The Good Old Cobb and Funny Kids

I did in fact order a traffic light. It is much more syrupy than I remember..... and it's juice! Is that how parents used to trick kids into having something vaguely nutritious??? I thought it was soft drink for some reason. But it DID come with a plastic giraffe perched on the side of the glass and a bendy-straw with little metallic streamers coming off it. I think the waitress was bemused by my enquiring as to whether they still sold them (they don't list them on the menu!).

What's good about Cobb 'n Co
- they still give you game mats with free pencils
- the game mats now have Sudoku on them (me and Lulu had an unofficial race - I forgot how quietly competitive she is - and it was a draw, though I had the easier Sudoku, apparently)
- the mains are huge (I had pumpkin lasagne and it came with garlic bread)
- the menus are still shaped like old fashioned saloon-doors
- they have those fancy electronic ordering systems where your order is instantaneously whizzed through to the kitchen like on Star Trek

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Kids Say the Darnedest Things

I was hanging out with Fifi today in Levin, and her two kids (aged one and four). Lily is too little to talk much yet, so all I heard her say was 'Maaamaaa'. I half-heard her say 'Cat' when she was looking at me and hoped it was some jumbled version of 'Kate' she was trying to get her mouth around, but I doubt it. I couldn't get her to repeat it anyhow.

Harry was absorbed in some cartoon with a pet shark in it. I watched along with him for a while. He quite enjoyed giving 'spoilers' on what would happen in the next scene, so I got into the spirit and said, 'Ooooh, where's that guy going?'.

He replied with, 'Watch and learn!'

That's a very quirky reply for a four-year-old, I thought. Adorable! (His Mum told me later that he often says that and it might be something off Sponge-bob.)

Reminded me of when I lived in the Palmerston North ghetto with my brother, and neighbourhood children used to come around to play. He taught four year old Caleb to say 'What the....?' and squint his eyes like Adam West after they'd watched old Batman episodes together. Ahhh, those were the days. The kids would come round wearing towels they'd fashioned into capes using clothes pegs.

He eventually paused the DVD and decided to give more attention to his Thomas the Tank-engine railway set, which he'd laid out nicely on the carpet. He has five trains. He has Percy, who is the fastest train. Apparently two of the trains had gone off the rails and were stuck in the crocodile-pond. I explained to him what the coal the trains have in their engines is for. It was fun. I like Harry - he is my friend.

At random moments he would come up to his mum and say, 'Mum - I love you.' Awwww! He can't say my name, 'cause he has trouble with the 'k' sound and calls me 'Tate' instead.

BUT

Then there was the moment where I remembered it's not all sunshine and kisses....

He went to the toilet and started yelling out, 'Mum - tome and wipe my bum for me.' She replied very calmly with, 'Haz, we've talked about this before. You can do it by yourself now!'

He continued with, 'But it's the messy tind!' and wouldn't give in. Apparently he's ok with the non-messy faeces, but not the messy ones. Fair enough.

Conclusion

While kids are entertaining and fascinating and I really like playing with them, I'm quite happy with my current status of only being responisible for wiping one bottom.

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Those of you lucky enough to own a copy of the History of Levin book (only $40 from all good book stores) can turn to page 277 to see my dad's name in print for his contribution to the shaping of the town.