to this being taped on a Friday which means the cast had just pulled a double on Thursday (matinee and evening show) and they haven’t had the benefit of a 2 hour show that leads up to this finale. But still a great performance. The woman who plays Penny in this clip (woman who comes in at about 1:20) was the cast member who played Brenda when we saw it–a tiny part but memorable because she was one of the women singing directly to Besh during the finale the second night we saw it.
The clip also has Brian Conley as Edna, so another nice momento since he’s leaving the show soon.
The lip synching is a bit off, but the audio quality is good. I’m just glad we have something to save/link for the future given everything that’s happened. Enjoy!
When pointing out something funny, silly, or just tasty (like a strawberry-banana smoothie): “How crazy is that?”
When asking if he’s doing something right: “Is this the correct?” (Bonus to any of my work clients–ask me in email Is this the correct? and you get moved to the top of the line)
When talking about things he can do when he gets bigger: “When I go all the way to the ceiling…”
When promoting a plan he’s just come up with, usually one that involves Chuck E Cheese or the elevators at the mall: “That’s a great idea!”
I have a new page up called TINTIS. Stands for Things I Never Thought I’d Say. Rather than do even shorter posts on the subject, thought I’d make a single place to store these quotes, so feel free to check that page every once in a while. Link is at the top, near the photo banner.
Conversation in the car yesterday. Nonni and Zayde are his San Antonio grandparents, big international travelers and apparently unaware of the rule in the title of this post.
Besh: “I go on airplane.”
Me: “You’re going on an airplane?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you going?”
“Venice.”
“Venice? What are you going to do in Venice?”
“Go on a boat.”
“Who are you going with?”
“I go with Nonni. I go with Zayde too.”
“What about Mommy and Daddy?”
“No Mommy. No Daddy. Just Nonni and Zayde and Besher.”
“Oh, really? And when are you going to Venice?”
Long pause.
“I not talking.”
Besh’s current favorite non-kiddie (Wiggles) music is Disturbia by Rihanna.
He calls it either the Dum Dum De Dum song (after the chorus) or the Green song (after the cover, which he saw on iTunes).
I contemplated teaching him the actual title, but then realized his knowing the word Disturbia will have absolutely no bearing on his future life.
