Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Toddler Speak.

This is a toy frog.


And this is that toy frog tipped over.


Quite a while ago, Cub went running into his room and let out a shriek. When I poked my head in to assess the situation, I saw him sitting on the floor, holding his foot, with tears streaming down his cheek. When I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the frog and moaned, "Stepped on a frog!!" Apparently, small plastic wind-up frogs become quite lethal when tipped over, as they have pointy and sharp edges that prove to be dangerous when combined with toddler momentum. I looked at his foot and sure enough, Mean Frog had broke the skin just a tad, enough to warrant a band-aid and a kiss.

Fast forward a few weeks. Cub grabs some wood and gets a small cut on his hand. And wouldn't you know, the poor guy reaches his hand up to me and declares, "Stepped on a frog with my HAND!!"

I mean, really.

I racked my brain trying to figure out why in the world he associated stepping on a frog with the small cut on his hand, until, a-ha! it all made sense. Cub is quite accustomed to bruises and cuts, but they typically happen on his cute noggin, from running into chairs and falling into the edges of tables and such. It dawned on me that Cub has never actually seen any of his injuries since most of them occur on his head. Until, of course, that fateful day when he stepped on the frog and saw the cut on his foot. What does that mean? It means that any injuries subsequent to that day are the result of stepping on a frog with whichever body part houses said injury. Stepping on a frog has expanded to cover any kind of pain he ever experiences. Rather than saying, "I hurt my finger!" he says, "I stepped on a frog with finger!" Thus far, Cub has stepped on a frog with his foot, his hand, his chin, his cheek, and the list goes on.

What's even better? My husband and I actually play along. When he dramatically recounts a tale of stepping on a frog with his hair, our eyes grow wide and we gasp in horror. Stepping on a frog with your hair? OH MY GOODNESS.

Yeah yeah, we should probably explain that one cannot actually step on a frog with their bellybutton. But we're just having a liiiiiittle fun with this one. We'll set him straight before he goes to college.

Have a lovely day!

2 comments:

  1. Cub is hands down one of the coolest kids I have ever known!

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  2. He is so sweet. He'll laugh at this story when he's a bit older. ;)

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