Our changling child

Sometime in Heir 2's babyhood, we are convinced he was abducted by aliens who removed his serviceable-but-ordinary Linguini brain, added some extra connections to it, slapped on the Brain Supercharger 3000 booster pack, put his brain back in and returned him to his crib.

Either that or the Gnomes sprinkled him with magic dust.

Here's the proof:

Heir 2's girlfriend Caisee is a member of their high school forensics team and last night was the district finals in Madison, Va. Though we have encouraged Heir 2 to participate in one of the academic teams, even Caisee's participation would not induce him to join. He always said he needed to offset his academic record with sports, so that he doesn't get a reputation of being a total geek.

So yesterday afternoon we get a phone call from Heir 2 asking permission to go to the forensics district finals -- as a team member. It seems two of their members couldn't make it and they needed someone to at least fill out the roster. Later I found out that they'd asked him specifically because A.) he's smart; and B.) he's great at b.s.ing.

I wasn't surprised he agreed, because it meant a long bus ride with Caisee and an evening spent with her, even if it meant he was clueless about forensics.

So he comes home. . . with a silver medal. He placed second in the district in "impromptu speaking" and will advance to regionals in March.

Who is this child?

This, of course, reminds us all of this: