Page 68 of Trick or Treat

“Why don’t you set the table while I finish up here? Plates and glasses are in the cabinet next to the sink.”

“Yep. You got it.” She hopped up like her butt was on fire, refusing to acknowledge what Trick said. It didn’t take long for her to get the table set, so she asked what everyone was drinking.

“I’ll take tea and you’ll have to ask the kids if they want juice, milk or water.” He placed the different dishes on the table while she was doing that.

Lindsey stepped into the living room and saw a Christmas tree sitting in the corner and wondered how she had missed it when she got here. It was one of those slimmer trees that seemed to be in style right now. It looked like Trick already had the lights strung although they weren’t plugged in yet. She couldn’t wait to help the kids decorate it.

“What do you guys want to drink?”

“Milk,” Keegan replied.

“Milk,” Reagan echoed.

“You got it.” Lindsey went back and poured two glasses of milk and placed them on the table where Trick indicated they would be sitting. She then poured him and herself tea and placed them as well.

“Time to eat!” Trick shouted, causing Lindsey to jump at the sudden loud noise.

The sound of running feet came down the hall, getting louder the closer they got. Keegan got there first, Reagan a close second. It appeared she had found a sparkly crown somewhere along the way.

“How was your day at daycare, Reagan?” Trick asked while cutting his pork chop into small pieces, then putting five on her plate.

“It was good.”

“Did you learn anything new today?” He scooped a small amount of mashed potatoes onto her plate.

“I learned about jungle animals and the hippopostamusus are my favorite.” She added an “s” in the middle and an extra “us” at the end.

“Why is that, baby girl?” Trick scooped macaroni onto her plate.

“Hey, I want more macaroni.”

“You know the rule. You have to eat some of the other food, too, then you can have more macaroni.” Trick plopped a huge helping of stuffing onto his plate. “Now why are hippos your favorite jungle animal?”

Reagan smiled wide and speared a bite of pork chop on her fork. “Because they’re fat and they can swim.” The fork made it halfway to her mouth before she thought of something else. “Oh, and when they poop in the water, their stubby little tail spreads it around like a sprinkler.”

Trick almost choked on his food. Keegan burst into laughter and Lindsey giggled behind her napkin. Leave it to the little ones. They said whatever came to mind regardless of what it might sound like out loud.

Trick took a quick sip of his tea before he tried to speak again. “You learned about hippo pooping habits in preschool?”

“Yep. It was in a movie we watched. It was a docmatary.”

Trick looked to Lindsey to see if she had any idea what she was talking about. “Oh, you mean documentary?” she asked Reagan.

“Yeah. That’s it.”

“Good grief.” Trick shook his head and went back to eating. “What did you learn today, Keegan?”

Lindsey was curious to see what stuck out most for him. They’d covered many things today, so it could be almost anything.

“I learned that multiplication is hard.” He quickly glanced at Lindsey, then his dad.

Trick looked from his son to Lindsey. “They’re learning multiplication already?”

“Yes. We introduce them to it and push to have them memorize the chart so math will go easier for them next year. They really do a lot of multiplication in fourth grade.” She turned to Keegan. “Don’t worry. You’ll do fine. You’ll have a whole semester to get it down.”

“If you say so.” Keegan had his doubts.

The rest of dinner went well as they continued to carry on small talk amongst the four of them. Reagan was able to eat her small pile of mashed potatoes and four of her five bites of meat. Trick caved and gave her a big scoop of macaroni, which, to Lindsey’s surprise, she was able to eat all of it.

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