Tastes Like Mystery

Okay. Maybe I'm not parent of the year but some time ago I started giving The Boombah a Dum-Dum Pop lollipop after preschool if she goes the whole day without an accident. I save the wrappers and the idea is that when she has enough she can trade them in for a big reward like a stuffed animal or a visit to Dora the Explorer-land at the Mall of America. Some may see this as bribing their child. I just know that she hasn't had an accident in weeks and asks to go potty when she has to go. Thirty years from now she'll wonder why she craves mango candy every time she goes to the can.

The other day, I fanned out a selection of Dum-Dum Pops in my hand and told The Booms to choose one. She usually goes for coconut, her favorite, or some reliable fruit-flavored stand-by, but this time she chose the mystery pop with a big question mark on the wrapper.

On the way into the house I realized that I forgot to ask The Booms what flavor the mystery pop turned out to be.

"Hey, what flavor is that lollipop by the way?" I asked.

From beneath her umbrella she said, "I don't know.

I pressed her. "Well, what does it taste like?"

She moved the umbrella aside, looked up at me and said, "It tastes like mystery."



After a few additional slurps she added to her original answer, "Mystery lemon."