Sometimes I just give up. I do my best to teach my kids about life and one of the things that Ben and I do is look at a lot of flashcards and pictures for him to identify. I have to say, he is as smart as a whip (although I have never understood this analogy, just often used it). He knows a lot for his age, and has the ability to see things I cannot in the pictures.

For instance, he has doggies, kitties, and monkeys down. He also knows all his farm animals as well as most of the people in his life other than himself who he still calls Ben. So I have been pushing him into a few harder things to identify…..the picture here is one of them, the wild boar.

The wild boar is actually in the news in London, England of all places because it is invading the populated areas and rummaging through garbage. The picture was in the article, so I decided to show it to Ben. I said, “what is this?” And he looked at it for a second, then smiled and said, “Elephant daddy,” to which I replied, “No, it’s a boar.”

Of course an argument soon ensued reminiscent of the “tastes great, less filling” ones of the 70’s. He held his ground and by God I held mine. But after a few minutes compromise came upon us (I think when he saw we were not getting to the next picture), so when I asked again (for the 100th time) “what is this?” He answered “Elephant Boar daddy.” We both won, and it was good enough for me…..when he gets the “F” in zoology his mom can deal with it.

He spreads it around too. Two days ago Amanda was in her red coat and asked him what color it was. He said “yellow” and she said “no, honey (the first 5 times) it’s red,” and off to the races they went. I can see his plan, he is just messing with us. But I cannot believe he does it to her….frankly the rest of us have a lot more sense.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless.

Tommy+