You're doing a great job

Nate:

Dad, you're doing a great job catching all those bugs in your traps.

Me:

Thanks Nate.

Nate:

Yeah, I wanted to tell you that because I'm your manager.

Me:

How do you know about managers?

Nate:

I don't know.  I just know that this town is full of them!

They're also good for making pictures

I have no idea what he thinks he's doing with them, but he sure had fun!  What a goofy kid, I suppose he gets that from me.


Then there's this snippet of a conversation from the other day.

Nate (playing Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii):  

Dad, I can't move anymore!  

Me:  

Hold on Nate, I think that remote is out of juice.

Nate:  

Juice?  There's no juice in the remote! That's ridiculous!

Me:  

No the batteries are dead, they're out of juice.

Nate:  

Oh!  There's the juice that is the real juice you can drink, and there's the juice that's electricity!

And not long after that he's talking to me about solar power.  I kid you not.

Burned...by a three year old

Nate's bed was empty when I went to his room to wake him up this morning. I kept it together long enough to yell his name, and he yelled back 'I'm down here'.

I went downstairs and found him on the sofa, tucked in comfortably with a pillow and blanket. The following exchange proceeded to take place:

Me:

What are you doing down here?

Nate:

I couldn't sleep so I came down here.

Me:

What time did you come down?

Nate:

At night, it was still dark.

Me:

Why couldn't you sleep?

Nate:

You were making too much noise.

Me:

I was making too much noise? I didn't make any noise last night!

Nate:

You were too noisy dad, your snoring was too noisy. I couldn't sleep. That's why I came downstairs.

I'm not sure I like the idea of my three year old wandering around the house in the dark while everyone else is asleep. That said, this incident has clearly demonstrated that Nate has not inherited my night blindness. I'm not sure how he made it down the stairs in the dark, but I am pretty sure I would have ended up as a mangled mess of broken bones and torn flesh if I had tried it.

He could just as easily closed the door to his room.

This just in, we are lucky

My 3 year old son told me, so it must be true.

Nate was eating cherries in the living room, and I was looking out the kitchen window at the mob of blue jays in our garden.

Nate (very excitedly):

Dad! Do cherries grow on trees?

Me:

Yes Nate, cherries grow on trees. You see those blue jays out there on that tree? That is a cherry tree.

Nate:

And cherries are going to grow on it, and then I can get cherries to eat?

Me:

Well, we need to do some work first because that tree hasn't been taken care of for quite awhile. We'll have to prune it back and we're not going to get fruit this year. If we're lucky we might get some next year.

Nate (very matter-of-fact like):

But we are lucky dad!

Me:

Why do you say that Nate?

Nate:

Because we are.

He is correct, of course. We are lucky. Sometimes it's easy to forget that. I just think it's neat that he might actually get it, even at 3.

So this is how it's gonna be

Nate (calling loudly):

Nana! Nana! Where are you Nan?

Me (to Nate):

What do you need Nate?

Nate (loudly to me):

I NEED NANA!

Nate's blue jay

On our morning walk to daycare, I pointed out a bunch of birds to Nate.

Me: Look at those birds Nate.

Nate: Oh yeah!  I see a blue jay!

Me: You see a blue jay?  Where did you see it?

Nate: On the grass, and on a car.

Me: How do you know about blue jays?

Nate: I went bird watching.

Me: You went bird watching?  Who did you go with?

Nate: With you dad!

Now, I don't know when this bird watching took place, but I have no recollection of it!  I've only ever seen a blue jay once, on the Sunshine coast, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't me that showed him a blue jay.  

Interesting the things he comes up with.  A few days ago, he was playing in his room and tripped and fell over.  I was in the other room and heard him start to cry, so I went over to see what was the matter.  

Me: What's wrong Nate?

Nate: I broke my leg.

For one brief moment I actually thought he might have broken his leg!  I had a vision of his little leg dangling uselessly from where the break was.  I was almost afraid to touch his leg.  But of course he hadn't broken his leg.  He'd barely scratched it, but he does have a flair for the dramatic.