Advice to Small Children by Edward Anthony (1895-1971)
Eat no green apples
or you’ll droop,
Be careful not
to get the croup,
Avoid the chicken-pox
and such,
And don’t fall out
of windows much.
I can’t help myself.
This odd little poem reminds me of one of my favorite words.
Defenestration.
The act of throwing someone or something out the window.
From the Latin fenestra, window.
(I guess I’m not out of my Latin stage, after all.
)
A Living Pencil 
I like that word too. Around here we defenestrate the recyclables into the tub below the dining room window. I’m still looking for the Latin word for “to stare blankly out the window in the mid-afternoon for 5 minutes or so.” I’d use that one a lot too…
This is the sort of book we like(For you and I are very small)With pictures stuck in anyhowAnd hardly any words at all.You will not understand a wordOf all the words, including mine;Never you trouble; you can see,And all directness is divine.Stand up and keep your childishness:Read all the pedants’ screeds and strictures;But don’t believe in anythingThat can’t be told in coloured pictures.I like this ditty. I think it is by G.K. Chesterton. And I think he wrote it in a book by Randolph Caldecott that GKC was giving to a child. Can anyone confirm? (GKC himself was a very large man, despite the second line.) And he very well knew that the gospel can be told in color pictures. [Oops. Xanga is giving trouble with the formatting. It is meant to be three verses of four lines each.]
Me too!~Janie
@jackug – THANK you for including this in your comment! I found confirmation for you, if you trust Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_CaldecottI also found it on page 327 of Alfred George Gardiner’s book, Prophets, Priests and Kings.Here is the link to Google Books.Jackug, I do appreciate your cogent and thoughtful comments. Thank you!
In choosing your comestibles,
Eat only the disgestibles,
Avoid the poxy inflammation,
And avoid defenestration.
Minor corrections and refinements:
In choosing your comestibles,
Eat only the digestibles,
Avoid the poxy inflammations,
And eschew defenestrations.
Spot on!