Look at That Guy

Tyler's reaching that lovely age where he's noticing differences among people, and doesn't see anything wrong with pointing them out. At a restaurant, Tyler yelled "Hey mom, look at that farmer" when an elderly man wearing a straw hat walked by. Lucky for me, the man didn't put two and two together on that one. At the grocery store last week, Tyler yelled "Hey he looks like a pirate," and at first, I was so distracted with groceries, Gavin, etc. that I wasn't even going to acknowledge what Tyler said. But right when he said it, this man started laughing really loudly so I turned around to see a big man wearing overalls and a red bandana thing on his head cracking up. I was relieved that he had a sense of humor about it, and laughed too when he told me it's been one of 'those days' where hes been called lots of names, but pirate wasn't one of them until now. I'm guessing that guy won't ever wear that outfit again. Whenever someone in a wheelchair goes by us, I brace myself for the loud question and start to prepare a politically correct response that won't offend, set off, or confuse anyone. I remember when I was with Michael and he asked me why that man only had one leg...as a 16 year old, I just about died when the man came up and explained to my brother that was a rude question. But so far it hasn't happened with Tyler, and with any luck, maybe it won't, because he's too busy noticing the farmers and pirates in the world.