WHAT did that little boy just call me?

Kids do funny things.  Kids also do things that embarrass their parents.  Sometimes, they do things that are funny in one circumstance, and embarrassing in another.  And then you think, Maybe we shouldn't have laughed quite so much the first time.

For instance.

Yes, of course I have an example.  I have two toddlers, one of whom is just learning to speak, and hasn't gotten us in much trouble.  Until, maybe, now.

It started out very innocently last weekend, after we went to dinner and tried to get ice cream at a nearby parlor.  It was jam-packed, and we had to move on, but not before my little Imp got to meet the parlor's mascot, a picture (or statue?) of a cow outside the door.  Although I didn't witness this personally, as I was dealing with a potty emergency involving my other toddler, I have it on good authority that he and the Crazy Cow hit it off quite spectacularly.  The brief meeting ended with my son waving and saying, "Bye bye, cow!"

This has become his new mantra, and at random times, for no apparent reason, we will hear his little voice pipe, "Bye bye, cow.  Bye bye, cow.  Bye bye, cow."  And he will say it over and over.  Sometimes it comes out as, "Bye bye, dow."  But we all know what he means.  And we ooh and ahh and giggle over it every time, because it truly is adorable.  He has a very precious little voice.

So, fast forward to tonight.  My mom was in town again this weekend, and the five of us plus Craig's parents went to an excellent BBQ joint ("restaurant" is just not the right word) for dinner after church.  After a rocky start that involved some sweet cornbread that looked (and tasted) like cake along with many tears when Mommy wouldn't let him have only that for dinner, the Imp managed to finish off about half of my BBQ pork, most of my cornbread, and half an ear of corn.  We were all pleased with ourselves.

Especially him.  He realized everyone thought it was funny when he would open his mouth wide whenever I would try to to take a bite of my food, and got a bit punchy from it.

He's a bit into being the center of attention.  We may have a class clown in the making.

After dinner, I made the ubiquitous pregnant-woman-fifth-potty-trip-of-the-hour.  The Imp was not very happy to see me go, but didn't make a fuss (I don't think).  However, when I came out, he started chanting, "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!" in his adorable little voice until (and for a little bit after) I picked him up.

Of course, the folks sitting around us were charmed.  "He's so cute," a nice-looking young lady (probably only a few years younger than I am, but with a sweetness that made her seem younger than that*) at the next table commented, while smiling at him.

* I know that sounds a little weird.  I tend to assess people - not try to judge their character, but just make observations - and in this case, my assessment was along the lines of, "She is probably close to my age, but something about her makes her seem younger."

I answered with something like, "Thank you.  He knows it, too." while patting my son on the head indulgently.  After all, he is the sweetest, cutest little boy you will ever see.  Ever.  I mean it.  So take a good look now, honey, because this kind of cuteness only comes around once every seventy-six years or so.

Anyway.

The Imp and I were among the last of our group out the door, and as we left the people who were smiling at him, I told him to "say bye bye!"  I almost always do this when we leave people who have taken notice of him, because his bye bye is just so cute, and everyone always loves it.

Well, usually.

Can you guess where this is going?

My impish little troublemaker looked at this nice lady and said, "Bye bye, cow!"

Blink.

Except, fortunately, this was one of the times it came out as, "Bye bye, dow!" so instead of looking offended, the young lady just looked a bit puzzled.  And it could have just ended there, with me smiling and waving and leaving with at least a little dignity, but I knew what he had said, even if no one else did, and I got all flustered and embarrassed.

"No, no" I admonished him, "Just say 'bye bye!'"

"Bye bye, cow!" he repeated with the sort of stubborn innocence that makes you wonder if he doesn't really know what he's doing, after all.

At this point, I was both embarrassed and at the same time barely able to hold in my laughter, so I just apologized and darted out the door before she could figure out what he had said.

The poor girl probably thought I was laughing at her.  Sigh.

Actually, she probably just thought I was one of the strangest people she'd ever encountered.  And she was probably right.  Double sigh.

I carried my little guy to the car amidst his chants of, "Bye bye, cow!  Bye bye, cow!" and loaded him in, then had a good laugh about it with Craig and my mom.  And the Imp told the cow goodbye off and on all the way home.

So my little Imp has already managed to inadvertently insult someone - and he can't even talk yet.

(Incidentally, I could go into how my three-year-old who never misses anything just happened to notice how funny we found it that the Imp had told some lady, "Bye bye, cow," and add in there how she tends to take anything that we think is funny and run so far with it we can no longer even hear her crazy little giggles.  But I'll save that story for when it happens.  When.)

Please pray for us.  I think we may be in trouble.