Goat Heads

No one is sleeping. At least not well. Faith wakes up before 6 every morning. Jake is up at 6:05, practically on the dot. Tanner follows soon after. And this is after each one has woken up in the night at least once. No one is sleeping. We are tired. The kids have dark circles under their eyes. I'm sure Brian and I have looked better. So, at 4:30 this afternoon, Brian and I decided that we just needed to get out. It was a good 3 hours until bedtime and everyone was cranky and the thought of playing referee to three exhausted kids seemed overwhelming. So we piled in the van to get some dinner.

On the way back from Taco Bell (OK.... where besides fast food are we going to take three whiny children? Not one of our finer parenting moments, but there you have it...) Jake announced from the far back seat, "Mom, we need to clean out the car. There's a bunch of goat heads back here!".

Brian and I looked at each other, not sure if we heard correctly in our exhausted state. So we turned down the music and clarified, "Jake, did you say GOAT HEADS?".

He confirmed. "Yeah... there's a lot of them. I think I must be bringing them home from camp each afternoon."

More confused glances. Brian tried for further clarification: "Actual goats? Like the HEADS of real goats???".

That got a giggle. "NO! Not REAL goats, Dad. The plant!".

Now it was my turn. I took a guess: "Did you learn in camp today about a plant called a 'goat head', Jake?"

Bingo. Now that it was established that there weren't actually bleeding decapitated mammals inhabiting the back seat with our son, we were curious to find out more. So Jake told us that he would show them to us when we got home.

As soon as we pulled into the driveway, he bounded up front and opened his palm to reveal the mysterious plant... it was a FOX TAIL.

Brian and I cracked up, sure that he had just gotten the name wrong. Both names combine an animal and a body part-easy to get confused. Brian made some joke about another plant called the "Ratbutt". But Jake insisted they were really called Goat Heads.

So I got on the computer, googled it, and discovered that my five year old had taught us something new today. Our car is indeed filled with goat heads. Who knew?