"Yes, Reed" --- A snippet of conversation between myself and one of my three year olds

Reed, one of my more devious, wild, and stubborn three year old boys has recently opened up to me a great deal. He seems to have recognized my authority finally. This is not the interesting part of my teacher-student relationship with this young boy. The interesting part is the conversation that we had the other day while I was walking with him to the restroom. He informed me, suddenly and tritely, that he "had to go poop" and so off I took him to the restroom.
While I was standing at the door, Reed questioned me profusely about the origin of many interesting things. Twos are known for their relentless asking of the question "Why?" and now it seems I have pigeonholed the threes, they relentlessly ask the question "Where?"

Here is the extent of Reed and my conversation:

"Ms Mercedes, where does poop come from?"
And I amusingly replied "Well, Reed, when we eat food, the food then goes down our throats and into our stomachs, where we begin to break it down, then the food leaves our stomachs and goes into what is called the intestines, where it is broken up even more, and then, the broken down food comes out of our bottoms as poop." Yes, laughing is ok.
"Where does water come from?"
"Water that we drink comes from a process called evaporation. Water falls from the sky as rain and fills up lakes and rivers. Then grown ups take that water and filter it and clean it at a water treatment center and it comes to us through the pipes and into the sink right out there."
"Where does the sun come from?"
I pause, thinking on how to best answer this question: "The sun is a star that is on fire and always shines on the earth, creating the light that makes things grow and makes us get sunburned. The earth spins and that is why sometimes it is night and there is no sun and sometimes it is day and the sun is shining on us." I don't think he understood me.
And then, I walked away for a moment, coming back chewing a burrito that I was eating for lunch.
Reed inevitably asked me,"Ms. Mercedes, what are you doing now?"
"I'm chewing a burrito," I replied.

"Oh, you're eating a taco?" (All Texans call burritos tacos, I do not know why)

"Let me see!!" Reed exclaimed.

I showed him half of the burrito through the restroom door.

"No, open your mouth!" he exclaimed again. So after all that coaxing, I swallowed and then stuck my tongue out.

Reed then intellectually responded "then you will swallow it, then it will go down your throat and into your stomach and your intestines and then come out your bottom?"


"Yes, Reed," I replied, laughing. What I said got through! He understood, at least the poop part.

I hope that you found this story as amusing as I did. Just a snippet of hilarity that happens every day at my work. Keeps me insane.


Current book I'm reading: Women In Love by D.H. Lawrence