Make Salad, Not War

Luke, my 8-year-old, and I alternate nights with my 5-year-old for snuggles before falling asleep. On Luke's nights, he likes to stay awake as long as possible chatting about whatever he can come up with. Sometimes I am dead tired and there is my wide-eyed little Luke all excited for Mommy snuggles and as soon as I lay down he'll start in with, "so, what should we talk about?" I wonder whether I am going to have one of those closeted teenagers or whether he will always be this adorable eager beaver?

Several nights ago it was Luke's turn for Mommy snuggles. I lay down beside him and slid my arm around him.

"Mommy," he said, "did you know that the Stormtroopers in my Lego Star Wars game have guns that turn into carrots?! Isn't that crazy?!"

"Carrots?" I said, "That sure is crazy!"

"They can't hurt anyone Mommy! They're just -- carrots!" he said.

"Wow," I said, "What if that could really happen and we could replace all of the guns in the world with carrots?"

"Yeah!" he said excitedly.

"And bombs could be tomatoes," I said.

"Yeah, it's like salad!" he said even more excited.

"Yeah Luke! Make salad, not war!" I said

And with that the two of us fell into a fit of giggles. Luke decided that he was going to start a major campaign to replace weapons with vegetables and encourage world peace by making salad, not war. Politics with an 8-year-old is so much fun!