The Return of the Owl Game, Now With More Noise

Although The Owl Game is by no means a nightly entertainment around here, Cubby will occasionally request that I turn off all the lights so he can be an owl.

Or, lately, I'll go into the living room to find him swaying precariously atop his rocking horse as he reaches to turn off the lamp on the table. This is the problem with small children: Their increasing independence is so often tied to increasing peril.

Anyway.

Whether I do it or he does, the lights get turned off and then he hoots around, stopping periodically to whisper thrillingly that he can hear something and it's . . . a snuffling skunk. But then he pinches his nose shut and informs me that he can't smell the stinky smell now.

I suppose he's not an owl at these times, since as far as I know owls can't pinch their beaks shut. Or whisper.

Anyway again.

Tonight he added a new twist to his game, unfortunately prompted by my attempts to play along. He was hooting around while I sat in the dark and made stupid comments like, "Is that a great horned owl I hear?" To which he would gleefully announce, "It's me! Cubby!"  And then I'd say, "Is that a barn owl I hear?" Repeat ad infinitum.

Once I asked if it was a screech owl I heard. And instead of saying, "No! It's me!" he just started screeching.  Over and over.

Then we had a talk about how screech owls use outside voices because they're outside and their voices have to carry a long way so other screech owls can hear them. But Cubby the screech owl was inside and his voice didn't have to carry so far, so he should be using his inside voice.

An inside screech owl voice.  My evenings just get better and better.