This and that

Last week on vacation we stopped at Clyde's Drive-In for lunch in St Ignace. Luke ordered a turkey sandwich and a strawberry shake for lunch. When our order arrived (on a tray hung on the car window) and the food distributed, the back seat was inordinately quiet for several minutes while L worked on his ice cream. He then came up for air and burst out with "STRAWBERRY SHAKE!", then there were several more minutes of quiet (except for our giggling). When the shake was gone,* he pulled the turkey out of his sandwich and declared "This comes from turkey vultures!" After we left, I asked him what he thought of the Drive-In. He said "I like that dinner! You should try it sometime."

That morning, Luke woke up at the campsite asking for waffles. The only food we had left at that point was breakfast burritos, and he was quite upset about the lack of waffles. After breakfast he declared that he only wanted plain noodles for dinner. This was the first time he had ever asked for anything that simple, and he was clearly feeling the effects of 3 1/2 days of pre-planned camping food with no opportunity for variation. That night we went to a restaurant in Harbor Springs for dinner. [Note that I had called the restaurant in advance and said "I never thought I'd be the kind of mother to ask this question, but do you serve plain buttered noodles??"] When the waitress asked what we'd like to drink, L piped up and ordered pineapple juice. He was wearing his yellow pineapple Hawaiian shirt, which may have been what prompted that odd request. Amazingly, they did indeed have it. He didn't actually eat his plain noodles; instead he had our lasagna and whitefish and salads, but he was happy his demand was met. That evening he was in full wild-child-trying-to-be-good mode, and at one point he leaned over and whispered to me "I love you mama!" Then he wiggled over to David and said "I like your dinners, dada!" We call this "dada as doormat".**

DADA ADDENDA:

* Actually he only drank about 4/5ths of his shake. Afterwards he announced "this shake is yucky!" No one believed him but that is what a cranky Lucas mood is like.

** Luke's daycare was closed yesterday and today and dad had to prepare syllabi for the new semester that starts next week, so mama took work off to stay home with him. We called these "mama days". Tonight at dinner I asked him how his day was with mama and he told me about all the fun he had. But then he added: "I want a dada day too!" He can be sweet to his dada.