The two-year-old and the penny

During a recent camping trip to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks in Utah, we realized what made all those cool sandstone arches and sculpted canyons. Wind. Duh! But when the wind kicked up on our last day and we had to pack up the tents, the twins did not want to get out. "Too windy! too windy," they yelled every time we tried to plunk them out of the tent. So they got plunked in the Expedition's spacious front seats instead to cause trouble in there for a while.

I checked on them several times; each time as I opened the huge door they scrambled to NOT touch whatever it was they were touching, I verified the relative safety of the button/lever/object, and closed the door again. However, on one of my trips to the car I noticed Isaac's big eyes dropping those crocodile tears and thought I'd better investigate.

Opening the door I noticed Isaac looked like he was goobering. "What happened?!" I asked. "I eat penny," Isaac stated. Uh oh. This could be trouble. "Where is the penny?" I asked carefully, really hoping he wouldn't point to his tummy. "Mine barf penny! Right there!" Ah. Sure enough, right in the center cupholder, was a puddle of barf with a slimy penny in the middle. At least the car is a rental. As I cleaned the cupholder out, we talked about how we shouldn't eat pennies and how you need to ask mommy whenever you want to eat something new. "Why in the world did he eat a penny!?!" I complained. Aunt Karen, of course, provided the perfect answer, "He had a penny. And he's two."