you are fat!

We saw a big man - and astoundingly large man. He was 6' 5" and somewhere between 400 - 500 pounds. Ro gaped in astonishment. Then, he started to babble and eventually started to form words, "Wow Mommy look at the fat man! He's fat! He's fat! He's big and fat!" While Ro was reveling in a new vocabulary word, Daddy and I wanted to sink into the ground and die. The big man walked off like he hadn't noticed Roen dancing and squealing. I felt sooooooo bad. It was a horrible moment.

The thing that interested me is that Ro rarely comments on anyone's physical appearance and it took someone of extraordinary size to even get him to say the word. Fat isn't a bad feature to Roen though. Many children's books use fat as a common descriptor such as Thomas the tank engine, Dr. Suess books, Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Catepillar. We also have a very old nursery rhyme book that talks about a little boy that is too thin who needs to eat more and be fatter. So, despite all the exposure I've never actually heard Ro use the word "fat" before. I think he's learned his lesson about commenting on people's appearance but he's only four so it's sure to come up again. I remember hearing a girl tell an old lady in the grocery line that she had very yellow teeth. eeeeee. You have to get over being easily embarrassed when you're a parent.