It tastes the same...if you close your eyes*

"You have really beautiful children," a Peace Camp counselor told us.
"And I should know, I was a pediatrician for over 20 years."

I eyed Monroe's eggplant at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. Why should such a stunning color be wasted on such a slimy vegetable? In my limited eggplant experience, it had been difficult to prepare, and even more difficult to enjoy. Jon felt the same way. I finally decided to buy a few, though. Partly because I wanted to expose our children to the taste, even if we didn't like it, and partly because I wanted to buy something from Monroe, and we were growing everything else he had to offer. I took home three smallish ones for fifty cents, and went to my favorite recipe website.

I decided on Eggplant Meatballs. We sat down to dinner and Zephyr eyed the item sitting on top of his pasta with suspicion. Jon and I took our first taste. "It's yummy," I told Zephyr. "Try it." I turned to Jon, "It tastes just like a meatball, doesn't it?" Zephyr took a bite, then put his eggplant ball on the table next to his plate. "I'm not going to hunt cows," he decided. "I don't like the taste."

Later, Jon wondered if the recipe would work with zucchini, which, this time of year, we have plenty of. "I bet it would taste like pig," Zephyr speculated. "I'm going to hunt pigs."

He may be counting the days until pig season, but just before bed, I received affirmation that he has internalized some of our values. He had been running around all day wearing a homemade Batman mask and cape. He "flew" from the playroom to tell me, "We took all the bad guys' vegetables, so they can't grow muscles." Then he added, with a satisfied smile, "And we took their bike!" Curses! Foiled again.

Zephyr has been known to integrate his obsessions and say things like,
"How about Bad Guys for dinner, Dad?"

One thing that has surprised me lately is Zephyr's tall tales. The first one I heard was when Jon asked him about his first swim lesson. "Mommy doesn't know what happened, because she dropped me off and then she went to the park," he began. Huh? I was sitting next to the pool the entire time. "He's just being nutty," Jon said. "He's said stuff like that before." The next morning, Jon was looking for his baking soda deodorant mixture, which was missing from its usual convenient location in the bathroom. Zephyr said he didn't take it. I pressed. "Did you see someone take it?" "No." "If you had seen someone take it, where do you think they would have put it?" "Well," he began. "If I had seen someone take it, I think they might have put it in the drawer in the bedroom." Case solved.

Then, there was a phone conversation with Oma this weekend:

Z: I'm old enough to use the computer now.
O: Oh, you...
Z: (interrupting) And I lit a candle by myself.
O: You did? You lit...
Z: (interrupting) And I'm strong enough to kill a bird.
O: (silence)
Z: Oh, and someone cut Dada's leg off, so now he has a wooden leg.
O: Have you been reading pirate...
Z: (interrupting) And when they gave him a wooden leg, they gave him a wooden egg, too.
O: A wooden egg...?
Z: (interrupting) Oh, and one day Jubi was sitting on my foot, then she spilled a bowl of chocolate pudding on my foot, then she sat on it, and it was so gross. But I have to go now. But I left you a message. (Hands the phone to Jon.)
O: What's this about a message? Was it on the computer?
J: There is no message, he doesn't really use the computer, there is no candle, no pudding, no bird killing, and I'm sitting here with both my legs intact.

Anyone else out there have a story fabricating preschooler? Please tell me it's a sign of creativity, and not early signs of becoming a pathological liar.


Jubilee's language skills have also taken off. I wrote down most of what she said for the first two hours she was awake on Thursday. Here it is:
What is these?
Need poop
That's big one. (This was after pooping.)
What is this?
Zephyr's bag
Open it
A book
This one
Where baby go?
Cupcake
Cup
Mommy
A doggie?
Take a bath?
A kiss?
Need poop
Bob the Builder
Water
I want marker
Pen
Marker shoulder (then she wrote on my shoulder)
Tractors
More cashews
Fish Phoebe (our new Betta)
Albuquerque
Love cumbers (cucumbers)
Blue nuts (what she calls almonds, because of their blue bag)
Twinkle Twinkle Star
Row Row Boat
Camera Zephyr
Where Dada go?
Want see him
I kiss him?
Kiss Mommy
Kiss Mouse

I think we're also starting to get a glimpse of her dream life. She sat up in the middle of the night on Sunday, looked at Jon and Zephyr, and happily exclaimed, "Doggies!" Then she reached over to pet Zephyr. I intercepted before anything disastrous came of it.


*can anyone, besides Katie and FGFA, identify where this line comes from AND quote what comes next?