Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Toren typically helps Debi make pancakes in the morning when she makes pancakes.  She usually lets Toren stir the pancake batter with the whisk.  The other day she put the bowl of batter down on the floor in the kitchen and gave Toren the whisk so he could stir the batter.  He stirred for a bit, then lifted the whisk out of the batter.  Some of the batter that was on the whisk dropped onto the floor, which led Toren to utter, “Damnit!”

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I came out of the bedroom just a few minutes later and Debi was still laughing.  It was the first time he had ever said that.  While Debi and I discussed it, we put Toren up on the counter to watch Debi make the pancakes.  While she was pouring the batter into the pan, she proceeded to drop the bowl with the batter into the pan.  Since her 2 year-old son had just cursed, Debi didn’t.  But Toren was willing to help her as he repeated his earlier declaration, “Damnit!”

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Time to start watching what we say around Toren.

Toren often has a runny nose.  It’s common enough that he regularly has snot on his shirt after daycare as he wipes his nose on his shirt a lot.  Of course, he doesn’t get all the snot; some of it is typically left to dry on his face.

We point this out often enough that it turned into a funny conversation one day.  Rather than dried snot on his face, he had a little red spot that could have been a bug bite or a scratch.  Not knowing what it was, I pointed to the spot on his face and asked him, “Toren, what’s that on your face?”

Toren’s response was great.  Sighing as though he has heard us say it a thousand times he said, “My know. My know. It’s boogers.”

I forget why, now, but I was going into Toren’s room the other day to get something and Toren was in there playing.   When I walked in he said, “Get out of my room, Dad.”

How many more times am I going to hear that phrase over the next 20 years?

Here’s a rough approximation of the conversation I had with Toren a few days ago:

Ryan: “What do babies drink?”

Toren: “They drink milk from my mommy.”

Ryan: “Do you drink milk from your mommy?”

Toren: “No.”

Ryan: “But Toren, you do still drink milk from mommy at night.”

Toren: “No.”

Ryan: “If you drink milk from your mommy, are you a baby?”

Toren: “No.”

Ryan: “Who drinks milk from mommies?”

Toren: “Babies.”

Ryan: “If you drink milk from mommy, doesn’t that mean you are a baby?”

Toren: “No.  My not a baby. Babies drink milk from my mommy.”

Ryan: “Do you drink milk from mommy?”

Toren: “No.”

Ryan: “But mom is right there and she says you drink milk from her at night.”

Debi: “Toren, you do sometimes still drink milk at night.”

Toren: “My not a baby. My not drink milk from mommy. Babies drink milk from my mommy.”

I guess in some sense his logic is sound.  If he denies drinking milk, then because he has defined babies as those individuals who drink milk from his mommy, he would not be a baby.  Of course, he does still drink milk from his mommy, which means he is really just a logical liar.

Toren was playing with a balloon one day and was trying to manage letting the air out in a controlled fashion.  He kept asking me to blow it up for him so he could let it out, but he wanted to let it out slowly.  I finally asked him why he wanted to let it out slowly and he said, “I want to blow you away, Dad.”