Skip to main content

Kids are tasty

One day after preschool, Mama's tummy was grumbly. She told me something that was very surprising.  She said she was so hungry she wanted to nibble my toes.

I was shocked.  She does not usually make a habit of eating my toes.  "My toes?  What about yours?" I asked.

She made a face (a face she makes when she tastes something disgusting).  "Oh no, I couldn't possibly.  Adults taste terrible."

"What? They do?"

"Oh yes, it's true."  Mama told me. "They work hard taking care of kids and typing on computers and building bridges and car ramps. All that work makes them extremely tough to eat. Trust me, you just wouldn't care for the taste."

"I'm very hungry." She told me again, this time with a pleading look in her eyes." I think I will just have a little snack from your ears."

"What?  My ears!  No way!  Eat your own ears!"

Mama shook her head.  "No,  are you crazy? I can't munch on my ears, they are too far from mouth.  Plus, adult ears taste a bit like slimy compost."

"What do kids' ears taste like that makes you want to eat them so much?" I asked.

"Oh kids' ears..." she said with a glint in her eye "they are definitely the best."  "Kids play and throw sticks into the sewer and swing from things and fly kites and make slides out of pillows.  All that playing makes them delicious to nibble on."




"Playing and  throwing things down into the sewer and swinging from things and flying kites and making slides out of pillows make us taste good?"

"Delicious. Can't I just have a small snack of your nose?"

"My nose!  Not a chance I need my nose."

"Oh, but kid noses are the very best.  They are like a cherry on the top of the ice cream, the sprinkles on a cake and the rose on the cake.  I must have your nose."

"What makes a kids nose taste so good?"

"I'm not sure of the exact recipe," sighed Mama, "but they are certainly good enough to eat."








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I entered August without you.

 I won't visit you this month.  You won't call. I will raid your garden and you won't get any of the vegetables. I will make plans without telling you about them. We'll go to the store and not buy you one single thing. Whole books will be read and I will not tell you which ones. I will watch movies and not inform you. The nasturiums will ripen. Last month was different. I changed my schedule and took time off work to be with you.   I dropped all kinds of plans for us to be together. You sent me messages, I received them. I picked up food that I thought you would like at the store and sent you pictures of every beautiful thing I saw. I sang with you. We watched the Great Canadian Baking Show. You chose the recipe for the garlic scape pesto and gave me instructions for making the gooseberry jam. I am in August without you. You are in July.

Fists full of lettuce

 It is a pot of a variety of lettuce plants. It was planted by my mom.  She has been living with Stage 4 bile duct cancer for at least 1.5 years (that we know of, probably a lot longer).  Standing and gardening are becoming harder as time goes on. She learned about gardening from her dad as a kid and kept on gardening every year of her adult life.  Sometimes the gardens were tiny or rudimentary, but with the help of my dad , they have become major and, at times elaborate, growing projects over the years.  Now it is a collection of raised beds and regular beds that hold a host of plants, vegetable and flowers. Something that was clear that first spring with Stage 4 cancer is that gardening would continue in a big way, cancer or no cancer.  It was important to order the seeds and start them inside and get them planted outside, no matter what. Spending time together in the summer with cancer now consistently involves gardening and following instructions. Plant...

Shake your Bummy

In recent weeks, two things have come to my attention, this article by Mary Beth Williams,  T he real key to good health  and the viral hit created by Dr. Mike Evans,  23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?  Both coincided with when I was turning my attention to new years resolutions and reflecting on the year that was. Thanks to both,  a reckoning came to be.  Mary Beth Williams' candid advice was to get your heart stronger because you never know when you are going to need it.  She herself has been receiving treatment for lung cancer. Dr Mike Evans' way of putting the exact same thing? "Try to limit your sitting time to 23 1/2 hours a day".   In my day job, I sit a lot. I occasionally rise to retrieve something from the photocopier or to make a coffee, but an awful lot of the time, I'm on my bum.  This is in steep contrast to my night job. At the end of the work day, occasionally in the middle, I h...