Working Mother's Rule #6

Last Thursday morning on our way to daycare, we passed a bus just as it set the brake (or whatever it is that buses do) and it made a loud sound (which I have no idea how to type). Boy Terror bolted up in his seat, and started looking excitedly out the window, all the while yelling "ELEPHANT!! ELEPHANT! I HEAR THE ELEPHANT!!" To give him credit, it did sound just like an elephant. I'm sure that if I didn't live in the Yukon, and I hadn't seen the bus, I too would have concluded that there was an elephant on the sidewalk.
We giggled at his cuteness, and when we got to daycare he was still talking about the elephant. I thought he was happy to have such an abundance of wildlife around us, but when I took him out of his car seat, he would not stand next to me. He clung to my neck, and screamed in my ear "ELEPHANT!! A ELEPHANT WILL GET ME!!" I did what any parent would do. I calmly explained that the elephant was gone now. See? No elephant here at Wendi's house.
I forgot all about our close encounter until yesterday morning, when we got to daycare. As I went to get him out of the car, he peered around me and asked "Elephant here?" Then he called out, just to be sure, "Elephant? Elephant? You here, elephant?" Nope. All clear. He hopped out of the car, and assured me, "No elephant today, Mummy. No elephant get me."

Thus, the Working Mother's Rule #6: A child is never so cute as the moments before you leave him at daycare.