Mark Has Word-Play Fun

Mark is only five, but he demonstrated this morning his capacity for maturity levels at least equal to mine.

The whole family was discussing what to do on such a beautiful day. Mrs. Aristos suggested mini-golf, which I shot down--arguing that Robbie would be an irrepressible nuisance to us and to other mini-golfers.

Natalie insisted that Robbie would be good, and I replied that she merely wanted Robbie to be good so that we would go mini-golfing. In fact, I continued, he will run all over the place, climbing on things, and grabbing other people's golf balls.

But I didn't use the phrase "and grabbing other people's golf balls." I simply said, "and grabbing other people's balls."

Mark caught it even before I did, and he laughed so hard that milk nearly shot out of his nose. As soon as I noticed it, I realized what I'd said, and then I began to laugh.

Ever since then, Mark has been full of great one-liners such as "Golfing hurts because you keep hitting your balls."