Scarecrow Patrol

Our family scarecrow keeps moving. Sometimes he's standing outside the front door where he belongs, greeting household visitors, but at other times we find him peeking longingly in at us through the back door as we eat dinner or watching television with us through the family room window. Oliver has taken this chance to teach my nephew Jacob a valuable lesson: scarecrows are not our friends; you must protect your family against them.

Jacob, as children do, has become obsessed with scarecrows and Oli's warnings, written on the children's easel chalkboard, "Scarecrows eat small children, especially Jacob," don't help him get them off his mind. But despite my concerns that the kid was going to develop a scarecrow complex, shrieking for the rest of his life every time he saw a bit of hay, much the opposite is true.

Last night, Jacob led me out of the house into the dark night to go with him on Scarecrow Patrol. We had to protect the family. Barefooted, the 4 year old led me down the dark subdivision steets where we shouted at all the scarecrows we saw, making friends. As Jacob explained, "We're friends at night, but the scarecrows are bad again in the day." Ah, the wise child has already learned to keep his enemies closer...

I don't know what it all means, but man, scarecrow patrol is fun.