peter says

Photo and text by Sascha

"It's a yeyyo--copter!"  (helicopter... but also kind of yellow copter.)

 ----------

P:  "Aye you.. a mommy?"

Me:  "Yes!  What are you?"

P: "I!  PEter!"

Me: "And you are a...?"

P: "I a boy!"

Me: "Is Joanna a boy?"

P:  "No.  Joanna's a seagull."

 ----------

Ian was out of the country for a while there and I could feel all of us starting to get more cranky as time went on.  One morning Peter was particularly crabby and as we were snuggling I said 

"Peter you've been so cranky the last couple days.  Where's my happy Peter?"

He was silent for a second before he said "I not gone.  I right here."  

It made me want to cry.  I told him he was absolutely right and snuggled him harder.

 ----------

At church, I turned to Peter to prepare him for the sacrament.  "Peter!" I whispered.  "It's time for sacrament.  First we're going to sing and then we're going to say a special prayer.  Okay?" 

Peter seemed to understand as he nodded at me, but I realized he'd only heard the prayer bit because he quickly folded his arms and bowed his head.  When he heard the organ starting he looked up with a face of consternation.  "Hey!  What's goin on?" he exclaimed.  Much to the entertainment of the pews surrounding.  

 ----------

Peter is constantly humming and singing.  Particularly when we're in the car.  My favorite right now is when he sings the theme song for one of his train shows Chuggington.  There are other parts to the song but the majority of it goes Chuggington! chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga Chungington!  Peter however sings it like "Chugga tinn.  Chugga chugga chugga-tinn!"  And instead of singing the verse of the song he just changes the pitch higher and higher and repeats it many many times.

 ----------

Peter gets scared at night occasionally.  A lot of times he will reason away why he shouldn't be scared.  "There are no monsters, right mom?"   One night he was attached to the image of "bad guys."  "There are no bad guys right?  They're happy bad guys.  They're good bad guys."

 ----------

 "Peter, what's your favorite food?"

....... pause........

"I wike cassows." (I like castles)

 ----------

 Ian and I were having a spat in the car.  Ian was commenting on my driving skills and I was getting annoyed.  Peter did not like us arguing and after saying "Stop!" a couple times he said "Mom?"  Once he had my attention he said "You're boo tifull.  Dad's cool.  And Joanna is cute." 

Boy, did that change our spat.  I mean... way to diffuse a fight my little three  year old!  Sheesh.

 ----------

"Mom!  What are those?"  he asked, while we were driving in the country.

"Those are called silos!"

"Oh!  I wike psychos!"  (I mean obviously he said silos with a k.  but that's what I heard)

 ----------

Peter got up from bed when we were saying goodbye to some guests.  He's usually not up late enough to see the huge slugs on our porch that come out at night.  When he saw them he was mesmerized with fear.  "They're scary!" he said.  He contemplated what to call them for a minute before he landed on "Monster snakes!"  I thought it was good description.

 ----------

Another good description Peter came up with was when we were driving past Triangle Park downtown and its many fountains.  "It's a water mount-inn!"  Water mountain!   Wonderful interpretation.

 ----------

Whenever Peter says "harmonica" it sounds like America, and I get confused every time.  (We have a harmonica he likes to play.  It's very loud.)

we love this kid.