My husband starts listing ‘funny’ names for food, and brings up escargot, you know, snails.

“Guess who loves to eat escargot.”

“Who?”  My Little Man asked.

“Mommy.”

Then there was a moment of silence…

“You mean like Gary, SpongeBob’s pet snail?”

My husband and I quickly exchanged looks and realized that we were in that little cloud in a 5-year-old’s world where reality and pretend sometimes collide…

“Oh no!”  I quickly interjected.  “Gary is SpongeBob’s pet.”

Then my husband adds, “Plus, he lives in the ocean.”  Like he’s safe from your carnivore mother because there is no way a person could get to a snail, or a crab, or God forbid- a fish, in the water.

“… Oh, okay,”  My Little Guy said, in a tone that seemed he was not quite convinced, yet, at the same time, completely satisfied with our answers.

Ah, another question answered… not an example of superior parenting, but answered, none the less.