Elmos!

For the past few months, we have been reading If You Give A Pig A Pancake to the little boys at bedtime. They love it. Jonah and Stephen can actually quote the entire book; they spent a car trip once trading lines back and forth. Even Sam can give you the ending of almost every page.

To keep things interesting, my wife began letting them complete the sentences. My fun reading of the book is for me to read it all, but to substitute silly phrases into each line. The boys laugh the whole way through, shouting corrections to me each time.

Tonight, the you-got-your-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate-etc. line was crossed, and the boys started interrupting the reading with their own silly additions. Jonah started it, shouting out "Bubble-case" and the like. Sam would holler "Elmos!" and then roll back, howling with laughter.

Number of pages before poop was mentioned: 3. Number of pages thereafter that did not include a scatological reference: 1. Sam continued to yell "Elmos!" each time; we all continued to laugh.

Needing to finish before my own bedtime arrived, I sent Timothy and Stephen to another room to get ready for Prince Caspian while I finished with the littles. After Jonah & Sam had finished, prayed up, and gotten into their beds, I found the bigs going through If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. By page 5, they were already to "Spaceship Pottys!"