Tales from the car pool

Since today was the first day back to school for my oldest hooligan C, it was also the first day that I had to drive the post-kindergarten car pool. In the two weeks we had off, I forgot the craziness that ensues when you strap 6 year olds into a mini-van after a day of school.



We had just made it out of the school parking lot, when my son randomly said, "butt, butt, penis" in a relatively calm and quiet voice. I have no idea where this came from. He pulled it right out of the clear blue sky.

Upon hearing this, C's buddy in the far back seat starts to bust a gut with laughter.

Honestly, it came so completely out of nowhere & C's friend & little sister were laughing so hard, that I found myself giggling a little bit too. I pulled myself together quickly, but not quick enough to stop him from repeating the phrase even louder this time.

"BUTT, BUTT, PENIS!", he began chanting in a very loud voice.

My standard line when these shenanigans start in the car is to say, "Let's leave the bathroom talk in the bathroom where it belongs, boys." But honestly, my son will do anything for a laugh, so I knew that this was going to be a battle that was going to be hard to win while driving. After going about a mile or so, I finally got him to stop the chanting and found myself mollified when the conversation digressed to fart noises. Thankfully shortly thereafter, C's favorite song came on the radio, so I was spared from more 6 year old humor while the kids all sang, "I like to move it, move it!"

This afternoon I got another flash of this special brand of kindergarten humor. C and I were working on his family poster for school. Next week is C's turn to be the class star and the festivities will kick off when he presents a poster board filled with pictures of his friends and family to the class. He had written his name on the poster & we had finished taping all of his photos down when he asked me, "How do you spell bottom?"

"Why do you want to know?" I asked.
"Oh, I want to write in on my poster." he replied calmly
"Ummm, why would you want to do that? This is a poster about you and your family."
"Oh, I know Mom. Everyone just laughs when I say the word bottom at school, so I wanted to make sure to write it on my poster."

Geesh...I can't wait for parent-teacher conferences in the spring.

Thankfully, he accepted my explanation why we wouldn't be writing the word bottom on his family poster. After some negotiation, he seemed happy once I allowed him to write the word R2D2 on his project instead. It was a trade-off I was happy to make.