Say Cheese!

So the other day I'm picking up Landen from preschool and as his teacher is strapping him in his car seat, he says (I'll avoid using actual names to avoid any embarassment) "Teacher, do this....cheeeeese". His smile spreads from ear to ear, mouth wide open, showing all his pearly whites, not showing a hint of the tragedy that is upcoming. Happily, Teacher spreads her face into the exact same photogenic smile and, to my horror, Landen cranes his head almost inside her mouth and, very loudly, says, "Ewww....what's wrong with your teeth?" Teacher's face seems to react with almost as much shock as my own as he continues; "Why are they all messed up in there? You have some sharp ones in there that do this", he points his index and middle finger ferociously downwards as he talks, "those teeth look just like two huge arrows! Oh and look, you even have some extras in there!" Mortified, Teacher quickly closes her mouth of horrors that have now become a sideshow to my son and slams the car door shut. I can only imgaine the look that was frozen on my face as I sat there in disbelief but I was just praying that I didn't explode with laughter. I tried to encourage Landen not to point out other people's flaws, to which he reminded me--"But she had teeth that looked just like arrows....and she even had extras! Did you see them? They went just like this" As he sat in the backseat, once again motioning his two fingers like down-spiraling arrows, I was once again reminded by how differently children see the world. Because he wasn't making fun of her, he was simply fascinated by her mouth of arrows. Ah, how I long for the days of innocent yet uncensored honesty.