God, Jesus, and Chicken Nuggets

We've had some interesting dinner conversation this week.

A couple nights ago, Allyson got ahold of the salt shaker and mounded salt over her potatoes. "Gross!" Ethan said. "You're not going to eat that."

After Bill knocked off most of the salt, Allyson greedily gobbled a few bites. "I love salt!" she said.

"If I ate all that salt, I'd throw up," Ethan said.

"I'll give you five dollars to eat her potatoes," Bill said slyly.

"I wouldn't do it for five dollars, but..." I could see the wheels turning. "How much would it take for you to eat something that would make you throw up?" he asked.

"I don't think you could pay me to throw up," I answered. "Well... I might do it for $500."

"Hmm," Ethan mused. "I'd do it for $15." (This was shocking considering Ethan's extreme phobia about vomiting.)

Before Bill could get out his wallet, I said, "Okay. Enough talk of vomit at the table!"

A few days before that, I couldn't get Allyson out of the pool for dinner, so I brought out my secret weapon: leftover meatloaf, which I thought was her favorite food.

She still didn't want to get out until I offered to let her eat on the back porch. She hopped right out then and sat down at the picnic table, with water streaming down all her limbs. Around a bite of meatloaf, she mumbled, "Know who makes the best chicken nuggets in the world?"

I thought back to our play date the day before. "Umm, Chick Fil-A?"

She beamed. "Yes! They do have the best chicken nuggets.... next to God, of course." Her mouth twitched as she pondered this idea (just like her daddy's mouth moves when he's deep in thought). "And I guess Jesus, too," she went on. "Yes, it's God, Jesus, and then Chick Fil-A"

I fought to contain my laughter. "I never thought about that," I said. "But I guess God probably does make the best chicken nuggets. Or the best chickens."

She looked so cute there at the table in her suit, with a diver's mask atop her dripping hair and tomato sauce on her chin, that I had to snap a picture.

When she saw me taking a picture, she said, "Here, take a picture of me feeding meatloaf to Lola." So much for meatloaf being her favorite food. Darn those chicken nuggets!

The Love Children
In other news, remember those pesky birds who found a love connection on our pool deck? Well, I think their babies are hanging around now on our front porch. The other morning, Bill called Allyson and me out to see them. "Come quick!" he urged, holding his finger up to his lips. "But be quiet."

And there were two young birds, sitting sedately on our porch bench. They weren't bothered by us at all, and indeed seemed to be striking a regal pose for our camera.

I found it amusing that Bill wasn't nearly as annoyed by these cute little birds as he had been by the love birds a few weeks ago. It was Allyson who found the black clouds in the silver lining, after the birds had been lounging on top of and under the bench all day. "Ewww! Look at all this poop!" she exclaimed.

Darn those birds!