Death By Cuteness

I guess that's what toddlers have going for them. For every occasion upon which they make you want to claw your own eyes out with a grapefruit spoon, there are at least two occasions in which they make you want to nibble on them until your teeth ache from their sweetness.

Right now, Eric is Super Talker Boy, so I get to hear a lot of toddler logic in action. And most of it is just way too cute. I mean, the English language is complicated to master. I think maybe we could take a few lessons from the toddlers' perspective that the simplest explanation is the best. I wish I could remember all the cute things Eric says, but I think it would get a little old if I posted baby witticism on my blog every day (ummm....oops). But, here are a couple of recent things that I thought were especially cute.

A few weeks ago, Chris mowed the lawn for the first time. Eric watched him out the window the entire time, chanting, "Daddy mow the lawn," fifteen hundred and seventy-three times. When Chris finished the front yard and headed for the back, Eric left his post on the living room couch and hightailed it to the kitchen so as not to miss anything. Once again, "Daddy mow the lawn. [beat] Daddy mow the lawn. [beat] Daddy mow the lawn," etc. When Chris mowed around the tulip bed, he bumped the tulips a few times and they would bend over and spring right back up. Eric stopped chanting, "Daddy mow the lawn," and said in a whisper, "Daddy mow the flowers." When Chris was finally done and turned the lawn mower off, Eric announced, "All done, mow the lawn!"

Then today, Eric and I were driving home from his music class. Whenever we go anywhere in the car, Eric likes to shout out all the attractions he sees. This is especially fun because we often drive a stretch of the expressway where the El line runs between eastbound and westbound traffic. For as long as we are driving next to the train tracks, Eric likes to tell me, "Choo-choo tracks!" over and over and over again. One time, as we were merging from one expressway to another, there was a lot of traffic (ha! sorry, this sentence makes it sound like traffic is not the norm--I wish!), and I told Eric, "Look at all the cars down there!" And now he says that to me ALL THE TIME. Also, there is a lot of road construction nearby, so we spend a lot of time discussing heavy machinery. Actually, we discuss all vehicles of interest--particularly school busses and motorcycles. Eric also likes to yell out, "Water park!" when ever we see something vaguely wet--pools, sprinklers, lakes, puddles, etc." But today, as we were driving home, several things caught Eric's eye. "Baseball field!" "Football field!" "Golf ball field!"

And come on, "golf ball field" actually does make sense, right?