How about a story?

The little one, as you all know by now, is a little too smart and quite witty.  So this how last evening turned out to be.

“Mamma, tell me a story,” the little one asked me, settling on my lap and turning my cheek towards him.

I stopped what I was doing to pay attention to him, after all what can be more important than spending quality time with your child? The instant story teller that I pride myself to be, I started with the lion in the jungle that ate all the animals, the story already beginning to take shape in my head.  I had no idea how wrong I was going to be proved in a short while from now.

“There was a bad lion in a bigggg jungle” I started, acting out the part. “He ate any animal that came his way.”

“Which animal?” he wanted to know.

First question already.

“It ate the deer, the…”

 “No mamma, the lion can’t eat the deer…” he said as a matter of fact.

“And why not?”

“The deer lives in the zoo…” he said, with a I’m-surprised-my-mom-didn’t-know-that look!

“No baby, it lives in the jungle, some of them are caught and kept in the zoo…”

“Oh” he seemed satisfied, still pondering over what I said. Then came the next question.

“Did the lion eat the zebra?”

 “Yes baby. The lion ate the zebra and….”

“Giraffe?”

“Yes, he ate the giraffe too and…”

“Buffalo?”

“Yes, the buffalo too.”

“Monkey?”

“Yeah, the monkey, the ….” I paused, thinking of what other animals the lion could eat.

“Hons cow?” he asked.

“What?” I was not sure I understood what animal that is.

“Hons cow?” he stressed again. “Did the lion eat the hons cow?”

“What is a hons cow?” I was beginning to get tired.

He made an imaginary horn with his hands on his head, “hons…”

that's his Hons' cow!!

“Oh!” it dawned on me, and I smiled, “Horns cow?”

“Ya, did the lion eat the horns cow?”

“Yes, it ate the horns cow also…”

Dear god how many more animals did he know? Even as I’m thinking about it, came the next poser.

“No, mamma, the lion can’t eat the horns cow, because it has horns… if the lion tries to eat it, the cow can knock it down with its horns….” He laughed, gently hitting his head with his tiny palm.

“Oh…” I was almost embarrassed. Imagine a mom who doesn’t know this basic fact! THAT was some enlightenment. I must make a mental note of this, next time will be unpleasant if I happen to make this mistake again.

“Ok, it did not eat the horns cow...So this lion…..” I tried to continue.

“Mamma….”

Not again.

“Yes?”

“What does the horns cow eat?”

“Grass?” I asked cautiously. You could never be too sure what his horns cow ate.

“Correct.” He nodded his head, and then, “What colour is grass?”

“You tell me…”

“Green” he smiled.

“Good boy” I smiled back, and then , “What does the horns cow give?” I would regret this question soon.

“Milk” pat came the answer.

“Very good. What colour is milk?” I realized I’m diverting from the story, I’ll get back to it next, I tell myself.

“White”.

“Good, so we’ll go back to the story? So this lion….”

The little one was still thinking and then came the bouncer.

“How does the green grass turn into white milk?”

I really don’t know that. And I could cry, yeah, I wanted to cry. I gave up on the story telling session.

“Baby, why don’t YOU tell me a story today?”