Out of the mouth of my babe

A few things Biscuit has said recently:


On course: Last summer, Biscuit attended a summer camp that offered golf lessons. He had gotten a set of clubs for Christmas, so he was excited to learn some skills for the course.

Every day that Biscuit had a lesson, I'd ask him on the way home, "How was golf?"

His answer every day was, "Good."

To which I replied, "What did you do?"

And he would say, "Well, we worked on putting and chipping, then we did some free hitting."

After several weeks, I was wondering if adding the golf lessons had been worth it.

"So have you learned anything so far at your golf lessons?" I asked Biscuit.

"Yes, yes I have," Biscuit said.

"Let me guess," I said. "You've learned putting and chipping and free hitting."

"Well yes, but I've learned more than that," he said.

"Like what?" I asked. I was expecting him to give me his usual answer with maybe a detail or two added.

"Well, actually," Biscuit said, "today, we talked about loft. That has to do with how high or low the ball goes because of the way the clubs are slanted."

So he's getting golf lessons again this summer!


Dad's turn: When we found out Jeff was going to have surgery, we realized that we needed to tell Biscuit before he overheard us talking about it.

Biscuit is usually really good about taking things in stride as long as we give him plenty of details. He wants to know step-by-step what's going to happen. And after we explain that, he's usually fine.

So the three of us were riding in the car together on the way to do some shopping, and I said, "Remember when Dad had pneumonia, and he told us he had to get an x-ray of his chest?"

"Yes," Biscuit said.

"Well, when the doctor looked at the x-ray, he saw some weird-looking bumps on Dad's thyroid. That's a butterfly-shaped thing right here in your neck." And I pointed to the spot. "They did some tests on Dad, and the doctor decided that he needed to do surgery to take out his thyroid. They'll give Dad medicine to make him go to sleep, and he won't feel anything they're doing. He'll be in the hospital for one night, then he'll be out of work for two weeks."

"Do you have any questions?" Jeff asked.

"Um ... not yet," Biscuit said.

I told Jeff we should just get Biscuit an appointment with the surgeon so he could ask all the questions he wanted!

I had my appendix out in September 2015, and because it was an emergency situation, there wasn't much time to explain things to Biscuit.

So after I had my surgery, Jeff asked Biscuit if he'd like to go see me.

"Um, no," Biscuit said. "I don't want to see that."

"What do you think you're going to see?" Jeff asked.

"Mom's surgery!" Biscuit said. He thought that I would be in surgery from the time I got to the hospital until the time I left. And he didn't want any part of that!

So after Jeff and I had talked to him about the whole thyroid situation, I asked him, "So how do you feel about this?"

I wish I had a video of him answering. He sat there for a minute. He had a very serious look on his face, and he held his hand out toward Jeff and me.

"Guys, I had to face something like this with Mom's appendix, so I think I'll be okay."

Jeff and I were glad Biscuit was going to be able to "face" another surgical situation.


Musical pasta: Biscuit's piano lessons are at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. Jeff and I decided when he first started that we would go out to eat after the lessons. That makes it a whole lot easier on me. And if Biscuit's does well and behaves during his lesson, he gets to pick the restaurant.

He picked a steakhouse this past Tuesday, and Jeff and I were looking over the menu while Biscuit did a maze on his kids' menu.

One of the "signature" sides (which means you pay an extra $1) you can get with your meal is macaroni and cheese. But not just ANY mac and cheese. Steakhouse Mac & Cheese. It has the corkscrew noodles with several kinds of cheese and herb-flavored bread crumbs on top.

So Jeff and I were talking about macaroni and cheeses that we like, and Jeff said, "I shouldn't admit it, but I still like box mac and cheese."

All of a sudden, Biscuit looked up with a bewildered look on his face.

"What did you say?" Biscuit asked.

"I was saying that I like box mac and cheese," Jeff said.

"Bach's mac and cheese?" Biscuit asked. "Like the composer?"

Jeff and I got a good laugh. Looks like he was definitely paying attention at his piano lesson.