Throat Thumpers

Leif: "Mommy, I am going to be sick again and have to go to the hospital again, like grandma had to go too."

NM: "No, you aren't going to be sick, you are just fine. A healthy little boy."

Leif: "No mommy, you don't know this. I have thumpers in my throat and they thump my throat and make it hurt."

NM: Stifling laughter. "Do you have a sore throat?"

Leif: "No, but the thumpers come alive whenever they want and thump it and make it sore."

NM: Stifling more laughter. "Well a sore throat won't send you to the hospital."

Leif: "But the thumpers will. They thump my throat ALL the time, like this." (Clicks his tongue.)
NM: "I need to know more about these thumpers. What are they like?"

Leif: "Well there are brown ones, and yellow ones and white ones and they are alive and they will make my throat sick mommy and we will have to stay home from school for 100 years!"

NM: Laughter bubbles over. No longer stifling. "You are so full of it."

Leif: *grinning* (Because he made me laugh.)