A while ago I found a website for parents called Screen It!. It’s a site that tells you, in detail, anything that might be objectionable in a film — swearing, scary scenes, sex, smoking, and disrespectful behaviour. One of their categories is “imitative behaviour,” which I guess is things that characters do or say that your own kid might want to try out at home. Kind of like that time I was driving and someone cut me off, and I heard a tiny voice from the backseat exclaim, “Jesus!”

Up until now I haven’t really noticed a lot of imitative behaviour in our kids so I thought they were all independent minded and stuff. But I guess the Captain is getting to the influencial age as nearly everything that comes out of his mouth these days is quoted directly from the TV show Toopy And Binoo. Witness this conversation we had yesterday over popsicles, in which CJB pretends to be an old man sitting in a rocking chair in front of the Gas ‘n’ Sip:

CJB: I looooove popsicles.
Me: Me too.
CJB: These should cool us right down.
Me: Um, yup.
CJB: Good lickin’, huh?
Me: I guess so.
CJB: Nothin’ like a warm, sunny day.
Me: Nope, nothin’ like it.
CJB (after three licks): These are almost melted!
Me: I guess…
CJB: Did you know that butterflies eat nothing but peanut butter sandwiches?
Me: I did not know that.
CJB: Will you make me a sandwich?

Lucky for us he still hasn’t watched many made-for-TV cable movies, or that last line would have been, “Make me a sandwich, woman!”