From zero to twenty at the speed of Shmoo

So Fruit Bat. My five-year-old son. He's taken to walking around the house singing a pºrny tune whose lyrics are: Chicka Chicka Wah Wah. Over and over again. He freely admits that he got this from another boy in preschool. Where that boy picked it up, I'm not sure I want to know.

Fruit Bat is also finally drawing actual representations of his family, trees and the sun rather than just lines and squiggles. His pictures make my heart sing. His renditions of people resemble frowny-faced Shmoos. With belly buttons. But I, of course, think they're the most perfectly-drawn humans ever to flow from a preschooler's marker.

 

 

His sister, Kitty Cat, who is three, is all the time hurting her tonsils. And exercising her tonsils. Tonsils is a word she discovered in our Mad Libs Junior and she uses it frequently. She doesn't quite know what it means, but she knows she likes it.

She's also currently fond of setting up Grand Surprises for me which usually consist of taking off all her clothes then running into the room and shouting, "Ka-Dum!" but which are sometimes really good surprises, like look I just made my bed surprises, or wow I can buckle my own seat belt surprises. And these last two? Are indeed quite grand.

Anything that removes one of the fifty billion things from my heavy plate overflowing with tasks like making snacks, filling water bottles, gathering epi-pens, clipping small fingernails and wearing a foam elephant visor while pretending to eat wooden cake (Yesterday. Don't ask.) is great by me.

Of course, on the flip side of all this hilarity is Fruit Bat's weakness for hitting and heckling his sister. Which I LOVE. Kitty Cat's screeches echo across the Puget Sound and it is all I can do not to send them out onto it, in a small dinghy stocked with juice boxes and fruit leathers.

Kitty Cat's favorite new hobby, too, is flinging herself into things. HARD things. And then wailing because ithurts. And only thirty-seven Band-Aids can fix the horrible pain. In retrospect, it is funny. But while it is happening, I'm cursing the universe and wondering how I could've birthed such a drama queen (er, Hi Mom! She knows.)

In retrospect, it will all seem funny. And so heartbreakingly sweet. And I'll become one of those been-there-done-thats whose eyes gloss over wistfully as I regale how FAST it all went. How the kids went from newborns to twenty-year-olds in the blink of an eye. Blah blah blah.

Right.

I find it really hard to believe it won't be injured tonsils, pºrny soundtracks and Shmoos forever.

Comments

[rachel]

Right there with you. I know I'll miss it when it's gone, but I also find it hard to believe it won't be crumbs in the carseat, picnics of play food, and "DO IT MYSELF" tantrums forever.

My son is 5 1/2 and daughter is 2, but they are well into the tease/shriek routine. If there's room in your dinghy, I could throw in some crackers and apples!

[M]

(Smile)!!! Great post. The good thing is that you have this all written down. The sad thing is that you won't remember most of it without it being written down. Because..it all goes so fast!

[The Mom]

I have heard Bow Chicka Bow Wow on the show Friends...just playing devil's advocate! ;)

[Carrie]

You can thank Alvin and the Chipmunk's for that scintilating soundtrack. Katie was singing it too. *sigh* It does go fast, but it'd be nice if we realized that when we're in the thick of it (and goldfish).

[JCK]

These moments will definitely live on. And I am OH SO FAMILIAR with screeches and yells between a boy and a girl. Enough to send me over the edge.

I've got to Google "Chicka, Chicka Waa Waa." My 4 1/2 year old son has been saying it, as have other kids at preschool. I thought it was a preschool thing? Obviously I'm clueless. P@RN!!???

[slouching mom]

aww. i loved this post.

[Mrs. G.]

I might just steal the Ka Dum move and combine it with a little Chicka Chicka Wah Wah. Your kids need to come to the next blogger get together.

[MommyTime]

Ah, yes, we are in the midst of "I poop on you!" (with fully-clothed bottom sticking out and bouncing up and down) and lots and lots of verses of the same song over and over and over again. Also, inability to want to play with anything at all unless one's sibling is ALREADY playing with it. I'm very sure I will wax lyrical over these years when they are in high school. But now, some days, I just get nauseas from eating so much air ice cream. :)

I should also add that Big Brother very kindly has been shepherding Little Sister down the slide at the gym daycare for 30 minutes at a time, so that I can work out, so it's not all poop jokes all the time. But sometimes it does feel that way, huh?

[Burgh Baby]

That is why blogging is the best. It helps you to remember the little things that made you pull your hair out, and yet fall over laughing.

Tonsils.

[apathy lounge]

...and it won't be forever. I can attest to that PERSONALLY! And, yes, it will be very sad.

[Ann]

I really love kids' drawings, these little snapshots of how they see the big world. Have you ever looked back on your OWN drawings? Totally fascinating. Love the schmoo drawings!

[Madame Queen]

Yes, we have Alvin and the Chipmunks to thank for Bow Chicka Wow Wow. Thanks, Hollywood. Again. You've taught our children SO MANY wonderful things.

[foolery]

My tonsils are feeling rather woozy right now, too. bow chicka wow wow :)

[Pepperdove]

I bet they learned the song frome the Axe body spray commercials.

At least he doesn't know it's porney! I hope. You never know with preschools these days. Yipes!