I could have said this story happened on an ordinary day but there were no ordinary days with my youngest. Allow me to illustrate.
I was fixing dinner one evening when he wandered into the kitchen. He was about 5 at the time but pushing a step ladder up to the counter was no problem.
“What’s that,” he asked.
“Hamburger patties.”
He tilted his head. “Can I call it ‘sook’?”
“Um, those are still hamburger patties.”
But for dinner that night we had sook on a bun.
Another day we went shopping. He carried a quarter and five pennies into the store and laid them on a shelf. As we were leaving the store, he discovered his loss and we had to backtrack in search of his loot. We searched long and hard but could only find the quarter and four pennies.
“We need to go.” I finally laid the law down.
He went, with a long face. “I’m going to miss that penny.”
Not long after that, he came to me with eyes drooping and mouth downturned. “I’m sorry. Mom.”
Uh-oh.
“I’m sorry, Mom, but I can’t fly.”
I did wonder how he figured that out.
We were eating breakfast one morning when he announced over scrambled eggs, “Do you know what a Gurgler is?”
I had to admit my ignorance.
“They’re a machine that sucks down people and things.”
“Yuck,” I said.
“I hate to tell you this but if you meet one, you’ll die.”
“Oh, no!”
“But it’s OK because they live on the other side of the world.”
“Good.”
“Mom,” he said. “They’re on the movies.” I believe an eye roll was included in that comment but I wondered what movies he’d been watching.
He liked to help me bake so one day we stirred up a batch of muffins using a whisk to mix. Soon the batter stiffened and he lifted the whisk with the muffin ingredients clumped onto it. “Look! I have a lunk!”
He ate the lunk, too, after it baked.
Then came the day when he rushed into the kitchen, his arms flailing and his face red and hot. “Mom! Becky says I’ll get wigworms if I drink my potty!”
Um, I still can’t get the scenario figured out.
But I’ll bet it wasn’t an ordinary day, either.
