Ridiculous Nicholas

When I was a little kid, my mom babysat. Sort of like home day care, only better, because the kids were like part of our family all day.

There was a little boy named Nick, AKA Ridiculous Nicholas, who really lived up to his name. When he was about two, my mom told him to make his milk 'all gone', so he held the cup out past the edge of the high chair tray, turned it upside down, and announced proudly, "Milk all gone!"

Nick's mother was in the hospital for surgery at one point. His unique way of dealing with the stress was to collect all the sample soap they gave her. He would carry them around in a cloth bag and play with them: sorting, unwrapping, building towers, whatever. One day my mom found him sawing one of the bars in half with a play knife, and asked him what he was doing. With a straight face, he replied, "I'm making Kevin a Zestfully clean lunch!"

I love kids.