A while ago I came across a blog post where the author had included a little series of questions she’d asked her two children to answer, which I thought it was really neat and planned to copy the idea while of course giving full credit to the blogger. Of course, I immediately forgot all about it until I found a random text document sitting on my desktop titled, awesomely, “DO THIS”, and now I can’t remember who I stole it from and some of the questions got deleted and anyway I AM MAKING THE “L” SIGN ON MY FOREHEAD RIGHT NOW.

Bee-tee-dubs, I know this will be interesting to exactly none of you, but maybe you’d like to do it with your own kids, especially if they’re small—it seems like a fun thing to do a couple times each year just to see how the answers change.

My interview with Riley, age 3.5:

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Okay, ready for some questions? Here goes. What is something I always say to you? “Uhhhhh. Mommy.” “Yes?” “Mommy.” “Oh, you’re saying I say ‘Mommy’ to you all the time?” “Uhhhh. Can you turn Curious George back on?” “No, seriously, this will only take a couple minutes.” “Hmmph.”

What makes me happy? “Notes.” “Like notes you write to me?” “Yeah.”

What makes me sad?
“I don’t know.”

How do I make you laugh? “Tickling me.”

What do you think I was like as a child? “I don’t know.” “Well, happy, angry, funny, hungry—” “Yeah! Hungry.”

How old am I? (Holds up three fingers) “Three?” “Yeah, three. Mommy, how many pounds are you?” “Next question!”

How tall am I?This tall.” (Raises arms above his head)

What is my favorite thing to do? “Color.” (Note: FALSE.)

What do I do when you’re not around? “Um, I don’t know.” “Do you think I read books, or play on the computer, or exercise, or—” “Exerciiiiiise!”

If I become famous, what will it be for? “I don’t know.”

What am I really good at? “Chasing me.”

What am I not really good at? “Uhhhhh.” JB: “Taking out the trash!” Riley: “Yeah, taking out the trash.”

What is my job? “You go in the excavator.” (Note: I wish.)

What is my favorite food? “Hmmm. Chicken?”

What makes you proud of me? “About watching me when I’m watching Curious George.” (Uhhh, okay.)

What makes me proud of you? “When I clean the toys up.”

What do you and I do together? “Get marshmallows tomorrow. Hey! Can we do that?”

How are we the same? “You look like me, your eyes are the same as me.”

How are you and I different? “Your hair looks funny.”

How do you know that I love you? “I don’t know.” “Maybe like at bedtime when I tell you I love you?” “Yeah! At night night time.”

What is one thing you wish you could change about me? “I don’t know. CAN I WATCH CURIOUS GEORGE NOW.”

What do you wish you could go and do with me? “Go get marshmallows.”

fin

PS: For the record, my interview with Dylan, age 15 months:

Okay, Dylan, what is— “BALL! BALLLLL.” “Uh, but what—” “BALLLLL! BALL. BALL? BALL? BALLLLL.” “Okay. Well, so Dylan, what—” “MEOW. MEOOW. GEE-GA!”

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Eric's Mommy
Eric's Mommy
14 years ago

Oh that was so cute.

jonniker
14 years ago

So cute. And I *think* it was Mandajuice. Or at least, I saw Amanda do it. I think. I have no memory left. The baby stole it.

Angella
14 years ago

I did this one too a while ago and the answers killed me.

Yours rank right up there.

(But are not rank. Just so you know.)

bessie.viola
14 years ago

This is hysterical.

I hope Riley got some Curious George time in, with marshmallows on top. ;)

Can’t wait until Maddie’s big enough to conduct one of my own!

Shannon
14 years ago

How cute…You should have bought the marshmellows FIRST and held them as ransom for answers… :-)

This was floating around Facebook as a survey a few months back and I did it with my daughter, Jordan (also 3.5)…

1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
Listening ears…

3. What makes mom sad?
Not listening…

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Funny jokes

5. What was your mom like as a child?
berry beautiful

6. How old is your mom?
5

7. How tall is your mom?
This tall (holding her hand over her head)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Play a game with me

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?
Miss me

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
for going to the store (dad would agree with this one)

11. What is your mom really good at?
Chores

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Paying attention

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Keeping Colin out of trouble and making my breakfast

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?
onions (not sure where that one came from!)

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
When she gives me snacks

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Princess Ariel

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Projects (her preschool workbook I bought that we work on together)

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we are girls and we both love daddy and Colin

19. How are you and your mom different?
Our hair

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
cuz she takes good care of me and lets me sleep in her bed

Alison @ Cluck and Tweet

I have a feeling you were leading the witness. I am going to do this with my 10 and 12 year old children. I’ll bet they’d rather watch Curious George, too. I’ll blog about it and link it to you like you’re the one who thought up this clever idea. Good job!

warcrygirl
14 years ago

LOL this must have gotten around some since you last read that blog; I’ve done this same interview on Facebook. The answers are waaay more fun at three than they are at seven.

BALL!!!!

Anne
14 years ago

I love how JB decided to be “helpful” in Riley’s interview. Sounds very much like my spouse.

I saw Catie Curtis (Boston based singer/song writer) a few weeks back and she had recordings of bits of her “interview” of her four year old from the last election. So cute! I love the idea of interviewing kids and seeing how their answers change over time as they grow up.

Amanda
Amanda
14 years ago

“GEE-GA!” … can I have him? (At least I asked first. Which, actually, that makes me way more creepy than I meant for it to… shit. Sorry. Keep your friggin cute kid, then.)

Amy M.
Amy M.
14 years ago

That’s adorable! I’m so doing that with my 3-year-old tonight when I get home from work! Though I’m sure he’d rather watch tv, too!

aimee
14 years ago

Too funny! This was one of those facebook things which cropped up right after the rage about the “25 Random Things About Me”. After much nagging from my sister, I tried to get my almost 3.5 yo to answer and it was a total fail.

Maria
14 years ago

I also did this on Facebook Notes several months back, amongst many many many other FB friends, so I wouldn’t worry too much about giving proper credit.

Very cute answers, but I love Dylan’s part best!

Laura
14 years ago

I love this, hopefully I can remember to do it when mine is old enough to talk.

Kelli
14 years ago

HILARIOUS!

Kristabella
14 years ago

“MEOW. MEOOW. GEE-GA!”

That is essentially the extent of my conversational skills when I’m drinking.

Mollyg
Mollyg
14 years ago

Okay, so I just tried a few of these on my almost 5 year old, Charlie.

Me: Charlie, what am I good at?
Charlie: Pooping.

Me: What am I not so good at?
Charlie: Pooping.

Me: So I’m good at pooping, but not so good at pooping?
Charlie: I’m just kidding, I don’t want to talk about it.

Me: One more. How are you and I alike?
Charlie: Pooping?

Is Riley into talking about poop yet? Because my two boys are! We love it around here.

Colleen
14 years ago

Ahh! This has been on my to-do list for a while too. I got like a zillion of them on Facebook but was going to wait until the awesomeness of it died down a little bit. Fail. Guess I should do it anyways!

Your kids are so cute! Maria was sooo right to put me on to you.

Courtney Kramer
Courtney Kramer
14 years ago

$10 says you get a similar response from him when you repeat this in 10 years. It’ll make you happy when he cleans his room, and he really will just want to watch MTV (or whatever the cool kids are watching these days…).

Ball!!!

BellyGirl
14 years ago

Did you put lipstick on Dylan?? Holy beautiful mouth!

Diane
Diane
14 years ago

Don’t ever ever stop writing about these two beautiful boys….you make me laugh out loud constantly….whenever I am feeling down I just need to read a couple of entries to pick me right back up.

kodi's mom
kodi's mom
14 years ago

delurking to say, this was hee-larious! & I’ll be postng abt my 3.5’s responses very soon :)

M
M
14 years ago

“Your hair looks funny.” HA!

Also, Dylan is too cute.

Pocklock
14 years ago

So funny!

I suck at taking out the trash too. If my husband wasn’t on top of it, it would most likely be climbing up the wall.

And do you have the GEE-GA on video? I’m DYING to see/hear it!

Trish
Trish
14 years ago

Tertia did this with her twins a while back on “SoClose.” Maybe you read it there? Anyway, so fun! And your boys? So adorable!

Katherine
14 years ago

I did this with my boys and I got about the same answers, only less enthusiasm.

Leah
14 years ago

Ah, so Dylan’s the mysterious one.

lisa
lisa
14 years ago

Hmm…I probably don’t even need to interview my own kid, because I think the answers might be the exact same as Rileys. :) ha ha

Amanda
14 years ago

I did this with my little monsters too. I told myself to do something similar every month or so but have since forgotten.

http://4molnars.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-words-of-zack-skyler.html

Brenna
14 years ago

What a great idea! I will have to give this a go.

Kristin
14 years ago

I read it on Tertia’s blog a few months ago, maybe you were thinking of her.

Also, my 2.5 year old son shares your son’s Curious George obsession. He repeats the plotlines to me at random moments and I have to quickly figure out if this is something that happened in real life, or something from Curious George. One of his first phrases was “Don’t make soup!” from the one where George pulls out all of the vegetables from Chef Psigetti’s garden and plants new ones. It took me forever to figure out why he was telling me not to make soup. His new one is “Mom, why is Hundly in my sink?” I hear that about 10 times a day and it makes me laugh every time. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only mom with an encylopediac knowledge of Curious George!

Erika
Erika
14 years ago

Dylan looks EXACTLY like JB’s brother. Too cute!

Amanda
Amanda
14 years ago

I think you are ok on the “giving credit” because when my 8 year old was in pre-school (2005) his teachers did a Mother’s Day book for the Mom’s and this was on one of the pages. It had a few other questions and my little boy said my favorite thing to do was mow the yard and cook for him! Way off! It was precious though and you have reminded me to get that out and look at it again. I love your writing! Your kiddo’s are adorable! Keep up the great work!

Kari
Kari
14 years ago

damn, your kids are cute.

Marie
Marie
14 years ago

Sidebar,
You have talked alot about Dylan’s personality but could we digress for a moment and talk about his looks? That (admittingly adorable) kid is a CLONE of your husband (at least from my viewpoint). Was there some kind of evil scientist cloning clinical trials going on in Seattle sometime back? Because if so, it worked big time….clone I tell you!

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14 years ago

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melanie
14 years ago

This is funny because I have had the exact same thing on my desktop for months with the plan to do it with my daughter – except she is too young to talk and I want to video tape it which will be totally hilarious to one person in this world – me! I still think I should do it but I suspect that by the time I get around to it she will be talking and tell me to go away.

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