I Like Fudge

One of the sadnesses of my life is that my kids no longer watch Arthur.  Is it even on anymore?  Have they corrupted it like they have other shows?  (I hear Cookie Monster no longer eats cookies but fruits and vegetables.  I don't know if that's true but if it is, it's really, really sad.)

Anyway, Arthur.

I love it.  I love the characters.

I love when Muffy calls Francine a walking talking poke in the eye.  I've known people that are walking talking pokes in the eye.  I think I've been one at times.

I love the Tibble Twins.  I can relate.  There are triplets on our street.  Tibble triplets.

I love Mr. Ratburn.  When I teach school, I try to channel Mr. Ratburn but there's no way I'm that good.  There's a big disparity between Mr. Ratburn and the other 3rd grade teacher, Miss Sweetwater.  The other class has easy work and sings "I Like Fudge."  And Arthur's class always feels jealous.  My favorite Arthur is maybe the one where Mr. Ratburn is sick.  His sister, Miss Ratburn substitutes.  She gives them easy work like the 1 times tables and they are thrilled.  As the day progresses, and they are spelling words like DOG and CAT,  the too easy work drives them crazy.

Then Miss Ratburn sings Miss Sweetwater's infamous song,

I like fudge,
I like fudge,
Tell me what you like and I'll tell you
I like fudge.

At the end of the day, Brain has to hurry home to his computer because he thinks his brain is melting.

I love it.

My kids know it.  I sing "I Like Fudge" to them when they complain about things being too hard.

Yesterday Mark was learning how to tell time when it was quarter past or quarter 'til.  It blew his mind. 

"This is hard," he wailed (except he said it with 12 vowel sounds in the word hard--are there 12 vowel sounds?). 

Mark lay on the floor.  He said he had a head-ache.  He said he was a failure.

He was brooding in the back seat when we picked Braeden up from school.

"What's with him?" Braeden asked.

I said he was cranky pants.

Mark said, "Mom's not even being sarcastic, I am cranky pants and the reason is math."  (It should be noted that I'm never sarcastic...I think he's mistaken me for another woman.)

I told Mark about his old Duplo Lego bricks.  They are easy and if he never had harder Lego sets, he wouldn't be as good at building.  He said, "That's different.  Legos are my career.  Math is not."

So I sang "I Like Fudge" to him and he started to laugh and get mad at the same time because he didn't want to laugh.  He didn't want to be cajoled.  He doesn't want to do hard things.

None of us do.

But it's better than singing "I Like Fudge" all day.