What Are Chins For?

Legend is grinding his teeth.

Me - "Oh! Legend, don't do that. You'll wreck your teeth."

He does it again just to tick me off.
I gently pull his chin down to stop him. "Legend. Don't. You'll wreck your teeth!"

Legend - "Don't wreck my chin 'cause otherwise I won't have a chin no more and then I won't get a beard."

A Mouthful

It is lunch time and I have dished out all of Cash's healthy food: veggies and dip, spaghetti and an orange sliced in triangles with the peel still on.

I am finishing Legend's meal preparation when I look up to see Cash's mouth extremely full and he is doing his best to chew.

I gently admonish him - "I think maybe you should take smaller bites, Cash."
Cash nods and continues laboriously chewing.

I am busy with Kayla's lunch for a couple minutes.
He is still chewing and now there are tears in his eyes.

Me - "Cash, are you okay? What are you eating anyways?" His food appears untouched.
Cash barely manages to spit out, "orange", around his massive bite.

There is no peel on his plate.

Me, knowing the awful answer already - "Cash, where is the peel?"
Cash spits - "Ate it."

Not yet, you haven't.
I grab a napkin and ask him to spit it out.

Me - "Cash, the peel is not food."
Cash - "Yeah, cuz I don't like it."

No kidding.

Gender Revisited

Legend has trouble with knowing when to say "his" or "her", "he" or "she". I am not really hung up on gender and do not ascribe colours, activities, or behaviour to boys or girls. Legend doesn't either. In the same breath he can switch from being Spiderman to being a princess and I think that is cool. But, he really wants to get his pronouns down and can't seem to master them, so we have discussions about gender often. Usually these discussions don't take a strictly biological path.

Legend points to Cash - "She has cheese just like I do!"
Me - "He."
Cash - "Yeah, 'cause I'm a boy."
Legend - "He."
Cash - "He."

Legend - "Me and Cash are both boys!"
Cash - "Yep. And Auntie Kate is a girl just like my mommy is a girl."
Me - "That's right."

Legend - "You're a girl because you are a mommy."
Me - "Yes. Only girls can become mommies."
Cash - "Kayla is a girl too. She is not a mommy right now."
Me - "Maybe one day when she grows up."

Legend - "I'm a boy so I have a wee wee."
Me - "That's right. Girls don't have wee wees."

Legend - "You never know."