Yummy Yucky

I don't know how many of you out there are familiar with the book Yummy Yucky, but Casey loves it. In fact, he's memorized it and he will "read" it to you if you ask. Of course, while he reads it, he alters some of the grammar-- like instead of saying "Mommy's cookies are yummy," he says, "Mommy's cookies is yummy!" (And every time he reads this line of the book, my husband and I chuckle at the wording.) And some of the words have been changed, too-- like the line in the book that says, "Burgers are yummy." When Casey reads the page with the picture of the burger, he calls it "bao" (the word in Cantonese for bread). The next page-- the one after the burger-- is what brings me to the point of this post. The page after burgers says, and "Boogers are yucky." And when he reads the page with the picture of the little boy with his finger up his nose, he recognizes that boogers are involved somehow. I'm not sure he really understands the gravity, though.

You see, after reading my friend's Grosser Than Gross post over at South Cackalackin (if you haven't yet checked out that blog, your really should. I was so bummed when Elizabeth decided to shut down Macy Day, but I love South Cackalackin-- she is a great writer, just like Elizabeth!), I thought I'd add my two cents here. Of course no one can really top the grossness of that post, but Casey has recently learned the expression, "Ew! Gross!" And I've been trying to put it to good use.

I discovered Casey understood the term the other day when Marcie leaned in to kiss him (she is really lovey-dovey that way-- it took Casey years to learn to kiss us, but Marcie came kiss-ready), and Casey, after leaning forward to accept the kiss, leaned back and exclaimed, "Ew! Gross!" Of course I said it wasn't gross and that Marcie was showing how much she loved him and on and on and on.

But this morning when Casey picked his nose and ate it while I watched, I couldn't help exclaiming "Gross!" myself. Of course it had the opposite of the desired effect. Casey thought it was absolutely hilarious and screeched with laughter when I said it-- like it would be a fun game to play. I can hardly wait to see what grossness he'll come up with next just to get a reaction out of me. . . do I ignore it? My "stern" tone doesn't really work in these situations-- so if you have any suggestions, I'm certainly open to them!