Ponies Here and Ponies There

Hick had a light-bulb moment this morning. A scathingly brilliant idea. And when The Pony and I returned from our shopping trip, this is what we found:

My current favorite is the one in the middle. The big mama pony with the little baby pony. Just because.

This is proof that Val Thevictorian has at least ONE friend. Her best ol' ex-teaching buddy Mabel, who has kept her in ponies for the past 8 years. Well done, Mabel. In only six short months, I shall be dusting these ponies daily, what with having all that RETIREMENT free time on my hands.

This is the piano from my mom's house. Not to be confused with the one in the basement from my grandma's house, rescued from my former elementary school auditorium. On the wall is a picture of baby Genius, a December infant, who, in keeping with his then-unknown personal style, arrived exactly on his due date. No so The Pony, who was scheduled to be a Leap Year delivery, yet showed up around Valentine's Day. Let the record show that The Pony took this photo, and seems to have cut the head off Genius.

Little Genius could not wait for the arrival of Baby Pony. Until he actually got here. Then it was like, "Meh. He doesn't do anything." However, he soon found joy in blaming cracked curio-cabinet doors and chipped earthenware crocks on unwitnessed acts of newly-ambulatory Baby Pony. And, when they were old enough to receive identical toys from my step-grandpa, to know without a doubt that the recently-broken one belonged to Baby Pony.

Let the record further show that, as with most infants, Baby Pony's first word was Dada, second word was Mama, and, curiously enough, his third word was Back. We were at a loss. "What's that? What's he saying? What is THAT supposed to mean?" Uh huh. Everybody was intrigued. The third word of Little Genius had been the name of his eldest brother, Hick's boy, who was 14 at the time. But we had no relative with the name of Back.

After several weeks of investigation, Val Thevictorian cracked the case. She was sitting in the living room, not getting much of anything done except, perhaps, watching Emeril season his TV dishes with a satisfying, "BAM!" as Little Genius and Baby Pony played on the carpeted floor. It happened in an instant. Little Genius ran by Baby Pony and snatched a toy from his hands. Not-yet-crawling Baby Pony made a sad face.

"Back."

Said Baby Pony, a moment before distracted Val commanded Little Genius, "Give it back."

I guess you could say Genius taught The Pony to talk.