Yummy vs. yucky

Isaac still enjoys pretending to cook, but sometimes when he offers me a taste he gets a mischievous look in his eyes:

Isaac: [offering me a cake pan full of sand] Mama eat.

Mama: Thanks, Isaac! What is it?

Isaac: Cake.

Mama: Mmm, great. What kind of cake is it? [pretends to eat]

Isaac: Yucky cake! [laughs]

Mama: Oh, no! Yuck! [makes sputtering and gagging noises]

Isaac: [laughs more]

Mama: Why did you give me yucky food? I thought you were a good cook. Are you a good cook or a bad cook?

Isaac: Bad cook! Yucky food! [laughs even more]

He made a related joke today -- or at least I thought it was a joke at the time. While tickling him I sometimes pretend to nibble on him, usually saying something like "Mmm, I could eat you all up!" He loves this. Today he told me, "Mama eat baby. Eat all up," so I obliged, making noises like I was eating something delicious. Then he said, "Yucky!" so I changed gears and pretended he didn't taste good.

Then I said, "I don't want to eat you if you taste yucky. I only like to eat things that are yummy. Do you like to eat yucky things?" He said yes. I said, "Really? Do you like to eat garbage?" He said yes. I asked, "Do you like to eat dirt?" He said yes. I asked, "Do you like to eat poop?" He said yes.

Then I started to worry that I was sending the wrong message. He was laughing, so I think he knew I was joking, but still -- just yesterday I took him home from the playground because he wouldn't stop picking up empty water bottles and putting them in his mouth (even worse, when I told him to stop he popped an entire water bottle cap into his mouth -- not just dirty, but a choking hazard). So he does eat garbage. And he does eat dirt. But what about poop? He doesn't eat poop, does he?

At that point he said, "Bird poop!" At first I thought he was playing along by adding his own joke, naming something else yucky that a normal person wouldn't eat. But later I remembered that once he really had put bird poop in his mouth (because I had told him not to, of course). So maybe this whole conversation about eating yucky things wasn't a joke for him -- it was a list of things to put in your mouth if you want to see Mama get all excited.

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We have been talking about pretend vs. real, and I think we might be on the right track. It's probably beyond his developmental understanding right now, but at least he uses the two words correctly. I hope he figures out soon that pretending to eat yucky things is funny, but really eating yucky things is -- well, it's just plain yucky.