Swiper No Swiping...OR...Listening to Your Toddler, a Cautionary Tale

Like my title?

Okay, I am sharing another Ethan story with you. It was like this:

It was a double soccer practice night (Abbie and Max) and we were waiting around for Abbie's practice to end. Dusk was approaching. Having already been at the field for 90 minutes Ethan was, well, understandably "tired" of the whole thing. So he is exploring a bit and walks near the edge of the field where the wooded area starts. He calls,

"Mommy, come here and see"

I come over, see nothing.

"Swiper no swiping" exclaims Ethan while thrusting his "no swiping" hand toward the bushes (click on the link if you don't know Dora... Swiper is a crafty fox always trying to "swipe" Dora's stuff).

I find this amusing and bring him over near my friends (soccer mom cluster) and show them his neat little parlor trick. Soon we are all playing along (or so we thought) and yelling "Swiper no Swiping!" and making the required hand gestures.

The girls (fifth graders) began to look at us strangely.

One of the more observant soccer moms soon exclaims - "Wait! Something is moving over there!"

Sure enough, there was a momma fox and some baby foxes (sure glad Ethan didn't try to go near them). Soccer practice stopped so all the girls could go look at the foxes too, from a distance of course.

Guess Ethan knew what he was talking about! Must have thought all we adults were loons. So you see, you best listen carefully to your toddler - you never know what they might find!!!