Tuesday, March 18, 2014

digestive system diagram

this morning pace told me he was going to draw my body.  although this was not the first time he's labeled what he is drawing/has drawn, this is the first time i heard him verbalize his intent to draw, and labeling each part as he goes.  it was pretty enlightening, so i took notes as he drew (i know it's hard to see on the glass...do the best you can...maybe i'll try and take another picture tonight when it's dark):
1.  he drew a big line from top to bottom saying it was my body
2.  he next drew a circle in the middle, right on the line.  i asked him what that was, and he looked at me with wide eyes and hands outstretched and said, "mom, it's the stomach.  with stomach assick."  "do you mean stomach acid?"  i asked.  "no.  it's called stomach assick, mom.  assick."  "oh, ok.  what's next?"  "watch out," pace then squeezes his eyes into slits and wiggles his fingers in the air like spooky little halloween movements, "next comes the scary part--it grinds your food in smaller pieces, and crushes, like this."  then he squeezes his fingers and gets caught up in the involuntary mechanical muscle movements related to digestion (i am pretty sure this came from watching the magic school bus's digestion episode).
3.  then he drew two ovals on either side of the "body line", below the stomach.  i asked him what they were and he said, "the lungs.  they breathe like this, big."  and he proceeded to take huge breaths in and out.  and then he was back to the stomach, grinding, crushing, making food into smaller pieces, etc.  he gets very caught up in these sorts of things.
4.  when pace was done demonstrating digestion, he then drew another circle below the lungs.  i asked him what that was and he said it was the bladder.  "what does that do?"  "he said it got full of pee (while coloring in the circle), and when i asked him what happened with the pee, he said it "goes out the p_____ (i'll let you fill in the blank...i don't downplay body parts and call everything by the correct anatomical name.  we have also had conversations about these "special body words", and pace knows he only says them in our house, not in the store, at church, or any public place...), in the potty chair, and then down the pipes and out into the street to go to the recycling center."  at this point he runs down the hallway, following the pipes, i'm assuming, and then points out the door.  instead of asking him what pee gets recycled into, i corrected him and said the pipes actually go to the water treatment center.  
at this point he started making up lots of words that had nothing to do with anatomy, and i think the conversation veered more toward trash compacters and crushing things and trucks and the like.  trying to get back to the anatomy lesson, i asked him what the tube is called that goes from your mouth to your stomach.  he looked confused, like he knew but couldn't remember, then i started whispering, "e-s-o-p-h..." and pace looked bright eyed up at david (who filmed the whole thing) and whispered, "daddy, it's called your esop-a-guss."  and then went back to crunching, crushing, smashing, and general compacting of "huck-agers", "monger-mongers", and "bill-jangers".  i think some helicopter rotors were thrown in, too, for good measure.






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