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?”
