"Is he a pretending to be a genie?"

Well, he did it.

He made his first public embarrassing question about another person.

It was inevitable. I've been living in fear of Kael's questions and worry about what comes out of his mouth whenever we see something out of the ordinary, fretting about whether I'd be able to handle the situation with grace. I am just surprised it didn't come earlier, given Kael's curious and observant nature.

We went for a pre-bedtime walk. The weather was nice, the kids behaved (for the most part). It was a lot more peaceful once Malia decided she wanted to walk and left Kael alone in the Chariot. He was on a scavenger hunt and had with him a pad of paper and a pencil. He was diligently drawing whatever object of interest caught his eye: a rock, a flower, a tree, the leaves, a spiderweb, birds, the moon.

We made it all the way around and were in the home stretch. The people who live down the street were outside in the front yard. A couple of kids were playing badminton and the grandfather was pruning some bushes. We exchanged some hello's and smiles. We were almost past them when Kael asked (in a very loud voice):

"Is that man pretending to be a genie?"

As you can imagine, the family was of either Indian or Middle Eastern descent and the grandfather was wearing a turban. I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything, hoping that Truong would step up to the plate and offer something -- anything. But no. He remained silent too. So I prayed that Grandfather didn't hear Kael's question.

I was mortified. And since we didn't say anything, Kael repeated the question:

"Why is he pretending to be a genie?"

Omigod. I knew I had to say something before Kael yelled it out again but really didn't know what to say so I made sure whatever it was I said, was said in a very soft tone of voice so it wouldn't be heard, in case it was a wrong explanation. At the same time, I tried to casually pick up the pace without looking like I was running away, which was what I really wanted to do.

Me: "No, Kael. He's wearing a turban. That's something he wears because that's where's he's from."

Truong: "Yeah, Kael. Like how I wear a hat. That's his hat."

I made some mention of it being like a sheet but I remembered reading somewhere that referring to the turban as a sheet was a no-no so I sort of let that comment taper off and die, hoping that Kael didn't catch it and ask about wearing sheets on one's head.

By this time we were 2 houses away and Kael seemed satisfied with our comments. So all in all, it wasn't too bad. It could have been worse. I do wish his first question was about someone we didn't see all the time so the embarrassment wouldn't be relived every time we went for a walk.

Anyway, I'm searching on-line tonight to better educate myself about the turban so I can properly explain it to Kael tomorrow. I don't want him to ask the genie question again tomorrow night if we run into Grandfather again.

I remember a few weeks ago we were helped at the library by a librarian with an eye patch. Granted the patch was skin colored and she was wearing glasses so at first glance you noticed something was off but couldn't really tell until you realize she's only got one eye. I was in agony, waiting for Kael to ask about it but luckily he was more interested in the summer reading program to notice.

Thank goodness for small favors.