Inside Ooky's world

Ooky: Mom, what does "oddball" mean?
Mamatea: Why do you ask?
Ooky: I dunno.
Mamatea: Did someone call you an oddball?
Ooky: (silent)
Mamatea: Well, it usually means different. You know, a little bit crazy. A person who likes to do things a different way.
Ooky: (no response)
Mamatea: You know, I'm kind of an oddball.
(Ooky gets this totally incredulous look on his face.)
Ooky: You are not an oddball, Mom. You are totally normal.

Oh. No. I have completely skewed his sense of normal.

Insert evil laughter here. A couple times. And again.

Ooky drew some pictures today and asked me if I could write down the words for the story for him because he couldn't write fast enough to keep up with his brain. Here are a couple of excerpts from his book (without pictures, sorry.)

"This is Mallard, the duck. He lives in a cave with a spot of water and a spot of land. He has toy minnows he got from the fishing store. He plays with his minnows all day and night. But he sleeps about ten hours at night, too."

"This is killer whale and his name is Killer. He is 500 years old. He got to be so old because his birthday is before everyone else's. His favorite dessert is chocolate cake. His favorite thing about being in the water is that he gets to eat other squids. The part he doesn't like about the water is all his friends go away, like the squids and Dolphee and the Diver." Mamatea's note: his friend the squid? You mean the ones he likes to eat?

"Ok, this is the last one. He's an octopus and his name is Squidee. He likes to travel in different seas. His favorite one is the Africa Sea because that's when his friends traveled with him."

Ah, Ooky. He just makes me smile.