You Peen, I Peen, We All Peen For I - Peen!

Last night after dinner, Theo looked at me and eagerly said, "i - peen!" I knew this meant ice cream, but I was surprised at how random this was. When he's hungry he usually drags me to the fridge and then points out what he wants. So I was thrilled at him thinking of something he wanted and naming it.

Only, I don't usually keep ice cream in the house, as it's an occasional treat. I didn't have any last night. We went in the the kitchen and he pointed to the freezer, breaking into hysterics when I told him we had no ice cream. I opened the freezer to show him that there was no ice cream. He pointed to things that looked like they could be ice cream, like little buckets. At each thing he pointed to, I said no, that's not ice cream, it's BLANK and he moved on. Finally, he pointed to a mini corn on the cob that I had wrapped in plastic. Again, I said, no, that's corn, and he repeated, "corn." He didn't move on... instead, he pulled out the corn. Confused, I said again, not ice cream, that's corn. Still, he insisted.

Okay, I told him. Get on your stepstool. He watched as I put the corn in a bowl of water and stuck it in the microwave. As the corn was cooking I took out butter from the fridge. I don't get sticks, this was one of those little tubs. So, of course when I took it out he happily shouted, I - PEEN!!!

He grabbed it, got a spoon from the silverware drawer, and ran to the couch to eat it. I couldn't help but giggle. Normally, he knows to go to the table when he's going to eat. So he must have associated eating ice cream with the couch, where he and Joe sit and eat it together.

I tried to tell him, Honey, that's butter, but to no avail. He found out soon enough when he tasted it. Luckily, by then, the corn was ready. We spread the butter on the corn and he had no problem switching over from "ice cream" to corn. He devoured it to the last kernel and then some.

I was amazed by a 2 year old's lack of distinction between corn as a vegetable and ice cream as dessert. To him, they were both something he liked to eat and one was as good as the other. If only mommy felt that way too...