I look about a hundred years old, tonight.
My eyes are exhausted.
Literal tablespoons of tears fell from them.
It’s not what you think.
I spent a good part of tonight laughing. Laughing until I couldn’t breathe, until I was actually scared that this was how I was going out of this world. And then I laughed some more.
I’m sure that one day, when The Boy is older, he will want to be funny. He will try to get laughs. And I probably will laugh. But right now, when he’s not even trying?
Oh holy shit.
We’re discussing tomorrow’s Show & Share, for school. His teacher asks the class to bring in an item that begins with a specific letter. They’ve been working their way through the alphabet, and they’re up to “O”.
He’s mulling over his options. We have no owls. Oil can be messy. He thinks for a bit.
Then he asks me, “Mom? Can I have an empty jar?”
“But it’s not ‘J’ week, it’s ‘O’ week,” I try to tell him.
“I know. I’m taking an ‘Odor’. I need a jar to fart in.”
Seriously.
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If you’re ever pissed off, tired, sad, at wit’s end, here’s what you need to do:
Grab some Mad Libs.
Find a six-year-old boy.
Combine.
Enjoy.
I go over the basic concept with The Boy, nerdily excited to explain nouns and verbs and adjectives.
He’s getting the hang of it.
He’s starting to rattle off words, as soon as I ask for them.
“Give me a plural noun.”
“Houses.”
“Now an adverb.”
“Quickly.”
“A part of the body.”
“Taint.”
Yep. That’s the first body part that came to my baby boy’s mind. The taint. Which, unlike many 6 year olds, he has a word for.
I could defend my skills as a parent. I could make excuses as to where and how he may have heard that word.
But my eyes and stomach muscles are tired.
So instead, for the first time anywhere in the world, The Boy’s First Mad Lib. Enjoy!
When you go to the beach, you must take along a big blanket, a thermos bottle full of fruit juice, lots of suntan goo, and a couple of folding chairs. Then you put on your socks so you can get a beautiful red to last you all summer. You also should have a big hat to keep the sun off your taint. You can also bring a short lunch, such as hard-boiled houses, a few lion sandwiches with mustard, and some bottles of goofy cola. If you remember all of the above and get a place near a clean lifeguard, you can sunbathe quickly all day.
I am, as you can imagine, incredibly proud. So proud it would bring a tear to my eye. If I had any left…
Praying to Darwin 