During our visit back to Canada, Little T received a chicken from his Auntie M. No, not a live chicken, but with all the racquet it makes, it may as well be alive (at least then, it could have one benefit, and give me eggs).

When you press this chicken’s wing, it waddles and plays a loud, horrid version of the chicken dance song.  And when you grab its neck (which is a natural tendency to immediately turn the thing off) it makes a loud gagging sound.  Throw in that the batteries seem to be running low, you can imagine how this thing can really grate on your nerves.  Lovely.  Thank you Auntie M.

Ever since Little T received the gift, I have been doing my best to get it left behind somewhere.  When leaving Auntie Ms the next morning, she made sure it was packed in my bags.  On the morning we left to return back to Germany, I had everything finally squished back into our two suitcases, my laptop bag, and Little T’s carry on knapsack.  Suddenly, I realized that I forgot to pack his portable DVD player, so happily I removed The Chicken from his knapsack and announced to Little T that he had to make a choice:  either we bring home the DVD player or The Chicken.  Both wouldn’t fit in the knapsack.

I tried hard not to smile as I explained this, assuming of course that he would surrender The Chicken to Nana and Papa. Instead, he looked back and forth at the DVD player and The Chicken and with eyes lit up announced “Mommy, I have an idea!” Upstairs he ran and within seconds returned back and presented me with a plastic bag. “We can put The Chicken in this bag, and I can carry it on the plane! That’s a good idea, right Mommy? Right?”

Rats. What could I say? “Yesss, that’s a great idea” I replied with clenched teeth, and rolled my eyes at my mom when Little T wasn’t looking.  At least she had a good laugh at my expense.  Just as we were about to pile into the car for the airport, my mom pointed out that I forgot the plastic bag with The Chicken on the bench by the backdoor.  Thanks mom.

During the security check at the airport in Toronto, and agent pulled The Chicken out of the plastic bag after it was scanned and asked me what it was.  “A chicken!” I responded (duh! Don’t you know your barnyard animals?)  I secretly hoped that he would confiscate it, but instead he laughed at it and put it back in the bag and wished me a nice day.  Thanks a lot.

When we landed in Frankfurt, we had 30 minutes to get from terminal B to A and go through customs to catch a connecting flight.   If you have ever been to Frankfurt, you can relate to how next to impossible this is, especially when you have a plastic bag with The Chicken constantly sliding down your laptop bag forcing the bag to stop moving while madly running on the moving sidewalk.  During which I was constantly reminding Little T to Hurry Up!  Combined with maybe an hour of airplane rest, it wasn’t much fun.   

We could have made the flight, accept we were stopped and forced through security check.  I forgot about this step! Knowing there was no chance we would make the flight, I let go of my panic mode and casually loaded up the belt with our belongings.

Pulling The Chicken out of the bag, the security agent asked “Was ist dass?”  (What is this?) “A chicken” I sighed.  She then asked me to turn it on. Fumbling for the on switch, I finally got it going and on came the chicken dance song.   The security agent had a good laugh (along with a few others) and she gently put The Chicken back in the plastic bag and handed it over to me with a smile.  Together again.

Yesterday, while straightening up Little T’s room, I came across The Chicken still wrapped up in the plastic bag.  Obviously, it was extremely important that we brought that thing home with us.  As Little T wasn’t home, I pondered tossing the bag in the garbage bin outside and finally be rid of it.  But instead, I decided to leave it out in the open in his room.  The Chicken travelled a loooooong way to get to Germany, and deserves some attention that it will never get from me.

I just hope he doesn’t turn it on at 7am.