How Did You Not Know It Did That?

I had a lot of toys over my childhood.  Some of them did things like the remote controlled fire truck I got for Christmas one year or the baby doll that you could feed this pretend baby food and after a short while, it would fall out of the bottom where you had a diaper.    I remember both of those vividly.     But there were more toys and contraptions and creations and all sorts of things I worked with and played with as a child.

I remember my mother would come in sometimes while I was playing with something and I'd make it do a particular thing and she'd say, "I didn't know it did that."    I remember thinking, "boy, my mom sure is dumb.  How could she not know it did that, she bought it for me."

Today, I realized I've become the dumb mom.   We've gotten toys for our children and hoped it they would occupy them for long periods of time while educating them in a clean and quiet way so that upon our return, our children would be smart, sophisticated, well-mannered little human beings.  That, or we just hoped they'd be happy and give us time to get some things done or relax for a bit.

I carried a toy to my son today that went with the group of toys he was playing with that I'd found in another room.   He picked it up, moved it around in a way I didn't know it moved and then did something that made it talk to him.    I said, "I didn't know it did that," and suddenly understood my mother from so many years ago.

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked me, "what does 14 and 15 and 18 and 100 make?"  When I told him one-hundred-forty-seven he said, "that is the biggest number I've ever seen."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We have a step stool that has the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it.   My daughter has learned their names.   Or, at least she thinks she has.   She told me they were called, Ahmet, Crockett, Nina and Frank.  Maybe Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo have some new nicknames.