The Ice Cream Truck Cometh

So this has been the status of things around here since last Friday when the ice cream truck made it's first appearance for the season:

Thank God we do not actually have this many cats.

Just Kidding.

Actually this is probably closer to the truth:


Survival Skill 101: The Scream: "When I scream like this, all humans, animals, plants, and even aliens are struck with fear."


This is a picture of Nico last year at the zoo when a sheep said, "baa." Nico must speak sheep, and whatever that sheep said so offended him that he let loose with Freak Out.

Apparently, Nico can also decipher the hidden messages in the creepy music of the ice cream truck, because he's been putting on his Freak Out whenever he hears it, bless him. On Friday when it came by we were outside on the front porch and our neighbors were visiting. He Freaked. So the neighbor actually bought him a popsicle. But it probably didn't help that the worker was missing most of her teeth.

He ate the popsicle willingly enough of course - he's never met a dessert he didn't like - but that did not serve to remove any fear. All weekend long - even at lunch today (Monday) - Nico has spontaneously asked, "Ice cream truck, it's okay?" and then he repeats it to himself several times (It's okay Ice Cream Truck) for further reassurance.

Today it came by, I was upstairs and Bill and the boys were downstairs. The ICT came by. A few minutes later Nico bursts into tears, sobbing. Bill finds him in his room, distraught, and he won't say why he's crying. Bill says to him, "Nico, the ICT is gone. It's okay." Nico: "Ice cream truck, it's okay?" B: "Yes. It's gone." Nico stops crying, but repeats "It's okay Ice Cream Truck." When I come downstairs, he cries out again. I pick him up and he talks to me about the ice cream truck. I assure him it is gone, it is not in the house, it just drives by.

It's tough being a kid sometimes.

I'm sure Nico is simply exhibiting an awareness of the danger of ice cream trucks, and their probable connection to clowns and mall Santas. He is ahead of his time, as this oh-so-very-true article from Avant News indicates: "London, August 29, 2009 -- Ice cream trucks, the ubiquitous roaming purveyors of frozen dessert products that infest suburban neighbourhoods around the world, announcing their arrival using strident, uniformly irritating off-pitch melodies, have been found in a recent study to be a leading international cause of insanity." (you can read the rest of the, ahem, "article" here.) :-)

Good Times, y'all. Pass the popsicle.