Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries

Have you ever seen a blue rasberry?  I'm pretty sure I haven't.  Nevertheless, until I was about 15 years old I thought rasberries were not just blue, but all out electric, not quite smurfy not quite Florida (of course that would be inedible-blech), glowing blue.  I assumed rasberry bushes must be one of the coolest fruit bearing objects on earth.  Bear in mind that raspberries weren't all that plentiful in beautiful downtown Appling, Georgia.  I'm quite certain I didn't see a real raspberry until cheerleading camp my sophomore year of high school where they had the exotic little morsels for sale at the Bolton Hall cafeteria at UGA.  I did not let on that I had no clue what those bumpy little maroon colored yummies were.

My confusion is understandable.  I first encountered "rasberry" flavor in the AstroPops they sold at the ball parks where my mom played softball (don't judge).  Otter Pops boasted a super yummy turquoise version of the flavor that was hawked by Monsieur Louie Bloo.  I think the vaunted Popsicle brand may have flirted with a blue pop at some point as well.  While a cool memory of childhood, I assumed that with all the focus on getting the additives and weird dyes out of our food the mythical blue raspberry would be a thing of the past.  Au contraire mon frere.

Blue, arguably raspberry flavored, frozen water is still alive and well and Harry is addicted.  He loves the things.  Last night he ate 2 whole pops by himself.  He squeezed every last bit of synthetic blue goodness out of those tubes and then reached over to yank approximately half of Ellie's Louie Bloo away from her. 

When all the blue yummy was consumed he sat there in his artifical dye stained clothes with his electric blue hands, mouth and thighs (that's right) and bemoaned the demise of Louie Bloo.

Ahhhhh, childhood.  Sunshine, playgrounds, and Blue Dye #1.  Good times.

And You Are...?

After living with an incredibly (I mean INCREDIBLY) verbal little girl for the past few years, I was warned to not expect such verbosity from the dude as it is apparently not in their natures to begin prattling on about everything they see as soon as they can string a couple of syllables together.  Therefore, I did not panic when he began uttering something very similar to da-da a few months ago.  I didn't get real upset when he began grunting EH-EE everytime his sister took yet another toddler toy away from him.  I even bragged about his prolific use of the word "ball" and his insistence on loudly and repeatedly indentifying every spherical object as a "ball" whenever one came into sight and shouting "ball" whenever one needed to be had right then and there--which is always.

So what that he hasn't said mama yet?  "M" is a hard letter to form; I mean much more difficult than a stupid "D" or "B".  Plus, why does he need to say it?  I pick him up before he really feels the need to get my attention anyway.  I mean, the "M" will come to him and then I won't get him to stop saying "mama", right?  Of course, he could decide instead to learn a few other words...like, maybe, Max.  Yeah, that's right.  Instead of saying "mama", instead of recognizing the woman that gave birth to you, dotes on you, changes your diapers and makes sure you have a never ending supply of sippy cup cocktails and chocolate goldfish crackers, maybe it'd be good to start talking to the freaking dog whose name sounds a whole lot like "ma" except with a freaking X on the end.  AN X!!!! Let's call for him first thing in the morning.  Maybe bang on the back door to get his attention and say his name over and over again.  Or even call him over to feed him a few of those crackers that woman whose name you forget keeps bringing you.  When she tries to get you to say "mama" for the bazillionth time just act like you don't hear her...she'll go away, or maybe she'll get you some more milk.

Or, what would be awesome would be to grab her dress sleeve while sitting at the restaurant after church on Sunday and tug really hard to get her attention, and when she turns to see what you want this time just grin and say "MAMA."