Sethy Pants

It's Seth's turn for a post. He's 4 1/2 (and don't you dare call him 4--he'll quickly correct you). Here's what he's like lately:

He took swimming lessons this summer and made some nice progress. However, he's continually troubled by the fact that there is no such thing as a mouth plug. He thinks he could do so many other things in the pool, if only he had a plug for his mouth. How does this kid not notice the bigger problem of nostrils?

He reads. I'll try not to gush too much, but it's really fun. Unfortunately, he's having a hard time applying this knowledge beyond his original set of reading books (Bob books). He has it stuck in his head that those are the only kind of books he can read. When I catch him reading other things, he tries to hide it so that I won't expect it of him.

He thinks it's really subtle and cool to say "zero" instead of "no". For example, I'll ask him if he wants spinach on his quesadilla and he'll put his fingers into an O shape (meaning zero) and gets this smirk on his face like he's done something awesome.

His obsession with superheros has been going strong for the past year. I tell my kids stories before they go to sleep and I'm getting pretty tired of the superhero story formula that Seth wants EVERY night. It goes like this (and he thinks he needs to explain it every night). "I want a story about Green Lantern. First he's Hal Jordan, then he's Green Lantern and he fights bad guys. (Then Seth demonstrates punching and kicking sound effects)" Replace the main character with Wally West who turns into the Flash, Logan who turns into Wolverine, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent...yada, yada, yada.

Seth loves to play Yuk a Muk. (As a review: you name two foods that are good, but not good when eaten together). Seth is pretty good at it, except that he overuses peanut butter and avocados because he thinks they're disgusting to begin with. A couple of Seth's recent triumphs: ice cream with mayonnaise; lollipops with mushrooms. Yuk a muk.

I used to buy Cheerios for the kids. Aaron introduced them to Honey Nut Cheerios. There's no going back now. Seth loves it with his whole soul. Every cold cereal morning, he requests in the same exact order "big bowl, giraffe spoon, honey nut, milk." He must think I have a terrible memory.

Any mention of eyeballs or stinky things makes Seth giggle. I noticed someone in the hallway at church getting a little laugh as he overheard me telling Seth "The world doesn't revolve around eyeballs, Seth. You've got to stop thinking about them so much."

When he's really hungry, Seth will start to whine for food and complains "I'm tired of swallowing just spit!" He's got a point.

He loves to ask me math questions. Throughout the day I'm answering "what's 10 + 10 + 31?" "400 +2?" He almost always responds with "whoa. that's a lot."

When riding in the car the other day, he said to me and Aaron "Know what I'd do if we had a chip car? I'd chow on it!" That's all. He said it with so much zeal, it was cute.

Seth has every Birthday party theme and Halloween costume planned out until he's about 12. He gets upset with Ada if she dare suggests he's going to be something for Halloween in the wrong order. "NO Ada! I'm going to be a skeleton when I'm six, not eight!" How dare that 2-year-old mess it up.

Seth often likes to strip down naked when he uses the bathroom. He usually begins this process the second he starts heading toward the toilet, so his butt is already visible far before he's there. He starts preschool this week. We hope he won't shame our family when he feels the urge at school.