Words

Madeleine, angry with me for having her make the bed: "You are such a lazy lunker!"
Me: "Well, don't you think I work too?"
She: "If you were an airplane pilot, you wouldn't be so lazy."
Me: "Oh? Why is that?"
She: "Airplane pilots work so hard that they sweat all the time and have to take naps!"

Eitan today, one day before his sixth birthday, patiently sorts out two large bags of Milky Ways and Kit-Kat bars to take to his school classmates. I ask him if this has been approved by his teacher, which it has not. "Everybody does this, dad!" he asserts, welling up with emotion. A weak arguement by any stretch, but his anxiety about not spreading birthday joy over-comes my doubts. Off the kid goes - loaded with a bagful of grocery store stimulents more potent than anything I could otherwise find on the street.