Roof Dog, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Headless Turkey
Now that my daughter, JavaGirl, is 3.5 she can tell you everything about Christmas and the Christmas season. These are a few of the little gems she has been spouting lately:
Christmas, of course, is not the only holiday she is now an expert on, in November she let us know how much she learned about Thanksgiving in school — all about the pilgrims and the American Indians. But I'd really like to thank her preschool for doing such a thorough job of teaching her all about turkeys just before Thanksgiving; showing her lots and lots of pictures of live turkeys in the wild and teaching her about their beaks, their waddles, their wings and more. Because when I asked her if she wanted to see the turkey before I put it into the oven (since we do a lot of cooking together) she enthusiastically said, "Yes!" and came running over and then said, "But where is his head?!"
Her brother never asked such a thing!
"Um, well, his head is... well, it's in the garbage can."
"Where? What garbage can?"
"At the farm. The farmer chopped off his head and puts it in the garbage can at the farm." (When it comes to my kids, I have two defense mechanisms when it comes to these types of questions — complex lies or the complete truth.)
"Oh! What did he chop his head off with?"
"Um, well, it's called an ax. I think he chopped his head off with an ax."
"Oh, what's an ax...."
Fast forward a few days and I notice that one of my turkey decorations is missing its head. "JavaGirl, where is the turkey's head?"
"In the garbage can! The farmer chopped off his head with an ax and put it in the garbage can."
Now granted, the head had been a bit wobbly and it was partially decapitated to begin with, but... let's just hope they don't discuss turkeys at preschool again before Christmas break. Other parents may not be so happy with her newfound knowledge. I'm checking her show-and-tell bag each week to make sure there are no axes. Or turkeys. Or heads.
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