The Animal Game

I absolutely love life with a 5-year old. Here’s a snippet:

E: Do you want to play the animal game?
Me: Okay, sure.
E: I have an animal. You guess.
Me: Okay, does it live in the forest?
E: Nope.
Me: Does it live in the ocean?
E: No. But it lives a lot of different places.
Me: Can it fly?
E: No, it can’t fly.
Me: Does it have four legs.
E: Yes. Four legs, I think, or maybe two.
Me: Does it have wings?
E: Uhhh, then it could fly. It can’t fly.
Me: Oh, right. Is it smaller than Tucker (our lab)?
E: Oh, yes, waaaay smaller.
Me: Is it brown?
E: No, it’s gray.
Me: Can it hop?
E: Yes, it can hop. Also, it’s really, really fast.
Me: Is it a grasshopper?
E: No, smaller.
Me: Is it a cricket?
E: No, smaller.
Me: Ummm, I don’t know. Can I have a hint?
E: It likes cheese.
Me: It can hop, it’s smaller than a cricket, and it likes cheese? Is it a mouse?
E: Yep! You got it!

This is so different from conversations with my eleven and eight-year olds. Over dinner recently, my eleven-year old was complaining about my censorship of the music he downloads on his iPod. We were discussing one popular song in particular:

M: But, mom, everyone has that song except for me.
Me: I understand that the song has a fun beat. Even I like the beat. But do you know what that song is about?
M: What?
Me: It’s about paying a prostitute.
M: What’s that?
Me: It’s a woman that you pay to have sex with you.
C – the 8-year old, who I have forgotten is sitting beside me: Oh, yeah, what IS that, mom?
Me: (Uh-oh; even M realizes my mistake; all eyes are now on me) Ummm, oohhhh, um, Chase, that is something that dad will, ummm, talk to you about later. But right now, boys, we’re talking about music. Can we just talk about the lyrics right now?

See why I love the animal game?