“Daddy, you look really tall when I’m laying down.”
“Lying down.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not ‘laying’ down, you’re ‘lying’ down.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Well – lay means to put something down. Lie is when you put yourself down.”
“Huh?”
“Well – If I pick you up and put you in bed, they I’m laying you in bed. But if you get in bed by yourself, then you’re lying down. Unless you’re talking about the past, they you would say you lay down. Does that make sense?”
“No. Can you just tell me a story?”
{pause}
“That’s probably a good idea. What would you like to hear?”
“I want to hear a story about Gilbert.”
“Why Gilbert?”
“’Cause he’s tall, like you.”
“Ahh. OK – here’s a story about Gilbert. ”
Once upon a time there was a baby giraffe named Gilbert. Gilbert was tall, of course, and had big nobbily knees. In fact, everything about Gilbert was big. He was the tallest one around, no matter where he went. Usually, he didn’t care, but sometimes it wasn’t very easy being tall. In the movie theater, he always had to sit in the back row, so that he didn’t block the view of people behind him. Playing hide and seek, he could never find a good enough place to hide, because his head or his legs always stuck out. Sometimes, Gilbert just wanted to be the same height as everyone else.…
One day Gilbert was feeling very sad and mopey about being so tall all the time, and his friends asked him what was wrong.
‘I’m always too tall for everything!’ Gilbert moaned. ‘I want to be normal, like you guys!’
His friends were terribly perplexed. ‘But Gilbert’, they said, “We like you just the way you are!’
His friend Gallop said, ‘Your legs are so long, you’re always the fastest in races.’
His friend Charley the Chimpanzee said, ‘You’re so tall I can climb up on your neck to reach the branches in trees I want to climb!’
His friend Bunny The Rabbit said, ‘You’re so tall I can ride on your back whenever we need to cross the river, and I never even get wet!’
“But I can’t even crouch down low enough to get in our group selfies!’, moaned Gilbert. “All you ever get is my legs.’
Well, they had to admit that Gilbert had a point there, but then Skittles the Kittles, who was unusually smart for such a young kitten, said, ‘Gilbert – everyone is exactly what they are meant to be. I’m short and you’re tall. Rollie is big and round, and Oliver has floppy ears. And Cara the Cardinal can fly, and none of us can. But we’re all born exactly the way we’re supposed to be.’
Gilbert spent a long time thinking, and then said, ‘You’re all right. Sometimes it’s really nice being tall, and if I was short like everyone else, then I wouldn’t be able to do the things that make me special.’
“And Gilbert felt much better about being tall from then on.”
“The End”
“Mom?” Molly asked. How tall am I going to be when I grow up?”
“Exactly as tall as you are meant to be, little one, and not an inch smaller, and not an inch taller. Now go to sleep”
A Geocache Notification Form has been filed with the Marathon C. ounty Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Department.