full of crap.

We've been listening to Shrek: The Musical a lot lately. Not the entire musical. Only 3 songs. The only 3 songs Millie and Ellis will allow to enter their delicate ears.

One of which Pinocchio sings at the beginning of the show with all of the fairytale characters that have been banashed to the swamp.

The song ends with Pinocchio saying crap.

The other day, after listening to the same song one hundred million times, Ellis and Millie both began to laugh each time the song ended and Pinocchio said crap. And then, the humor elevated as they both started repeating the word.

While Ellis just thinks it's a fun way to end a song (and I would have to agree) she can only say crack - which isn't too offensive.

Millie, being so taken with the word, began saying it a lot. In an effort to get Ellis to laugh. And I had visions of her blurting it out at church. or preschool, or in public. I explained to her that it isn't a word that she should say.

But mom, pinocchio says it.

True. So I explained that sometimes people say words that are inappropriate. But that we should not repeat them. That is their choice, but we should make the choice to say positive words that won't offend or hurt others.

But mom, pinocchio says it.

True again. The 4 year old had me. Pinocchio does say it. So I tried explaining again. Including that we don't want Ellis repeating such words.

Okay mom. I won't say it.

So I should probably just take the song off of our playlist. But it's a great song. And they're going to hear words like that everywhere. And, blah, blah, blah. The truth is that I'm just lazy. And would prefer not to deal with the anger that would insue from removing the disk.

After our talk, we listened to the song one more time. As it ended, Millie did not say the ending word.

Mom! I didn't say crap. I listened to pinocchio say crap. But I didn't say crap!

Thank you Millie. Way to listen. And prove that talking it out with a 4 year old totally works.