Toby Funnies

This is Part Two of funny stories about my kids, following last Friday's post about Josie.

Toby's teacher said she asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said, "A Daddy". I thought Tony would be touched to hear that answer, so later the same day while Tony was listening, I asked Toby what he wanted to be, and he said, "I wanna be Superman and drive a car fast." I tried to prompt him, "Your teacher said you wanted to be a Daddy when you grew up." Toby stuck to his guns, "I don't wanna be a Daddy anymore. I wanna be Superman and drive a car fast." Sorry, Tony. I tried.

We had Josie's and Toby's cousins here from the U.S. recently, and since it was a special occasion, we relaxed on some of the house rules. To Toby's delight, they got to watch his favorite movie, Cars, on a weekday. One night, we all said our bedtime prayers together, with the cousins thanking God for letting us spend time together, do fun things together, and the like. When it came to Toby's turn, he said, "Thanks for letting me watch Cars... twice!"

Earlier this year, we had five house guests all at once, so three of them had to sleep in the kids' room. One night as the kids were getting ready for bed, Toby distributed stuffed toys to everyone. To the last guest he said, "Josie has her Pink Baby, I have my Blue Baby, Auntie Shelly has the toy cow, and Auntie Deb has Blue. Aunt Jin, would you like something to hug?"

I lay in bed with Josie and Toby one night at bedtime to tell them a story about a blind marathon runner I'd once met. I started with, "Once upon a time, there was a man named Henry who could run longer and faster than anybody else in the whole world..." Toby scooted right next to me and whispered into my ear, "Excuse me Mommy. Henry is a train." Indeed, Henry is the name of one of the trains in the kids' story, Thomas the Tank Engine.

Toby's drawings have become very detailed and clear lately; less like random scratches and more like actual lines and shapes drawn with purpose. One day, he ran up to show me a drawing he had done, exclaiming, "Mommy! Mommy! Look what I drawed!" When I asked him what it was, he said with breathless excitement, "I think it's a... It must be... I don't know! What do you think it is?"

Toby has a very funny speech pattern where he says something and then repeats the key words at the end in one run-on sentence, with emphasis on the verb. "Mommy, watch this, are you watching, are you?" "Mommy, do you know why I want that, do you?" "Mommy, I did it all by myself, I did!" "Mommy, Josie read the book to me, she did." I call this "Toby syntax".