Nursery rhymes

One of the new hits in our household is nursery rhymes. It all started with a board book that we picked up from Abby's Cali relatives during our trip there. Margaret enjoys them and has little routines that she goes through as we read them. "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker's man" gets hand movements and "Mary, Mary quite contrary" or "Mary had a little lamb" elicits cries of "Mary!"

But what I find interesting is how odd some nursery rhymes are. For example, "Peter, Peter pumpkin eater" sticking his wife in a pumpkin shell is strange. Even better are the medieval geo-political statements that some nursery rhymes contain. My current favorite (care of Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever) goes as follows:

Taffy was a Welshman,
Taffy was a thief,
Taffy came to my house
And stole a piece of beef.

I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy wasn't in,
I jumped upon his Sunday hat
And poked it with a pin.

Taffy was a Welshman,
Taffy was a sham,
Taffy came to my house
And stole a leg of lamb.

I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was away,
I stuffed his socks with sawdust
And filled his shoes with clay.

Taffy was a Welshman,
Taffy was a cheat,
Taffy came to my house
And stole a piece of meat.

I went to Taffy's house,
Taffy was in bed,
I took a marrow bone
And beat him on the head.

For good reason, it seems that this one hasn't entered the pantheon of classic nursery rhymes. I'm not sure what's up with the recurrent robberies and ensuing acts of revenge and violence, or what the deal is with bashing Welshmen, but I suspect that dissertations have been written analyzing the political statements in Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Abby and I giggle about these odd entries. I'm pretty sure that Margaret doesn't get it.

As for Teddy, he's still being a mellow kid and, frankly, isn't very interesting at this point. Except for his skill at creating poopy diapers, something that he does much more frequently (and more loudly) than his sister ever did.