Like Father, Like Son

For my first day back in Massachusetts I went to visit my son as soon as I got up. He needed to eat, and my wife was heading out to a bridal shower, so I took him to Denny's. Yep. Again. Hey, he likes Denny's, what can I say. If you don't know what I'm talking about here, see my entry titled "Breakfast - Gone Horribly Wrong".
Anyway. We were seated at a table and had ordered. While waiting for our food, we started to play a game. Handsome (as I refer to my son in this blog) had brought along two little plastic figurines that have something to do with a game he plays at recess at school , I think. One is pink, the other blue, the former slightly larger than the latter. He had put the pink one aside, and we were playing the simple game of hiding the figurine in a random fist, behind our backs, and then seeing if the other could guess which fist it was in when they were brought around to the front.
I think he was beating me, he being a little better at this guessing game than I had previously thought. I had an eye on the pink figurine that was sitting unused on the table, a little over toward his side. I was struck by the idea that he would laugh, and maybe be impressed, if I could somehow palm that pink figurine while he wasn't looking and swap it for the blue one behind my back.  Thinking quickly, I pointed toward the kitchen.
"Is that our server?"
He looked that way, and I quickly snatched the pink plastic doohickey off the table. Before I could do anything with it, however, he looked back. Caught in the act, I looked closely at the little whatsis and said "Man, she's got some wild hair!" I put the little figure back on the table, halfway between he and I. We played two more rounds of the game before we were interrupted by the arrival of the food.
The food was set down, and I was asked if we needed anything else.
"No thanks, I think we're good."
Our server walked away, and I turned toward the plate in front of me. Handsome was sitting with his hands thrust out before him, and a grin on his face.
"One last time," he said. "Which hand is it in?"
I looked at his hands, but I was distracted. Out of the corner of my eye I had noticed that the pink figurine was not where I had left it. The little bugger in front of me had taken advantage of my distraction with the server to grab it! I forced myself not to look at the empty space where it had once stood, and instead inspected Handsome's hands more closely. They were both closed, and not too tightly; each was relaxed, but completely enclosing anything inside them. One, however, was open slightly more than the other, just a touch more relaxed. And the pink doohickey was larger.
I lightly slapped first the slightly looser hand, then the slightly tighter, saying "Pink, blue!"
His mouth dropped open, and he opened his hands to reveal that I was indeed correct.
"How did you do that!?" he cried, with a big smile. Realizing that, though my attempted trick had gone awry, he was even more impressed by the way I had foiled his trick, I played it to the end.
"I'm a Dad. Dads just know stuff."
Refusing to say more, I indicated his plate and started to eat my own meal. Eventually he put the figurines down and started eating. We both smiled through the meal.
Sometimes there's no trick, Handsome. Sometimes it's just keeping one simple thing in mind.
Like father, like son.

Talk to you later!