I Wuv Pocsiples

Since my previous post about nuances of Scott's speech, we have noticed several more trademark words and sayings:

Pocsiple = popsicle
Hootball = football
Bakseball = basketball
Gollum = Goblin

His current method of counting:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 12, 13, 9, 12 ... (if he needs a large number, he uses 50, because that's the number of forests burned up by the dragon in The Paperbag Princess)

"Big Pants"
The other day we were driving into downtown to drop my bike off at the shop. He knows that I work "downtown at the big buildings", so I pointed them out to him. He said, "When I grow big I can work at the big buildings like you Dad... and wear big pants." At least he knows what it takes to find a job in this day and age -- big pants.

"Wipe my eyes"
Scott's gone through some emotional times lately. He often wants to be first to go somewhere (even walking down the hall) or he wants things done in a certain way, and if that doesn't work out, he breaks down into tears. Then, even if issues have resolved themselves, he can't continue until the tears are completely cleared from his eyes. He's much better now about just wiping his own eyes, but there was a period there when he would burst into tears because he wanted to be the one who would close the front door, but he wouldn't actually close the door until someone helped wipe his eyes. This problem with tears in his eyes would cause him to cry all over again. Let me tell you, it is tough to get all the tears from your eyes if having tears in your eyes makes you cry. Like I said, he's getting better about it now (he wipes his own tears quite thoroughly).

"Does that make you happy?"
When he was quite young, we would try to show a distinction between social and antisocial behaviour by pointing out when things made us sad or when things helped make us happy. That concept really caught on, and now he will occasionally do something very innocuous and inquire in his most chipper of voices, "Does that make you happy?" He usually comes striding up quite close and cocks his head nearly sideways when he asks.

"The Scotty on the bus says..."
Scotty and I were out for a walk and we started to sing the Wheels On the Bus Go Round and Round song. He likes to do some of the actions and he sings along a little bit. To help him participate a bit more, I would ask him to tell what came next in each verse, and he would say, "Driver", "Baby", "Mommy", etc. So I would sing, "The Driver on the bus says... what?" and Scott would tell me what to fill there. Finally, we ran out of the standard verses and I added a new one: "The Scotty on the bus says... what?" Scott grinned and said, "Beagh!", which is pretty much his favourite exclamation to make, and therefore entirely appropriate.
The Scott on the bus says Beagh! Beagh! Beagh, all through the town.

Bad Guys Have Beards
I have to apologize to all those men with beards out there, because I have set my son against you, possibly forever. He was doing some water-painting in a Pinoccio book this week and I pointed out the Bad Guys in the book, including black-bearded puppetmaster Stromboli/Mangiafuoco. I told him that the bad guy had a beard, and then I exaggerated a bit and said something about lots of bad guys having beards. Things got a bit confused for while there while we clarified that the Green Goblin did not have a beard. Scott wondered if Spiderman (his ultimate hero) had a beard. No, he wears a mask. It was a bit unclear to him what a beard really was, even though I tried to explain that it was hair that grows on your face. He listened quite intently and asked a few questions, but I'm still not sure what he took away from the conversation. It is quite possible that he will mistrust people with masks (which is usually OK), but he may also mistrust anyone with hair on their face. My apologies to all three of my brothers, since they all have beards of one sort or another. You are all supervillains now.

What the Hulk Does
Scotty has dubbed himself "Spiderman Boy" and any sidekick is invariably called the Hulk, because (as everyone knows) the Hulk is Spiderman's friend and they are both Good Guys. The other day Scott was talking about the Hulk and he said, "The Hulk rides a green bike to work at the green buildings. Then he goes to the green doctor." You would be surprised that he has this kind of inside information about the Hulk, but you have to realize that he is Spiderman Boy and a close friend of the Hulk. and the details make even better sense if you know that I often get to play the role of the Hulk, largely because I own a green shirt. I ride a bike to work. I work downtown where there are big buildings. I am not so sure about the doctor part. I have been to the doctor before, not that frequently. Maybe that's where the Hulk and I are different -- the Hulk has to see the doctor every day after work, whereas I just do the whole apple-a-day thing.

Chasing the Turtle
Recently he told us a story that went something like this: "I was Spiderman and I was in a boat and a pirate ship and my big bakseball went in the water and got wet and then I went and chased the turtle really fast and I caught the turtle...
...And I hit it."
He has several versions of this tale with some variation in the details but the same basic formula.