The Shark and The Bee

On our way to school this morning, Saia rolled right into story-telling mode -- with Chago following quickly on her tail [pun intended, please].

"Onnnnnneeeee daaaaaaayyyy," she begins, "a shark and a bee were swimming in the ocean." "And," interjects Chago, "once upon a time, the bee sting...sting...stinged...the shark." "The bee stung the shark?" I ask. "Yes," he says, "the bee stung the shark." "And I put a bandaid on the shark and made him all better," says Saia, trying to reclaim the story from her brother. "And then the bee stung the shark on the fin," says Chago, never so easily redirected. [and so the tennis match begins] "But I put a bandaid on the shark's fin," she says, "and now he's all better again!" "No," he says, "because then the bee stung the shark on the tail!" "Well...well...then I put a bandaid on his tail and then he was fine, Chago!" [and so it goes...on the nose, on the gill, on the mouth, on his eye, etc.]

"Okay," I interrupt, "and then what happened after all the stinging and the first aid was done?" "Then," she says, "then the bee was swimming, and..." "Wow," I interject, "does this bee know how to swim?" "No, Mama," she self-corrects, "the shark swimmed..." "Swam?" I ask. "Yes, the shark swam and swam, and the bee flied..." "Flew," I ask. "Yes, the shark...the shark swam and swam and the bee...the bee flew and flew...and then...[she glances over at Chago who's a little preoccupied with an apple slice] and then they lived happily ever after," she speedily concludes so that he doesn't have a chance to take it back.

I can see her in the rearview mirror smiling proudly that she actually one-upped him this time. And as she begins digging through her lunch box for some cheese, he swallows his apple, calmly takes a sip of juice, crosses his leg and props his lunch box on top, starts nibbling on some corn flakes, and oh-so-casually as he's glancing out the window at the bay says, "And then the bee flew inside his mouth and stung his tummy."