Conversations with Connor

This morning around 7:30 Connor crawled into bed with us and said:

"Daddy, it would be dark inside a chicken's belly."

"Yes it would, Connor," Lee replied.

"I'm not Connor. I'm Simba."

The Lion King is Connor's latest favorite movie. On Saturday he watched parts I and II. On Sunday he started to watch part III, but halfway through the movie he announced, "There aren't any lions in this one. I want the one with the lions."

(I know that sounds like a lot of t..v., but keep in mind: (1) These are short movies; (2) We don't have cable, so we rely exclusively on movies for Connor's t.v. entertainment; (3) We stick Connor in front of the t.v. in the mornings while we attempt to sleep in; and (4) Saturday morning we had soccer, and Sunday morning we had church, so there really wasn't any sleeping in anyway. I write this as is anyone, other than me, actually cares about the amount of t.v. Connor watches.)

So Connor is Simba today. I am Simba's mommy, Lee is Simba's daddy, and Laila is "the hog" (the warthog). This one confuses me because when he addresses me he says "Mommy". I forget we're playing a game and respond with his name. He corrects me.

This is the conversation we had in the car today:

"Mommy,--"

"Yes, Connor."

"No, it's not Connor. It's Simba."

"Yes, Simba."


"It's a beautiful day today. The trees are beautiful, the houses are beautiful, the cars are beautiful, the mailboxes are beautiful."

"Yes they are."

"It's a beautiful day for playing."

"Yes it is."

"When I get home will you play with me?"

"Yes."

"We can play chase. After that you can try to eat my belly, and then we can roar at each other. Then you can try to cook me."

"Cook you?"

"Yeah, Ninah does that. She tries to cook me. But not really. Just pretend. You don't really cook me. You don't put me in a real pot. You just put me in a pretend pot and pretend to cook me."

"Sounds like fun," I replied.

I'm looking forward to it!