Eddie*

We have a little guy this summer who is an amazing storyteller.

He's seven. He tells colossal tales, embellishing them beyond belief. And the more people look skeptical and call him on it, the louder and more emphatic he gets.

For example, his grandfather. (I've seen his grandpa, he picked Eddie up twice last week. He looks about 56 to 60 years old.)

But he's a lot older than that, apparently.

At lunch on Monday, Eddie informed us that his grandpa 'was a pilot in World War 1 and shot down like 2 thousand Chinese guys in one day.'

When Joey* said, "Nuh uh, WW1 was like 100 years ago and your grandpa would be dead!" Eddie looked obstinate yet sincere. ( A difficult thing to do, in case you should wonder).

Eddie told Joey that, "My grandpa is 135 years old and still drives his own car! He's famous!!"

Every lie he tells makes his voice get rounder and more oratorical and more convincing. He sticks his chest out and gets the most sincere look on his face. It's really hard not to laugh at him.

The other day we had pizza for lunch. Sunshine brought it in at her own expense, and told the kids that if they didn't like the pepperoni, they could just pick it off and not eat it.

Eddie said, "I'm ALLERGIC to pepperoni!"

So far this summer, he's been 'allergic' to: sunshine, shade, milk, grape juice, sunscreen, sequins... He's always allergic to whatever he doesn't want or doesn't want to do. We had asked him to pick up the sequins he'd spilled while doing an art project. Evidently he wasn't allergic to them while he was gluing, but once they hit the floor, that was a whole new thing. :)

So Sunshine said, "Hmm, I guess we better check your medical forms and give your mom a call if pepperoni's not listed on there!"

Eddie said, "My mom doesn't know, I just found out today."
(He picked the pepperoni off and lived through the experience, thank goodness.)

The mode of transportation to our field trip Wednesday involved some walking. I overheard him trying to get his mom to say he couldn't walk there because he was 'too tired.'

She refused, and told him he'd be fine. He pouted, but she was firm. Hugged him goodbye and left.

On the walking part of our excursion, he told Sunshine that he couldn't walk very far, that she might have to carry him. When she asked him why, he told her that he'd wrecked on his bike and broken his leg in three places on Tuesday night.

Of course he was able to skate, but walking 'hurt him very bad.'

He told me this afternoon that he once rode his bicycle almost a thousand miles and went to a volcano. "Then, when it went off? I had to pedal FAST to get away from the hot lava! I almost died!!"

Evidently disasters and allergies and scary stuff are with him always... makes me a little nervous.
:)