Kids are weird. That’s not only the truth, but it’s the name of a new book by author/illustrator Jeffrey Brown. You may know him from his hilarious series of books about the trials and tribulations Darth Vader goes through with his crazy kids Luke and Leia: Darth Vader and Son and Vader’s Little Princess.

But let’s get back to how kids are super weird. One of the great joys of raising a child is watching them go from kind of a houseplant that poops, to this miniature human being that wanders around your house saying crazy sh**. Toddlers through preschoolers are working with total RAW feeds – there’s no to-do list filter, or self consciousness to stop them from absorbing every detail of the world around them, and spitting it back out in their own quirky way.

My 4-year-old daughter and I were walking to a restaurant where we were going to meet a friend. She started discussing manners, and how it’s especially important to have good manners in a restaurant. “Because,” she expounded, “some kids don’t say thank you to the waiter. And that’s not being-hayve.” I stopped dead in my tracks and was like, “Oh huh, wow … I guess the word ‘behave’ sounds like I’m using the linking verb ‘to-be’ with a word that sounds like ‘hayv.'” It never occurred to me that she would conjugate it. RAW feed strikes again! Linguistics ahoy!

This book is chock full of great examples of this phenomenon, illustrated by Brown himself in a quirky style that’s congruous with the feeling parents all over the world get when your kid says something odd, it’s really a delight. Kids Are Weird. Indeed.