u say tomato, i say tomahhhto

ummmmmmmmmm.. the one on my right??

- baxter, 4.9 years old, during his lesson in picking tomatoes

Even though the nights here have been cool, they still haven't been cool enough to tell the little kielbasa's cherry tomato plant on the deck that it is time to say goodbye.  And so there are tiny tomatoes in various shades of green and stripey orange, all struggling to turn ripe despite the cold weather and shorter days. Struggling so hard that they sometimes exhaust themselves, and simply fall off the vine and onto the deck.

The little kielbasa has figured this out in the past week or so, and has made it his daily mission after poopies to run hurriedly back up the deck to snitch one of these fallen unripened fruits of summer, cradling it carefully inside his mouth like a little green treasure and hoping that nobody will notice his bounty as he brings it back inside to enjoy in the quiet darkness of under the kitchen table.  Only to be disappointed that his tomato was much ickier than the ones he remembered tasting only a few weeks ago.

Cute, I know.  But this is my little poppin fresh funnabun we're talkin about here.  Whose forefathers before him without any training at all knew exactly when to snitch a tomato off their plant, even after they went blind.   They would be appalled that tiny chumley didn't apply more discretion to his deck farm to under table endeavors. 

So yesterday afternoon when tiny chumley raced in front of me and darted up the stairs to snitch yet another fallen unripe tomato, I figured it was time to make things right.  Time to teach my boy.  I went back inside and brought out a grape tomato from a box I just purchased from Aldi.  Not exactly summer sweet, but better than an orange tiny ball.   I sat him down and let him carefully sniff each one from my hand. 

"See baby dog?  This is the one u want.  Okay now you do it.  Ready? Now which one?", I asked Baxter as I put both tomatoes down for him to choose.  Baxter looked down, and then looked up.  Waiting.  "It's okay, you can do it." 

Baxter briefly paused before coming up with his own very special answer.  

which one? how bout BOTH??, his tummy proclaimed before his mouth took care of the rest.

And thus ended my lesson for the day.