No more nipples...the end of an era..(we think)

"Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by children."

 Oliver Wendell Holmes

   I guess that it had to happen eventually. That there would come a point when Oscar's yelling out of words would backfire on him. Most of the time he is only trying to be funny.  He  puts together combinations of words and yells them out  just to make us all laugh. This is his sense of humor. I can't tell you how many times he has come to me saying "Mama! I have a new joke!"..."Lets go to hairy world!" or "Scratt got nuts!" and then falls down laughing. He is the king of the one liner..except he is the only one who can make sense of them. The thing of it is-well..his laughter is contagious...infectious..you just can't help yourself..try as you might you  always wind up laughing along with him. Sigh...this has only encouraged him.. It isn't like we don't work on this with him. He does know that in no uncertain terms is he allowed to yell out "Underpaaaaaaaaants!" or anything else like it at school .He really works hard to control it..

 There was a time before he discovered "one liners" when he was more of an" observational" kind of kid. Times where he thought nothing of pointing out certain "features" of the different people we saw. ...There was many a time when either Omar or myself had to jump in front of him before he noticed something or someone..because when he did...there was NOTHING we could do to distract him.I could try and tempt him with candy-toys..Cover his eyes...I could stand on my head and sing the entire score of "The Sound of Music"-backwards...and he would not be deterred!  He would ever so slowly ..point his finger and in a strange monotone(but very audible) voice say things like "Sheeeeeee's faaaaaaaaaaaaat" or "heeeeeeeee's a giiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnt"and my personal favorite "He has noooooo legggggssssss" over and over.  It aged me.  It took lots(years) of explaining, but we finally got it through to him that people knew what they looked like and didn't need his help recognizing it..That pointing out someones weight, height or lack of limbs might hurt peoples feelings .Oscar doesn't have a mean bone in his body-the thought that he could be hurting anyone horrified  him.  He just simply didn't understand that saying someone was fat or hairy..or anything else might be hurtful.  Because to him it was truthful. sigh... Whoever said "The truth will set you free" DID NOT  have children.

  He has gotten so much better in his verbal observations. Now, he tries to say things of a more complimentary nature. Like pointing out someones new shoes or haircut. He likes to make people feel good, and especially to make them laugh.   Last week, Omar had some vacation time, so we took a bunch of little day trips. We visited a farm, an animal  preserve, went hiking, camping and even went on a whale watch (didn't see any whales-but did get to observe a rather large amount of people getting seasick). It really was a wonderful week....with a few little glitches..like-the girls fighting, or Lily demanding to go home after we were dropped off by boat on an island for an overnight camping trip. (We were the only people there-and there was no way to leave until the next morning when the boat came back.)  as I mentioned...a few little glitches-and one big one. While we were on our farm trip (it was an Alpaca farm) Oscar, being in a very goony mood, and as we were on a farm... decided to yell out one of his favorite catch phrases. "FARMERS NIPPLES!" he joyfully exclaimed and then laughed hysterically...not realizing that a farmer was in fact standing not ten feet away. It wasn't until an extremely mortified Sammy pointed this out to him that he realized what had just happened. He was dumbstruck-turning first bright red and then extremely pale. He felt awful. I on the other hand wanted (wanted but didn't) to burst out laughing. That poor farmer. I remarked to another parent later, that I feared he (the farmer) had been traumatized. And I could just imagine him going into his house and anxiously staring into the mirror wondering about his..nipples.  Were they showing?

  It has been over a week since the unfortunate "nipple" incident.  I haven't heard Oscar say it since..and I find myself wondering if thats the end of it. Which in a strange way makes me sad.  It was one of Oscar's all time favorite things to say...I think he's going to miss it.  But, knowing my Oscar, I'm sure he will come up with something equally as interesting-sooner rather than later. In the mean time..I'll just have to hope that the farmer and his..well...nipples are doing o.k.