The Egg Comes First

Today is garbage day. That means that last night Mark was dumping all the little garbage cans into a big bag while I, holding Olivia, was peering into the fridge trying to figure out what was old and icky. I decided that the four or five eggs in the fridge-egg-basket thingy (reenacted in the above picture) had to go. So, stupidly, I put the basket thing on the counter and yelled to Mark, "There's more stuff in the kitchen!" Liam heard me and came to see what was up.

Now, Liam knows that baby birds come from eggs. He's known that for a while but, it just so happens that he saw a baby bird hatch earlier in the day on television, so he finally put two and two together: we have had baby birds in the fridge this whole time. And here they were, on the counter and within reach. So, with great excitement, he grabbed the basket thing and began cooing over the little baby birds he knew were inside: "Look Mommy! Eggs! Dere baby birds in dere!" I really didn't know what to say. I tried telling him that, no, these eggs were for eating and that he'd seen me open these eggs and there were absolutely no babies in these eggs, but he wasn't having any of it. There were babies in these eggs and those were his baby birds ("Mine baby birds!"). At the same time, I was trying to take the basket back, but I was holding Olivia and, heck, those were eggs in there and I had to be gentle. Of course Mark picked that moment to come into the kitchen and say, "No Liam, those eggs have to go in the garbage."

Liam reacted like we were going to murder baby chickens right in front of him. He took off running with the basket of eggs, Mark in hot pursuit. He did a complete circle past the bookcases, down the hall, through the living room, and back into the kitchen before Mark was able to gently wrestle the egg basket away and it's a total miracle that not one was dropped. Poor Liam was almost inconsolable over the baby birds for quite a while (not helped by his lack of nap that day).

He expressed his disappointment with us and escaped from the world for a little while by putting the kitchen garbage can over his head.

Comments

[Kari]

Is it terrible that I find this funny?

[Katherine]

No more terrible than killing baby birds.