A kid named "Natcher"

Our three year old started pre-school last week and he seems to be loving it. He gets to meet and play with other kids and do other fun stuff 3 days a week for a few hours so it's all good. Each day at dinner we try and ask him about his day and what he did at school. He seems to be telling us all kinds of wild stories about how the teachers won't let them play on the swings and they never got any snack that day so we kind of took it with a grain of salt.

On Wednesday he starts telling us about this "really bad guy" at school who pokes other kids in the eyes and wouldn't let him play with the brown firetruck. We asked him of course what this child's name is and he responded Natcher. Natcher? Not the name we had ever heard of before so my wife asked him if it was supposed to be Thatcher? No it's Natcher says our son.

My wife works out at the Y with one of the teachers and so she asked if there was a child with a name like that in the class and she says no, but they did have a kid poking kids in the eye the other day by a different name. Last night we asked our son if the kid poking others was this other child and once again he responded that it was Natcher.

We just kind of blew it off. Later on when it's almost bed time and our son is sitting on the potty my wife asks him if he is finished and he replies, I'm Natcher. Apparently in threeyearoldese Natcher is the way you say "Not sure." So all along he was trying to tell us that he was "not sure" of the other kids name. My wife and I had a good laugh about that one.

-Doc

"Poopie is NOT Paint!"

Our son is going to be three in a week or so and we are dealing with what I am afraid is the terrible 3's. How come that it wasn't until after he was already two that people told us that terrible twos was a myth and that 3 was much worse?
Let me just give you an example. As previously posted my wife and I went to the NASCAR race on Saturday night and we got home kind of late. The Prince here had spent the night at his Grandparent's house but we all had to be at Sunday service early because he had to sing in the children's choir. Needless to say after this was over we were all really tired and also had an even to go to Sunday afternoon so Mommy and Daddy decided that everyone at our house had to have nap time.
I had no problem sleeping and neither did Mommy but apparently in the little man's room it was art time. I was awoken by Mommy saying, "What ARE you doing?" This little angel had gone poop and removed his diaper and there was poop everywhere. On the child, the sheets, the blankets, the pillowcases, the crib, and the walls. My wife asked him what did he ever think he was doing and his response? "I was painting Mama. See all the paint"
What?
This was when I responded with the latest in the long line of phrases I never thought I would ever have to say to another human being, "Poopie is not Paint!"
I promise you that it took us half an hour just to clean him and the poop off the crib. It almost made us late for what we were going to. Who does that? Who uses their poop as finger paint? Just the thought gives me the creeps.
I wonder what our little Prince has in store for us next. Did your kids ever do anything like this? Please tell me that eventually it gets better.

-Doc

The Amazing Bone

My son loves books and being read to. After finishing a story he will take the book and "read" the story back to you. This is a good thing. He has lots of books and we are also blessed because my mother who is a teacher has boxes of books that she has given him that are former school books. Every so often he will grab a book she has given him off his shelf and specify that we read it to him for bedtime story. Last weekend he did just that with the book The Amazing Bone by William Steig.

This book looks to be a bit older. It has a stamp inside from my mom's old school but also says that it's a Caldecott Medal Winner which is a prestigious award for children's books. Plus his grandmother gave it to him. It should be no problem right? Ummm it's a problem. Let me give you some excerpts of how children's literature is different today than it was in 1976. A little background.

This book is about a young pig named Pearl who lives in London and decides to walk home on a beautiful spring day. She finds a talking bone in the woods who eventually helps her to escape from being a fox's dinner.

My wife starts reading this book to our 21 month old and gives me a look when she reads this line:

"On Cobble Road she stopped at Maltby's barn and stood gawking as the old gaffers pitched their ringing horseshoes and spat tobacco juice."

OK so they chew tobacco... a little odd for a child's book but whatever. Then a few pages later after Pearl finds the bone we have this:

"Who should rush out from in back of the boulder and spoil everything but three highway robbers with pistols and daggers....they were fierce and spoke in chilling voices."

Robbers and guns? Are you serious?

"You can't heave my purse," she said, surprised at he own boldness. "What's in it?" said another robber, pointing his gun at Pearl's head."

It was at this point that we stopped reading to our son. What kind of kids book has robbers pointing guns at the head of the main character? Who wrote this Quentin Tarantino?

There's more. Just a few more quotes from The Amazing Bone after Pearl meets the fox who wants to eat her:

"The bone commenced to revile the fox. 'You coward!' it sneered. "You worm, you odoriferous wretch. These expletives were annoying. "Shut up or I will eat you."

"I regret having to do this to you," sighed the fox. "It's nothing personal." (a line apparently stolen from the Godfather)

"He's sharpening his knife," the bone whispered.

How did this book become a Caldecott Honor Book? Times were different back in the 70s. Can you imagine the uproar if a child's book today had guns being pointed at the head? HA! I searched a little bit more online and found some instances where this book has been banned. Now I'm not a fan of banning books, I feel it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what the child reads and has access to.

What do you think? Is this book no big deal? Are kid's books today just to P.C.? do you have any other examples of not so appropriate material in books that are supposed to be for kids? I would love to hear what you all think.

-Doc