Birdie Birdie In The Sky...

-well, you know the rest. As I type, my son is in bed where he ought to be napping, but is instead chanting the familiar children's rhyme. Except that every once in a while he yells out,
"Why did you poop in my eye dirty birdie?" which I'm guessing he learned from his Pop. This post has nothing to do with cooking, so feel free to skip if you're not interested in Danny stories.

It was a very warm summer, and most days I let Danny run about in a t-shirt and underwear (toilet training is so much simpler in summertime). It was really startling to see him today, fully dressed in corduroy shorts, a turtleneck, argyle knit vest and shiny new black shoes. He looked so terribly grown-up, though he won't be but three in December.

Being tall for his age, Danny can climb in and out from the car seat alone these days, letting me know quite matter-of-factly that he "Doesn't need mama." Ouch.

This morning, I discovered the first of the field mice that always seem to find their way to the farmhouse once the corn starts coming down. I told Danny we'd buy some traps at the grocer today.

Anyone remember those little boxes of animal crackers that came with a string to carry them by? They had them for .25 cents, so I bought a box for my little guy. He'd had them before, but was too young to remember and this time it was as though I'd handed him a box of gold. He clutched the box all the way home and I watched him run up the path to the house swinging his new treasure. We quickly washed hands, took off shoes and tore into the crackers.

Now call me a traditionalist, but when I buy a package of Circus Crackers, I sort of expect circus animals, not rhinos, llamas, and cats. What sort of circus is that? Danny ate a few crackers before deciding that he'd really rather have lunch and just play with them.

I was cleaning-up the lunch dishes when I heard my little boy standing by the washing machine, whispering in what sounded somewhat urgent.

"Great", I thought, "He already has an imaginary friend that I'm going to have to indulge with setting extra places at the table and everything else for. I thought I had a couple years before this started."

I was obviously wrong, as I listened more closely to hear;

"Mama bought traps, you have to go outside."