Literal Interpretations

We all know that it takes kids awhile to develop a sense of the abstract, that kids process things very literally. Today, Kenson was full of literal thoughts.

While reading our new library book about a pumpking patch, Kenson looked at the photos that showed a fall pumpkin patch and a tractor. It looked a lot like the scene we saw on our own trip to the pumpkin patch. Kenson wanted to know, "Where's Kenson?" So I had to explain to him that it wasn't the same place we went to. Then later on in the book there was a picture of the back of a little boy who was looking at a giant pumpkin. Kenson pointed at the boy and said, "Kenson?" Since the boy in the photo was Caucasian, I told Kenson that it wasn't him, that the boy had skin that was the same color as Mama's. I asked him what color his skin was and he said "black" which is just his educated guess since he is very inconsistent with colors. So I told him that is was actually a shade of brown, that he had chocolate colored skin. And then he tried to lick himself. Just to see if it was actually chocolate, I suppose.

Then at supper tonight he started drinking his milk really fast, trying to make himself burp. D told him to stop but about 5 minutes later, he succeeded in burping accidentally but then followed that with more attempts at forcing a belch. I told him he needed to stop or he would sit on the stairs, that we don't burp at the table. Without missing a beat and with total innocence, he pointed towards the living room and says, "In there?" As in, we can't burp at the table because Mama said no but the living room is a different room.

Anyway, it's a good thing he's funny because after about 3 weeks of him being half sick, I have exhausted a lot of my patience with him. (We finally went to the doctor on Tuesday. He has not really had anything really wrong but he just doesn't feel all that great. Runny nose and watery eyes, a yucky cough but only at night and that actually disappeared for a week in the middle but then came back, lots of extra sleeping, lots of clingyness and crying, a 99.9 temp a couple of days but always knocked out by Tylenol and not on consecutive days. Just 3 weeks of blechiness.) I'm hoping the antibiotics help and that he gets back to his more chipper self; I'm really hoping that this isn't the new version of being three!