No Bad Gas!

I'm sure the title enough has peeked your interest. Last night our family got together at my sister's house with her family for a fish fry of fish we had caught on our family vacation last summer. It was a beautiful night, so Jacob decided to eat outside on the patio with some of the others, while my husband, nephews and I sat inside. While enjoying the fish, we heard a loud single BOOM off in the distance. A firework I am guessing. One quick little blast, and my husband and I knowingly looked at each other.

Jacob is terrified of fireworks. They are probably one of his biggest fears. How ironic that my sweet boy was born around the Fourth of July. Even the thought of fireworks sends him into a panic. The other day he handed me a kids book and told me he didn't want it anymore because it bothered him. Sure enough when I glanced inside, there was one page that had a photo of a fireworks display. It doesn't matter if he hears the boom sound. In his mind it is real and it terrifies him. Nothing can get him over his fear. Not even his love for our major league baseball team. The single firework they shoot off after a homerun keeps Jacob fearfully at home to watch the game on TV.

And so last night, it didn't take but a minute for Jacob to carry his dinner plate inside because of the bang he had heard outside.

"Mommy, was that a firework?"

"I'm not sure." I said trying to sound uninterested to help downplay the situation. " I don't think so, but even if it was, it is over."

"I think it was a firework," Jacob insisted. I knew we had to do something or Jacob would never want to return to his aunt and uncle's house again, forever associating the firework with their home.

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't a firework." I replied.

Thankfully Jacob's uncle stepped in, "I think it was just a car backfiring."

"What's that mean?" Jacob inquired. His uncle briefly described what would make a car backfire, but I could tell Jacob wasn't listening, but instead the wheels were turning wondering if this could happen to our car.

Sure enough. "Mommy, would our car do a boom?"

I needed to squash this fast or Jacob would never get in a car again. "No, it happens to really old, old cars. Not our cars."

Still not satisfied with my answer he asked, "But what if it does?"

"Jacob, it won't. It only happens when you have bad gas." I replied not thinking how funny that sounded.

"Mommy, do you have bad gas?" Jacob asked seriously, and I heard my nephews let out a chuckle.

"No, nope, I do not have bad gas."

"But how do you know if you have bad gas?" Jacob asked and again my nephews quietly laughed at the connotation of the conversation.

"I just make sure I don't get bad gas. Before I get my gas, I ask the guy, 'Hey, do you have bad gas?' and if he does I don't get his gas." Again more laughing.

Not satisfied with my answer he turned to my husband, "Daddy do you have bad gas?" To which my husband proudly responded, "Yep! Sometimes."

"And I get really mad if daddy has bad gas, " I added.

By this point my nephews are rolling with laughter. Jacob goes back and forth trying to get reassurance that we do not have bad gas, the humor of the situation lost to him. Finally the conversation ends with Jacob saying, "Whew...I hope I never get bad gas!"

So if you happen to see me at the pump and Jacob is with me, don't be surprised if he leans out the window and yells, "Mommy, make sure you don't get bad gas!" Or better yet, maybe I will just let that job fall to my husband.