The case of the white mud

"Papa"  he starts,  while still looking down at the toy in his hands.
"Yes" I reply, barely looking at him - I'm driving. But I do put the stereo on mute.
"On a sunny day, when I get a holiday, we should go on a ship "  he looks up at me, while his face breaks into a smile. I guess he's picturing it in his head.

Nischal still doesn't get the concept of days too well. But he gets time of day. So, events are described as on a 'dark day', a 'sunny day', etc. 'Yesterday' and 'Tomorrow' are used, but they are just like 'sunday' or 'monday' - their purpose is to count the days to the coming saturday (holiday).
Once, he found out in March (thanks to a YouTube trailer) about an Iron Man movie.He bugged me literally every day if 'May' was tomorrow, and if we could go see the movie. No thanks to the malls that put up posters well in advance, but I digress.

"Where do you want to go, on the ship?" I ask - wondering if this is one more plea for me to go to the US. I often get woken up from my saturday afternoon naps to go 'right now' to the US to buy some toy he saw on YouTube or Amazon.

"If you go on the ship, you will get to Penguins. I want to go there " he says. There's this disney website called 'Club Penguin' where he & his brother spend a good bit of time playing games. Yes, every player there is a penguin, with a custom set of accessories.

Seeing that 'penguins' doesn't get me jumping in glee, he adds " You also get white mud there".
It takes a couple of moments for me to realize what he's talking about, but I manage to hold back the corrections I have to offer.
I ask instead "White mud? Really ? That sounds interesting!"
His smile widens. "Yes, white mud. But you need to wear caps when you go there"
"Why is that ? "  I ask as I realize scenes on a monitor don't convey the weather.
He pauses a beat before coming up with " Because, the white mud will get into your hair"
"So what if it gets into your hair?", I counter.
He assumes a professorial pose, and takes a deep breath. " Papa, if you get white mud in your hair, you will fall sick. Ok? "
"Oh", I nod vigorously like a light bulb went on in my head. He's pleased with himself.

The next couple of weeks, I'd bored all my polite friends with the 'white mud' story. Then, I hear him point at the TV and say "Papa, that snow looks awesome, no ? "
I barely hide my anguish while I look at his older brother.

"Yes, I taught him. He was going around calling it 'white mud' with my friends too" he says, with a 'I saved the idiot' smile.
My little guy is growing up too fast.