Upgrades

...After telling Zach about visiting a friend's house to see her new kitchen...
(We have a plastic play kitchen in our big one)

Betsy: ...Because Daddy and I want to get a new kitchen in our house, too.

Zach: I want a new kitchen. I mean, for my little kitchen.

Betsy: What would you like to be different about it?

Zach: I want a kitchen with a tractor and a train track that goes around it. And with little people. For when Katie gets bigger.

Tahlia

Betsy: Wait, do I know Tahlia? Who's she? What does she look like?

Zach: She's really pretty, and she has a lot of hair. And she's like you, but a kid. A girl kid.

Betsy: What's she like?

Zach: She likes me!

More Anatomy: The nut theory prevails

Zach: Let's talk about your insides and your outsides.

Betsy: Ok, what's on the inside?

Zach: Little bugs.

Betsy: How about the thing that makes you think. What makes you think?

Zach: Let me think about it. (Pause, bites into an apple.) Apples make you think.

Betsy: And your brain (gestures). What's here?

Zach: A nut.

Crazy for cookies

I'm doing all these crazy things because I want a cookie! PLEASE!

All grown up

Mommy, you can handle Katie, and I can handle myself. How's that?

Santa's schedule

Grandma, you don't need to sleep in the daytime. Santa only comes in the nighttime. And anyway, it's not Christmas, it's Valentines Day.

Boring stuff

Betsy: Grandma's got a surprise for you. And it's something you're going to LOVE.

Zach: Well, she's got something for you, too. Only it's boring.

Betsy: Why?

Zach: Because grown-ups love boring things.

Betsy: Like what?

Zach: Like salad. You like salad and I don't like salad. Tahlia doesn't like salad. Alex doesn't like salad. And Drew doesn't like salad.

Beginnings

...Tell me about when I moved in with you.

He's a nut!

After a spirited discussion of whether it was tv or bath time:

Zach: Well, if I get in the tub, I'm going to whine. You don't want me to whine all night, do you?

Charlie: I think we should all whine all night. As a family.

Later, while Z is splashing happily in the tub...

Charlie: OK, time to get out. You didn't want to take a bath anyway, right?

Zach: Well...I'm still a little dirty.

Betsy: So your plan is to stay in the tub and whine all night, right?

Zach: I want to stay in the tub until I want to get out. Then I want to whine again.

Betsy: Well, you've got discerning judgment. Why shouldn't our 3-year-old decide how the evening unfolds?

Charlie rolls his eyes, and we get in a little side conversation about how I'm always using big words in support of the sponge that's in between Z's ears.

Zach: What sponge?

Charlie: Did you know you have a sponge between your ears?

Zach: What sponge?

Betsy: What's between your ears? Inside your head? Do you remember? Is it your heart?

Zach: I think that between my ears is a nut!

Civic Participation

I didn't like the voting. There were no toys to play with there.