Chicken Little

Ds-age 5 has a "chicken". This is not just any chicken, it crows. He brought it home from the neighbor's yesterday, carrying it wrapped in his coat because "it was cold". He named it Chicken Little. Last night he made a cage for it in the barn, very carefully and thoroughly arranging boxes, bikes, tools and wood so the "chicken" couldn't get out. He wanted to check on it before he went to bed so at 930 we went out to the barn. No chicken. I didn't have the heart to tell him a cage with no roof is simply not effective for a bird. After crying hysterically for the assumed fate of the poor chicken, he asked if we could pray for the chicken to be safe. I said of course so in his sweet little voice he said "Um, dear God, thank you for letting me get this chicken, please don't let anything eat it, amen".

Prior to discovering the missing foul, we had to make a late evening run to the convenience store during which time ds said he couldn't wait for his chicken to lay eggs. I explained to him that his chicken was really a rooster, which meant it was a boy and as he already knew, boys don't make babies, girls do. He said "Oh yeah, I know, the boys plant the seed that's in their testicles, how do they get it to grow?" (although he used a more common slang term for testicles, rhymes with "falls"). I did what any good mother would do who takes advantage of every teachable moment, I quickly changed the subject. Speaking of chickens.......

Lest you be worried that the rooster met his end during the night, I have good news. Ds bounded out of bed this morning and put on his coat and shoes and headed outside. He was gone for quite some time so I started to go check on him and met him at the door. He was grinning from ear to ear and said "the chicken didn't die!". I told him how happy I was for him and asked where the chicken was. He said he had to chase it for a while but finally captured it and proceeded to pull the chicken out of his jacket. Then he asked me if chickens like oatmeal and turns out, they do.

Now if we can only convince dh (aka Mr. Safety) that we're not all going to come down with the bird flu!