Month: September 2014

Kendall Payne has Two Mouths

~ leighwintermartin ~ Leave a comment

I love the moments where you can practically see the synapses firing and forming connections in my 2.5-year-old’s brain.

B and I are driving in the car and Kendall Payne’s “The Moon” is playing on my iPhone (a temporary change of pace from our usual repertoire of Frozen and audiobooks). He asks who is singing the song, and I say Kendall Payne. Something about the song sits right with him, so he’s asking for it over and over again.

B: Does she have two mouths? Or only one mouth?

What? At first I thought it was just a wild imagination. Then I realize he’s reacting to the harmony and trying to figure out how on Earth she is doing that with just one mouth. So maybe she has two mouths! (Before I sold him on the idea that maybe it’s Kendall Payne and her friend, he was perfectly accepting of this answer to the mystery, saying matter-of-factly, “Kendall Payne has two mouths.”)

Seeing his mind untangle things like this is one of the more amazing things about being a parent.

Good song by the way…

How to Raise a Bears Fan

~ leighwintermartin ~ Leave a comment

B: “Hi, Brandon Marshall, what are you doing? Playing football? Ok bye.”

We have a little 3-player (QB/WR/RB) TD only fantasy football leage in our family, and this year my 2 ½ year old picked Brandon Marshall as his wide receiver. Mostly because “Marshall” sounds a lot like “marshmallow” (his RB is Marshawn Lynch, giving him the 1-2 marshmallow brothers punch).

So this past Sunday night was the Bears-49ers game – a big game in our family as I’m a lifelong diehard Bears fan and my husband is a 49ers fan, and we are both vying for our team to capture the heart of our little guy.

Now, I know I’m a longshot in this quest. We live in the Bay Area and had season tickets for the past six years until the new stadium priced us out.

I wasn’t counting on much. The past two times the Bears have visited the 49ers I’ve been there in person for the misery. The Jay Cutler 5-INT game in 2009. The battle-of-the-backups in 2012 that saw Colin Kaepernick emerge as a star (and Jason Campbell, well, not). I expected heartbreak once again.

Blocked punt? Of course. Down 17-0? Yep. But then there we were, watching Brandon Marshall score a touchdown. And then another one.

B: “Where’s Brandon Marshall?”

Me: “He’s sitting on the bench now, but in a few minutes he’ll come back and score some more touchdowns.”

And then he did! Man, if only B were a few years older, this would be the kind of memory that would be seared into his memory and lock him in as a Bears fan for life.

But for now, I’ll settle for a nightly game of B running around the house saying “I’m Brandon Marshall. You can be Brandon Marshall, too. We have two Brandon Marshalls. Touchdown!!!”