St. Cloud, Minnesota or the Cindy Offer House??

My kids crack me up.  Really, they do.  I love this age.  My daughter is four, and my son is five.  They come up with the funniest stuff.  I'm afraid I'm creating class clowns (sorry, Ms. Taylor) because I cannot help but laugh at them. 

For example, earlier this year we were trying to plan a summer vacation.  For some reason, my son now has an aversion to flying and doesn't want to go to Disney World as a result.  We have a rule in our house -- if it takes longer than six hours of screaming in the car, we fly.  There's not enough liquor or Xanax in the world to make me want to drive that far.  Sorry...it ain't happening. 

Anygive'emBenadryltomake'emsleep, we started to consider our options.  My daughter got excited!  She said, "Mama, I want to go to the Cindy Offer house.  Can we go to the Cindy Offer house??  Please!!!"

Like you, I'm thinking she's somehow discovered Cindy Lauper and her current address!  Wow, that would be cool and all but I really don't want to impose.

She laughed (silly Mama), "No!  The Cindy Offer House!  I want to go there and the Target Mall."

Now I'm really freakin' perplexed.  If it's not Cindy Lauper's house, then where???  And since when did Target get into the mall business?  G, we can go to Target any day.  While I probably spend as much as a summer vacation in Target, I don't want to go there for our family vacation.
   
She quits laughing.  I can tell she's getting pissed.  Later that day, she called me into the living room with great excitement.  "Look, Mommy!  It's the Cindy Offer House!"

Sure enough, on the Little Einsteins, there was the Sydney Opera House.  They were flying from Sydney to the Taj Mahal.  Mommy had an epiphany!

Oh, G!  Those are great places!  I'd love to take you, and one day I just might.  But you have to fly in a plane to get to both of those places.  The whole time I'm thinking, damn she's smart!  Look at my 4 year old genius!  I'd never even heard of the Sydney Opera House at her age much less want to visit.  Heck, I'm still not all that interested, but baby girl is apparently going to be more "worldly" than her mama.

Fast forward a few months after all the vacation plans have been finalized, here comes my son.  "Mom, can we go to St. Cloud, Minnesota?  I want to go on vacation there."

No offense to those who live there, but really?!?  St. Cloud?  In this great, big world, he wants to visit Minnesota?  At least his smart, little sister gave us choices that were, while extremely out of our budget, still very vacationy (my word...add it to your mental dictionary).

Honey, why St. Cloud, Minnesota?

"I want to go there and sleep on those soft things."  He tries to describe "those soft things" with his hands, but I have no clue. 

Clouds??  Clouds, St. Cloud...I'm taking a stab.  It sounds legit, doesn't it?

"Yea, I mean, no." 

Again, his attempts at an explanation have me puzzled so I do what every sensible mother does -- Okay, I'll think about it.

Sure enough, a few hours later he calls out to me, "Mama, Mama!  Come see!"

On television was a commercial for those Tempurpedic beds.  You know, the ones with the memory foam.  You have to call St. Cloud, Minnesota, to order the product.

I'm thinking, WTH???  Why does he care about that memory foam?  Then it occurs to me.  We've got another genius in the house!  My son, who is extremely curious about how things work, is wanting to see how that suff works!  Maybe he thinks that's what clouds are made of.  Ok, almost a genius.  Definitely a smart kid in the making.  

In conclusion, my kids watch way too much television.  But my son may be on to something.  I'd love to sleep that peacefully.