Ramona and Sumner are my best material

I can try to write about the things I think and do, but really, if I just stick to the things the kids do and say, I write things ya'll want to read.

Ramona asked me today if she could sit by the open window (today is predicted to be the last nice day of the year for Boston) and eat lunch and watch the workers building a porch on the house next door. I wasn't eating with her, so I agreed and she set her little bowls of grapes and crackers and cheese on the window sill and greeted the men. She asked them what they were doing and when they told her she asked why they were cleaning up and when they' be back, "Next Tuesday, Mom, they'll come back and finish." Glad she's keeping tabs on neighborhood business.

Then she turned and gasped, "Mom. Mama. That man with the red shirt kind of looks like he has boobies. He has boobies."

"Okay, Ramona, he may, but don't say that too loud."

Whispering, "He really looks like he has boobies. I'm not saying it loud. I'm just telling you: he has boobies."

"Alright."

"Mom, I had a dream about college the other day."

"Really? What happened?"

"It's a secret."

"Okay."

A few minutes more of watching Boobie Man and then, "There was a tickle monster and he didn't have a face. Then we realized it was just a hood."

"Okay."
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Sumner gets a Lego "magazine" every couple weeks. It should be called a catalog, because it is one. Sumner counted up his money the other day and brought me $5, two of which were his one and only $2-bill. He asked me if I could use the money to buy him a Sir Knight Kingdom Knight online. He asked me to use two of my one dollar bills instead of actually spending the $2-bill. I can keep the $2-bill, but only in a safe place. I think he plans on buying it back one day.

So tonight Sumner sits me down at the computer to buy this thing. We look up the toy and find that on every online toy store it is between $8 and $10. This baffles him, "In the magazine it says $5." He is getting worked up. I am puzzled too. Sumner can read. He usually doesn't get this kind of thing wrong. He also can't find the "magazine" that proves the $5 price. He's frustrated and is getting on his shoes to go and see if he left it in the car when he says, "It says 'All 6 Sir Knight Kingdom Knights for the price of 5'. I promise you, Mom."

The poor, poor thing. Learning a harsh lesson the blur of marketing and then the harsh buying reality so young. Wanting something so badly and finding that what you think the good deal is, is no deal at all. I hate that, but I guess it is not such a bad thing to strengthen your disappointment muscle.