The Mama Sailboat

A small item we've been meaning to note, particularly for our Dear Readers hailing from the Eastern Seaboard who might actually have experience on boats, and be amused by this report (settle in and stick with it; there's some exposition and the amusing bit is at the end):

For a very long while now, Joe has been carried to bed after story time by the Dada Bus, whose services originated after Joe stopped nursing and Julie decided we needed to change story time location from the downstairs, living room sofa, to the upstairs reading nook. In time, she was pregnant with Clara and ferrying Joe down the steps became something that seemed not prudent in several ways, and so we would call the Dada Bus who could be heard approaching with a "Beep beep! Honk honk!" (Interestingly, this is also now how we call the Dada Bus.) A competing service was offered, the Mama Choo Choo Train, but the golden age of the train in Joe's history, as in American history, was short lived. The Dada Bus was the mode of transportation of choice.

Last week, in the wake of reading Where the Wild Things Are, Julie decided to launch the Mama Sailboat, which sails nightly from the sofa in the living room, to the big boy bed in Joe and Clara's room. She herself loves a bus ride and misses them from our days living in Chicago, and it must be said, the Dada Bus is top of the line. To be frank, she did not anticipate Our Hero being swayed from the fine and serviceable Dada Bus, even for an occasional luxury experience on the Mama Sailboat.

Fans! She could not have been more wrong! The Mama Sailboat has been gliding down the hall to Joe and Clara's room since its inaugural sail! Now, we come to our point: the Mama Sailboat narrates her voyages. The first night, she excitedly stood up from the couch with her precious cargo, and exclaimed, "Cast off the riggings! Unfurl the sails!" only to hear the Dada Bus snort behind her and state quietly that if the riggings were cast off, the boat would not go far. Apparently, it is the lines that are cast off. Humph. The Dada Bus softened the blow by noting that the Mama Sailboat was yar, and Fans, you will recall, of course, how Julie just loves that word and all manner of nautical terminology, even if she does not know what it all means, and has never sailed a boat in her life.