Jupiter

Every night when we put the kids to bed we all scrunch onto Carter's little twin bed and look up at the planets, paper ones stuck on the ceiling with sticky tack. Zach and the boys run through them making sure to talk about each one. Sometimes there's no particular order and other times they work from the sun out. Carter's pretty good with his planets and even Austin will point his finger up at the ceiling and say Saturn or Jupiter. I get a kick out of it.

One day we were all getting our shoes on to go run errands and for some reason Zach and Carter were talking about the planets. Zach asked which planet had an eye. Carter answered Jupiter and then I hear him say, "Like this!". I turn to see him looking at me with one eye open and the other closed. "See Mom, I'm being Jupiter!" A couple of minutes later he says, "Look Mom, now I'm Saturn!" He'd put his hands on his chest and had his elbows poking out like Saturn's rings. Pretty creative!!

Thought process

I love when I get a glimpse of Carter's thought process and reasoning. Yesterday we were having a conversation about food spoiling. He wanted strawberries on his cereal but when I got them out of the fridge I realized they'd gone bad. When I told him he couldn't have them he didn't understand why, since he could clearly see that we had strawberries. He kept asking "Why?". I was trying to come up with a more visual way to explain how food spoils when I remembered bananas. Here's the conversation that followed.

Me: Carter, what happens to bananas when they get old?
C: They get brown and mushy......And then you make banana bread with them.
Me: Yes, sometimes we do. But when strawberries get old and mushy we have to throw them away.
C: But why?
Me: Because if you eat them they'll taste funny and might make your tummy hurt. How about some peaches on your cereal?
C: OK.

*A couple of minutes go by as Carter eats some cereal and peaches.

C: K. So when cookies get brown and mushy....
Me: No honey, cookies don't get brown and mushy. Only things that grow, things like strawberries, and bananas, or tomatoes; things that grow outside on plants or trees.
C: But Mom, if you take cookies outside and put them on the ground they'll get brown and mushy
Me: Well, I guess you're right. A cookie would get brown and mushy if you took it outside and put it on the ground for a while.
*As I turn and walk to the other end of the kitchen I hear Carter mumble
C: And then you can make cookie bread with them.


Apparently, when anything spoil or gets over ripe you can make bread with it. Who knew!