Yesterday Damian and I were playing with play-doh in his room. Correction: Damian and I and a stretchy blue frog were playing with the play-doh. Damian does many activities with amphibian accompaniment.
I rolled out some of the clay, stamped it out with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Decorated it a bit and then gave it to Damian. "Happy early Valentine's Day, sweetie."
He accepted it, then got busy making one of his own. Out of blue play-doh to match his frog. With polka dots (finger holes pressed into the dough). Then he presented it to me.
"Thank you, Damian."
"It's not from me. It's from the peeper." (The blue frog is a spring peeper, you see.)
"I'd rather it were from you. I love you, I don't love the frog."
"But you have to love your pets."
"Well, sure, and I do love the cats. But the peeper isn't my pet, it's yours."
"But Dante and Cocoa are your cats and they're also mine. So we can share pets. The peeper is both of ours too."
What could I do? This child can argue circles around me. I accepted the blue heart from my newly beloved pet spring peeper.
Posted by Tamar at February 10, 2004 09:21 PM