I was not inclined to cook dinner and there were coupons, so it was Del Taco for dinner. Besides Gleek and Patch deserved to get to do something special since Link was off at Scout Camp and Kiki was off role playing with Howard. So we loaded into the car and headed out.
At first the conversation revolved around Fable 2. Each of the kids has their own game file. Gleek and Patch had much to discuss. I’ll admit that it was a bit odd listening to Gleek talk about her Bert and realize that she’d had her character get married in the game. She’s been having a great time buying him a house and giving him presents. All the implications of being married completely pass over Gleek’s head. She’s just playing house in the virtual world of Fable 2. However discussion of Bert did lead her to ask me questions about how flirting works in real life. It was a nice moment for me to impart information on how I think healthy relationships should work and to give her some selection criteria that may be of use to her in about ten years. It underlines for me how different my kids are. It never occurred to Kiki or Link to ask questions about flirting.
The topic of conversation turned, which was something of a relief. I did not want to enter Del Taco in the midst of a conversation with an 8-year-old telling her how to go about selecting a boyfriend. My relief was short lived because I found myself mired in a conversation about blindness. Several weeks ago Gleek came to me and declared a passionate desire to be blind and she wanted to know how she could become blind. Gleek is strong willed and occasionally impulsive and it seemed fearfully possible that she might deliberately blind herself if I gave her the information. So I prudently gave her the true, but incomplete, information that some people are born blind and others become blind through illness. Stymied on the possibility of blindess, Gleek was frustrated to learn that I gave the same answer about deafness. I was not pleased to have a rehash of the conversation as we were pulling into the Del Taco parking lot. Discussions of how exactly congenital damage occurs were not conducive to eating.
Fortunately entering a new location is always highly distracting. Del Taco is located on the corner of a busy intersection. Patch immediately declared his desire to eat at the colorful be-umbrellaed tables outside. Since there was a fence and some grass defending the spot from the street, I agreed. As usual, the kids pinged about examining the new space. The tables, benches, fence, grass, and Del Taco itself were all scrutinized. This being a taco place, the kids naturally settled on Hamburgers as their food of choice. So we sat and ate while the cars drove by.
After awhile Gleek picked a sesame seed off the top of her hamburger and walked solemnly over to drop it into the grass. She informed us that she was planting a hamburger seed and that it would grow into a hamburger tree.
“Really?” Patch asked, his eyes wide.
“Yup.” Gleek assured him. She went on to describe how the tree grows both the burgers and the buns. Then people pick them and put them together. After a moment she added that the tree grows ketchup too.
At first Patch was not quite sure whether or not to believe her. She was so calmly certain of the facts that she was telling. I wasn’t even sure whether Gleek believed this tall tale. But then the sly smile emerged and Patch grinned back. So they planted several more hamburger trees while they finished eating.
Then Gleek began watching the cars driving by. She noticed a van like ours and drew our attention to it. That was why we were all looking at the street when the parade float drove past. It was gloriously sparkley and traveling fairly fast. If we had not been looking, we would have missed it. We all laughed about it being our own private parade, when a second float also drove past. A few minutes later there was a third, much slower float towed by. I can only imagine that they’re being hauled down to Provo for the upcoming Fourth of July festivities. We waited, but that was the end of the parade. Del Taco has now been cemented in the kids’ minds as a very cool place to eat.