“How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a clown and pin it down?”

My youngest was singing in the den while he played with the blocks, unaware that he had a listener. We watched Sound of Music the other day, so it wasn’t strange to hear him singing a song from it.

“Hold on,” I said. “Wait.”

He looked up from his blocks. “Yeah?”

“Could you sing that again?”

“How do you solve a problem like Maria?” he sang. “How do you catch a clown and pin it down?”

“A clown?”

“Yeah,” he shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

“Could it be cloud instead of clown?”

“A cloud?” He raised his eyebrows skeptically.  “You can’t catch a cloud.” There was a brief pause, then his face lit up. “Oh! I get it!”

I nodded.

“Pin a clown.” He laughed. “Aaah! There he his! Catch him! Catch that clown!”

“Don’t want to be a clown in Austria,” I said.

“Nope.” Shaking his head, he went back to playing blocks.