Guess What

If you've correctly deciphered the newly coined third grade words and phrases, you've figured out that Jacob's "leg knuckles" are really his knees, a "fa-LEM-entine" is a delicious fruit, the bathroom was not so much "out of water" as it was "out of order," and those little "m" people you get when you're sick?  Yep.  Mucus.

Lately I've been doing a lot of guessing to figure out what kids are talking about--and not just trying to take a stab at working out their word substitutions.  Brianna's favorite style of delivery of any type of news, these days, has been the "Guess What" approach.  "Guess What" + Expectant Look never really precedes news of some normal occurrence.  But then, since when are elementary school days filled with normal occurrences?

A few weeks ago, Brianna wanted to see if I could figure out what she ate for breakfast.  Well, more so she wanted to orchestrate a dramatic pause and then, with great flourish, tell me bizarre thing she ate for breakfast.

icanflourish.com

"Ms. Sarah--guess what I ate for breakfast!"

"Hmmm...oatmeal?  Cereal?  Eggs?"

"Nope!"  [Dramatic pause.]  "My NAILS in a bowl of cereal!"  And thus I was GuessWhatted into learning of some sort of strange kitchen nail clipping mishap.


Yesterday, Brianna pulled out a "Guess What" in a place with a particularly high potential for a disastrous answer.  The bathroom.

"Ms. Sarah--guess what is in the toilet in the second stall in the girls' bathroom!"

I closed my eyes for a minute, hoping for something completely normal, but knowing we were not headed in that direction.

This time, though, I had no guesses, as my preferred answer to that question would have been, "Nothing."

Despite my lack of guessing, Brianna was still able to achieve a sufficiently dramatic pause.

"CHICKEN!'

Really--if you're going to inform someone of the fact that there is, somehow, an entree in the toilet, Guess What is a pretty effective method of presentation.

Beware of the Guess What.  You never know when the answer will be chicken.