Stinky Says What?

Kenzo and Osamu and I pulled out of the driveway and headed to soccer in the snow. More like heavy sleet. It wasn't sticking, just furiously coming down. As is their way the boys engage in non-stop non-sequitur monologues that sometimes converge. We were stopped at a light and I looked in the rearview mirror at them and said, "Stinky says what?"

They stopped and looked at me, quietly waiting for what was going to happen next. I repeated it. "Stinky says what?" They looked at each other and smiled and Kenzo sheepishly says, "Whaaaat?" 

So of course I delightfully announced, "Exactly," and followed up for clarification that he is stinky because I said stinky says what and he said what. This was followed by immediate raucous laughter.

And then it began. They immediately took hold of this new lingual power and began teasing each other and me with as many variations of "stinky says what" as they could think of. Osamu of course wasted no time and said, "Hey papa, underwear says what?"

The boys played their hearts out at soccer club and then we went to Aeon Town to play since the snow was showing no signs of letting up. The mall has finally been refurbished after it sustained pretty bad damage in the earthquake last March, and the covid restrictions have been loosened so that the kids' play areas are all mostly open now. So we had some good indoor fun, complete with a food court lunch. For some reason I went to Mos Burger (the only fast food chain where the pictures of the burgers are actually worse than the actual burgers, which is saying a lot because the actual burgers are piles of slop) and got the "french fry & onion ring box" and proceeded to load up on a box full of french fries and onion rings. It was great at the time, but later I felt the shame.

Somehow the boys talked me into Baskin Robbins ice cream for dessert. I acquiesced easily since I hadn't had some Rocky Road in a long time. Kenzo got chocolate and Osamu got some sort of peach sherbet. His first choice was something with pop rocks in it and I assured him that was a bad choice. I acted out what was going to happen when he put that monstrosity of an ice cream "flavor" in his mouth and he quickly got the picture and went with peach.

When they traded spoons to taste each other's Osamu was not a fan of the chocolate. 

The boys love the arcade game centers, and they know that papa is not putting any any money into those machines. Luckily they're happy enough just pretending to play the games for now. Last year Kenzo earned some money doing some special housework for me and he decided to spend his hard earned cash on one of those claw games, which of course stole his money and he was stunned into tears. I think that's partly why he doesn't complain when I say no to giving him and Osamu money for those things. They both know they can use their own money, but Kenzo knows a little bit about the risk that comes with.

We got home around two and the boys were starting to get pretty tired after all of the shenanigans. As we pulled into the driveway I did my papa broken record spiel. "What’s the first thing we’re gonna do when we go inside the house?" The boys replied in unison, "Wash our hands!"

Osamu waltzed into the house and immediately walks up to Eri and says, "Stinky says what?" And she fell for it.