Gene and I recently purchased a small sprinkler for the grandkids to play with. It has about a dozen worm-shaped objects with cute worm faces and holes for the water to sprinkle. We thought it was adorable. Unfortunately, when you say “worm sprinkler” to a two year old, she freaks out. We had Tavi (7) and Oona (2) for grandma/grandpa camp, and I asked their parents to pack swim suits that they could get wet in. Tavi had seen the sprinkler several times and was excited to play in it. However, every time she said “worm,” Oona would run away and say “No worm! No worm!” and run for the porch. This caused Tavi to try to explain the worm and chaos ensued. Grandpa was the safe haven on the porch while I kept asking Tavi to quit saying the word “worm”. Oona was never convinced that the worm sprinkler was a good idea, but a bucket of water with some bubble in it was a nice cool distraction. Since I had the soap and buckets out, it seemed like a good idea to get the girls to wash Gene’s truck. Just to be fair, we put Ori on window washing with his super soaker squirt gun. Grandma/Grandpa camp is so fun!
As we drove the girls home, Oona was in the back chattering away about the worm. Tavi would say, “Wasn’t the worm sprinkler fun Oona?” To which Oona replied, “No worm.” Again, Oona would say, “worm,” and I would confirm that we had a new worm sprinkler and that she didn’t have to play in it. “Worm, worm, worm,” says Oona. After about five minutes of this, I finally turned around and looked at Oona in her car seat and she is anxiously pointing at the window next to her . . . which has a dead worm stuck to it. I died laughing, and tears rolled down my cheeks as I explained to Tavi and Gene that there was an actual, dead worm stuck to the window. We were all laughing so hard when we dropped them off at home. I couldn’t even explain to her parents what we were laughing about.
Gene and I have randomly shouted “worm!” at each other for two days.