Tucker was telling us a story or a “tall tale” about some wild chickens and how he was shooing them around today. As my mom and I stood there in the kitchen listening to him and trying to decipher what he was saying in all his excitement, he was just a crackin up. He was laughing so whole-heartedly that we couldn’t help but laugh too. We couldn’t really decipher 2 out of 3 words, but by God, if he was laughing that hard, we knew it must have been darn funny. It was a real “leg slapper” and he was proud of that funny story he was telling.
Little did I know that by that nightfall, his story would grow and grow (as most good tall tales do). Baby Tucky sat up in the recliner where he was resting with daddy and just busted out into another intriguing story. It’s hard to remember it all but it went something like this (in a really high pitched 2-year-old kind of way): “I caught a big fish….a big bass. A catfish! Mountain caught fish! Coon in a tree, mountain lion chase coon. Shoo! Shoo! Mountain lion chase cow. Pa shoot ‘em. Stand back! Stand back!!” and so on and so on. That mountain lion of his day dreams sure had a busy day at the ranch. Grandpa often tells tales of a mountain lion, and I guess they have really grown on Tucker.
Tucker is a busy little guy, and a great source of smiles and entertainment. Earlier that day, while we were on our way to a check up on the far, far, far, far north side of San Antonio—Tucker got car sick. He puked ALL over his clothes, and ‘ol Super Mom (that’s me) didn’t bring an extra outfit. So we had to make a quick stop at a Walgreen’s which was the only store close enough, and on the way, not to make us late for the appointment.
“Are you sure Walgreen’s has clothes?” I asked my mom.
“Sure they, do,” she replied.
Well, I ran in and desperately searched the shelves for children’s clothing to no avail. However, as I turned down one of the center aisles I noticed some very cute Tucker-size sweaters. The only problem is they weren’t exactly in the “clothing section”….They were hanging in the pet section…..they were puppy sweaters. They were just cute as could be though, so I picked up a little gray knit sweater with adorable brown buttons, knowing that there were only a few more shelves to search and it was looking like there weren’t gonna be a lot of other options.
I checked with 2 store clerks who both assured me that the store didn’t have a lick of children’s clothing, and I reluctantly checked out with a $15 puppy sweater.
When I got back to the car and held it up with the big red “Puppy Sweater” label, my mom just busted out in laughter. Not having a minute to spare—I grabbed it and put it on him and hoped for the best. It fit perfectly except for the little poop flap in the back, which looked rather funny. My mom was still trying to clean the puke out of the car seat at that point, but she was dying with hysterical laughter at the same time. I’ll guess we both were. It’s been a long time since I had a laugh that good.
Thankfully, I had a little windbreaker jacket for him so that covered up the back area and solved that problemo. I still didn’t know what we were gonna do for pants though, and his were soaking wet. Then by some miracle, I got lucky enough to find an old pair of human shorts for Tucker in the back of Grandma’s magic suburban. Bingo! Those doctors and nurses had no idea my little boy was wearing a puppy sweater!
Ironically, when the doctor walked in to see us, the first thing Tucker said to him was “Look at my new sweater!” to which the doctor replied “Wow, that’s a nice one.”
We both bit our tongues and thankfully the conversation quickly shifted to Tucker’s light-up shoes and shorts before the doctor had a chance to look at that sweater for too long!