Illustrations by Jeanne Seagle
We still chuckle over the many funny, unabashedly cute remarks our little girl made during her toddler and pre-school years. Mom Susan Elswick faithfully records her children’s funnies in a journal. One rainy day, her son, Liam, gazed out at rain puddles in their muddy backyard, and said “Look… chocolate water!”
Her daughter Charlotte speculated, “I think if you took some clouds and added rain, the clouds would taste like mashed potatoes.”
At the playground, Charlotte sprinted to the monkey bars. She shouted excitedly, “Mommy, they have monkey hangers!”
While traveling, she asked her mom about a tall tower on the side of the interstate. Susan explained that it was a water tower. “It’s for a giraffe, right, Mommy?”
Watching the sun slip behind a cloud, little Abigail cried, “Oh, no! The sun’s gone off!”
One morning, Susan was fixing Abigail’s hair. When she parted it down the middle, Abigail suddenly looked worried. “Oh no, I have a crack in my head!”
While going potty, Liam said, “”My booty sounds like a diesel engine!”
Sharon Thompson recalls that her grandson William had difficulty pronouncing the word ‘fire.’ It came out as “fower.” His mother coached him, but the pre-schooler still struggled. Finally, he said, “Okay, it’s hot.”
Charissa Wellford was busy running errands with her daughter, Ann, then 3. As they climbed into the car, her daughter turned around and asked, “What’s on our list of hecitivities today?”
Big kids love to take charge and share knowledge with their younger sibs. At age 3, Lauren Woody was playing on a slide with her little brother. “Okay, Timothy,” she said. “We are going to play train. I’ll be the engine and you can be the little commode.” Charlotte was explaining the Earth’s rotation and gravity to her younger brother. Why don’t we fall off when the Earth rotates? he asked. She replied, “Even when we are upside down, gravity keeps us upside up.”
At age 5, my daughter Ella decided that Santa Claus wasn’t as sweet and altruistic as he appeared. The jolly elf dropped off a puppy, but the bichon frise promptly chewed her toys and Barbie dolls. As Ella surveyed the puppy's mess, she said with great sadness, “I guess that’s why Santa gave her away.”
Susan picked a favorite query from her journal. “Mommy and Daddy… was I born AWESOME?” asked Liam. “To which we replied, ‘Of course,’ says Susan.