Dax's Journal

Conversations with Dax

Over the past several weeks I've noticed Dax carrying on more conversations rather than just parroting back things we say to him. Sometimes they are quite logical like when he explained to me that both trees and grass are green. Other times? Not so much.

And so I present "Conversations with Dax" or "Stories I Will Tell His Prom Date":

Story #1:
A couple of weeks ago Dax and I were in the back yard blowing bubbles. We blew a lot of bubbles. Lots and lots and lots of bubbles. Believe it or not, I got tired of blowing bubbles but Dax did not. So after I had refilled his soap tray for the 80 billionth time and he was still asking for more I said that we had run out of soap and then asked him what we should do.

I was thinking he might suggest another activity. Something like playing in the sand table or with the hose or maybe, God willing, going inside where it was not nearly so sunny.

He gave my question careful consideration. I could see the gears turning as he pondered, "We are out of soap so what shall we do?" Then he shouted out "Walgreens" and made a beeline for the door, presumably to drive there and buy more soap.

Story #2:
We've been sort of, kind of, but not really potty training. This means that Dax loves to sit on the potty and to throw toilet paper in and then hop off the potty and flush it while yelling bye-bye to the invisible potty and the paper. He has only actually pottied in the potty a few times.

I always put him on the potty before bath time hoping he will pee in the toilet and not, as he always does, in the bathtub. I've learned to stand him in the far end of the tub while I run the water to the proper temperature because he will pee and I would rather he do it up front and let me rinse it away than have him sitting in it.

It was on one of these peeing in the tub occasions when Dax decided we should discuss pottying. First he pointed at himself and said, "Water!" and I said, "Yes, you went pee-pee." He nodded while watching himself go and then pointed again and said, "Water! In there!" We went back and forth a bit on the fact that there was, in fact, water in him and that it had to come out in this way and that it was really something he might want to consider doing on the potty rather than in the tub. By the time I thought we had exhausted the conversation the tub had been rinsed and filled and he was sitting happily in the tub. But we weren't finished discussing his bodily functions. Not just yet.

"Crackers," he said. "You want crackers?" "Crackers. In here." He was pointing into the tub. "You want to eat crackers in the tub?" "Crackers," he repeated and pointed much, much lower. "Crackers in here." That's when I realized that we had moved on from the water/pee association and had moved on to the cracker/poo association.

You try not to laugh when your son tells you that he has crackers in his bum.

Story #3:
A couple nights ago Dax and I were waiting patiently in the car while Cat went into Home Depot to buy light bulbs. While we waited we talked about how it was dark but that if you turned on the light then the dark went bye-bye. We talked about where daddy had gone and what he was doing and when he would be back. Then Dax began one of his favorite activities which is to list everything that he can see. It goes something like this: "Mommy! Hair! Tree! Car! Red car! Big truck! Shirt! Light! Tree! Trees! More trees!" And I add to this riveting conversation by asking questions about what he sees.

One of the things he saw was the gate that closes off the gardening section of Home Depot. We had already talked about the fact that daddy was in the store so when I asked him what was behind the gate I sort of thought "daddy" would be his answer. Nope. Bears. Bears were behind the gate. And that made him scared so it was a good thing that daddy showed up right then so Dax could be sure his father had not been eaten by bears.

Posted by michelle at October 2, 2006 08:47 PM