Conversations with Pearce

Pearce, wearing a Uighur (Muslim minorities of Turkish descent in China) skull cap from Xianjiang, China. Like so many other accessories, he favored it for several days. Just another example of his awesome personality.

I can't count in a week how many classic conversations I have with Pearce, let alone how many I've had throughout his life. Anyone with kids understands what I'm talking about. These little people just have a tendency to express themselves in a totally new, refreshing, and often hilarious way. Lately, I've been trying to write some of them down. I've certainly missed more than I've caught, but here is a sampling (uncut) of some of the more memorable ones:

1. Pearce, siting on the toilet, turns to me with an expression of amazement: "Look! It's my peanuts. It's been there the whole time."

2. As Pearce dressed for the day, he started singing the old McDonald tune: "You need a shirt, you need pants, you need underwear because you are naked..."

3.Eric : "Pearce, do you know what 'handsome' means?"
Pearce: "Yep"
Eric: "What?"
Pearce: "It means 'Just like my Dad.'"

4. Pearce turns to his Dad and, with a massive smile, says as genuinely as possible, "You've got a friend in me."

5. Pearce and I are playing "Doctor Appointment." He is taking my blood and says, "Your blood pressure is not feeling well."

6. Eric, Connor, Pearce and I are saying our nightly prayers around Pearce's bed. It's Pearce's turn to say them. He starts off, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for today, bless the food--" Connor interrupts in a whisper, "There's no food." Pearce whispers back in an astonished and perky tone, "There's no food? Oh! In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

7. Eating dinner.
Wendi: "Please eat six more bites of your dinner."
Pearce: "Two or three bites, it's your choice."
Wendi: "You're right it is my choice, and you're eating six."
Pearce: "Five?"
Wendi: "No. Six bites"
Pearce: "But six is so long."

P.S. He ate six bites

8. Pearce spills a few drips of water on the carpet. He shakes his head, disappointed in himself, then tilts his head to the side in new found determination and says to his Dad: " I'll get a napkin. Because I'm a helper!" Then he runs into the kitchen, grabs a papertowell and begins to blot out his wet spot.

9. I am sitting at the desk in our office and Pearce comes running in. "Hey Mom. I just put the baby down for a nap. So we have time to talk."

10. Pearce loves Star Wars. He likes to pretend that I am Padme and he is Anakin Skywalker (who, for those of you who haven't been among the living during the past 30 years, ends up being Darth Vader). He will go as far as taking his "Baby," aka his little blue stuffed elephant that he's been inseparable from since birth, and place it under my the bottom half of my shirt, making me the pregnant Padme (Episode III). One day he spiced things up with: "Don't worry Padme. I won't strangle you. And Darth Maul will take care of us. He's not that bad." Pearce, always as Anakin, normally goes and gets the Doctor, which always ends up being him returning with his little Doctor bag. He delivers the baby (multiple times) by pulling it out of my shirt. A lot of times he'll just pull out the foot and say something like, "Look Padme! A baby foot. How cute!" And when the baby is completely out he often announces: "It's a girl! Princess Leia."He always then stuffs the baby back under my shirt and repeats the process, but this time it's always Luke Skywalker who emerges.

Pearce, with his Ellie (aka Princess Leia; aka Luke Skywalker)