Red and Yellow, Black and White

Joel sharpened a bunch of his colored pencils today. They started out about 7 inches long, give or take, but by the time he presented them to me, they were all about three inches long.

He brought them to me in his hand, pencil leads down, side by side, tallest to shortest. There were five of them--blue,pink,red. yellow,and brown.

"Look, Mom!" he announced proudly. "This is my colored family."

Doctor Asked, "What Did you Say?"

After four and a half days of being sick, Joel was diagnosed with a double ear infection today. The doctor said his throat was fine, despite the persistent cough. His lungs were clear, she said, after listening closely while he breathed in and out very dramatically o the exam table.

"I'm going to prescribe something for the ear infection. Is he allergic to anything?"

"Nope," I said. "Nothing." She started to ask me "pills or liquid?" but Joel interrupted me, mumbling something barely audible. It sounded like "sergic ta bear."

"What did you say"? the doctor asked. Joel mumbled again too softly for either of us to understand.

"Joel, honey, tell Mommy a little louder," I said. "What did you say?"

In a serious, staccato tone, he replied, "I said I'm allergic to beer."

"To beer?" I asked, cracking up. The pediatrician kept a straight face. "Oh, beer. Okay. Who told you that you were allergic to beer? Did Daddy tell you that?"

"No. I did," he said.

"Okay, then, Joel," said our doctor, "I'm giving you a prescription for amoxicillun. It tastes like bubble gum and it contains no beer, all right?"

"Okay. Thank you," he said.

The humor didn't end there. As I was making the follow-up appointment at the front desk, Joel coughed. Then he said, "She didn't do a thing for my mouth. We need to go back in and do it over again and again."