Oh Give Me a Home, Where the Buffalo Roam...

Submitted by Jennifer

So I don't think I have to tell you all by now that Clayton is a troublemaker. I think that it is more or less obvious at this point. When my nephews were just little tykes, and super impressionable, Clayton always joked that he was going to teach them incorrect things like their ABCs wrong, or mix up all their colors...just for fun! To my knowledge, he never did these things, although on one occasion, he convinced my eldest nephew that he really was able to guess the number that Clayton "had in his head". (Sorry Spyglass, it was all a setup!)

...Or there was the time that Clayton convinced this same nephew, as a tot, that he could pop a chocolate easter egg into one ear and out the other.  I had to cry out in horror as I witnessed, from across the room, my nephew preparing to slam a chocolate nugget into his ear, to try and stop him from carrying out the act!

KD has pretty much figured this out about her dad. It is not often that she falls for one of his ridiculous jokes. However, there have been times when she hasn't 'gotten' the joke, and this has been problematic...

Take for example a couple of summers ago. We were on a road trip to the mountains, and as is always our habit, we like to point out the sights to KD as we go. "Look at the horses! Hey, there's a train!", that type of thing. This is a great way to keep KD entertained along the way, and serves to satisfy that kid's natural curiosity. Win, win! Well, on this particular trip, Clayton spied a field of hay bales and piped up, "Hey look you guys, it's a herd of buffalo!". To this, we all had a good laugh and carried merrily on our way...never giving it another thought.

Fast forward about a year, to a short trip I was making by myself with both the kids in the car. We were driving along, looking at the sights, as usual, when I hear from the back seat,
"Buffalos! Mom, look! There's buffalos over there!"
"Buffalos?!?"
Now believe me when I tell you that I was not expecting to see buffalo on the way to Hecla Island, as this would be most unusual.

Yep! You guessed it! Hay bales! A whole field of them. Then I had to embark on the long explanation as to what they really are, and why daddy called them buffalo in the first place.
 This is my role as I see it...

Undoer of the damage...

Love Jen