You’re serving me spolied food, Mom!?

While growing up my Dad had a favorite side dish that my Mom made. I think many Americans call this cheesy potato casserole or something, but my parents opted for the more “eloquent” name, “potatoes au gratin.” The problem was, they didn’t quite have the French flair needed to pronounce it eloquently so it sounded something like “potatoes a-grottin.” To my inexperienced 3 or 4-year old ears, it sounded like they were saying “potatoes egg-rotten!” LOL.

Indeed, when my Mom was about to make it for the first time since I went off baby food, I thought she was planning to serve me a concoction of rotten eggs mixed with potatoes that for some reason my Dad loved. I was terrified and whined in protest. There was no way I was eating that! My father was not aware of my silly misunderstanding said to me enthusiastically, “oh, you will LOVE it!” Noooooooooo! I won’t eat it!

In the end I think my Mom ended up making something else! I hope that wasn't because of me, because otherwise...Sorry, Dad! Needless to say I finally did try it at a later time and it was crazy delicious. It became one of my favorites too!

Image for illustration purposes only; may not match actual product

Awww...! What happened to your face!?

When I was about 4 or 5 years old, one of my favourite and surely most irritating pass-times was climbing my parents' living room cabinet and pulling the knobs off of my Dad's stereo system. Despite being scolded and punished for doing this many times, I was evidently quite driven in my pursuit of this activity.

One day when my Mom noticed that it was "too quiet in the house," she decided to check on me and found me with the knobs in my hands and an "oh no, I'm busted" look on my face. Frustrated that I wasn't learning my lesson, she told me to go sit in my bedroom, facing the corner, and she gave a slight push in the direction of my room. Right at that moment I tripped over my own feet, fell down and hit my cheek on the carpeting, resulting in a small rug-burn on my face.

Now, in order to finish this story, it's important to note that my father never notices anything. Even if one day the sky turned from blue to dark red, he wouldn't notice that anything had changed. Keeping that in mind, it's amusing that when my Dad came home from work, hours after my fall, the first thing he said was, "Awww...! What happened to your face!?" with a look of genuine parental concern. Since apparently I was eager for retribution, I answered, "Mom threw me into the wall!"

I think my dad believed me for about 5 seconds until he heard about my attack on his stereo system. LOL!