Like a steel trap.

Back when Ragnarson the First was a bitty baby I posted something about all the subliminal messages he was absorbing on account of the fact that his mother favored Irish Drinking songs over more traditional "rock-a-bye" lullabies. Happily he still thinks that "Moonshine" refers to the moon in the sky, and not the white lighting, but he does have a tendancy to babble "tooraloolalay." There was also that incident when he chased our former roommate around yelling "watch him DIE! watch him DIE!" She was decidedly freaked out until I explained that he was singing Johnny Cash.

The things that really seem to stick with him though, are phrases from storybooks. Since I'm the one usually reading the books, I can mostly identify the source, but for other people it seems that he randomly spouts very articulate, but completely nonsensical phrases. Where the Wild Things Are is the source of several favorites. He has adopted Ash's basket as a boat and insists that he is sailing away in his wolf suit. We are also big fans of Skippyjon Jones, which causes him to stop and yell suddenly "I am a Chihuahua!!!"

I think the oddest is from a "Five Little Monkeys" book, wherein the Monkey sibs are teasing a crocodile. At the end their mother tells them "Never tease a crocodile, it's not nice, and it's dangerous."

Now whenever Ragnarson has reason to use the phrase "It's not nice!" he follows it up with "and it DANGEROUS." This makes living with him seem very perilous. Putting his toys away? IT'S DANGEROUS! Taking him out of the bath before he's done? IT'S DANGEROUS!

Ragnar...always tells her babies not to play with guns.