One of my favourite photos - Boy and his trusty companion,
circa spring 2000
circa spring 2000
Today is a tea and toast kind of day. Though its much warmer than a typical November day in this part of the world, there's no point in venturing outside. Grey permeates the outdoors as the rain continues to fall. Funny how that backdrop seems to make the grass on the lawns in the neighbourhood look so green and lush.
I'm home today with my son. Normally, he's an early riser like me but this morning he was cocooned under a duvet complaining of a belly ache that miraculously disappeared the moment I told him that we would call in sick and stay home. I could tell all week that he was wiped out and needed a break. His pale little face revealed all. So, as I write this he is hunkered down on the sofa under a blanket in his Sponge-Bob jammies catching up on cartoons and sports news. He's had his toast and apple juice served to him..........the colour is returning to his relieved cheeks.
Sometimes we just need a break....................and a time to catch up on conversations.
Some of the most interesting conversations I have are with my 9 year old son. He has one of the most inquisitive ticking brains that I know. It's always been that way. When he was attending daycare as a preschooler for example, the car ride to the centre almost always included a thought provoking question from Max in the backseat thrown forward to his sleep deprived parents in the front..........often he would perseverate on a topic, allowing it to ruminate over and over encompassing a whole week of related questions. Other times, the questions or the topic would arrive out of the blue. Sometimes he just wanted a simple answer.......... and other times he just wanted some additional information to glue onto the stuff he already knew. Many times, he left his mom and dad baffled and wondering how to answer.
Do you think there are more grains of sand on the beaches than stars in the sky? What is the capital of Chad (he was stuck on the country Chad for a couple of weeks........don't know why, but we all seemed to learn a lot about this African country which previously hadn't given much thought to) How does the gas make the car work? What time is it now in Australia? What is your favourite kind of dog? Why do the leaves turn colour?
On and on and on.................brain food for all...................
My son is a sponge for learning. Not a darn thing gets past him. He is an alert observing being whose senses pick up all sonar blips. The Christmas season when he was 3, Max asked me whose birthday it was we celebrated.
"Jesus," I stated.
"Jesus? Heeeeeeeeee was born on Christmas Day?"
"Yes. Jesus was born on Christmas Day to Mary and Joseph." Thinking that this was a teachable moment, I stopped what I was doing, turned to face Max to give him more information. "He was born in a Manger in........." Max interupted with a quizzical look on his face and asked..........
"Well then who's Geez? You are always talking about Geez? I thought it was his birthday on Christmas.........??"
Busted! Note to self.............mind your gutter mouth............
Max learned numerical concepts like a duck to water. He was born to count, to calculate and to store statistics in his personal calculator in order to spew them out to support the point he is attempting to make or to answer a question..........or to drive us bonkers. Our fridge was covered in magnetic numbers. He could count in his head from the age of 2. A multi-tasker in the male sense of the word, he actually learned to count while learning to use the facilities. That is where male multi-tasking occurs, right?
Adding turned into multiplication at the side of his older sister as she struggled to memorize her "times tables" in 4th grade with the help of verbal quizzing. Max at age 5 then had them licked the first go around. Drove his sister crazy! Now that he's in Grade 4, when I look at his agenda book to see if he has accomplished the list of homework duties and see that he has a Math quiz on mulitiplication........I lob him one............."Max, what's 8X7?"
Without a beat he answers.........."56, Why?"
"OK.......What's 7X7 minus 8, plus 3?"
"44, Why?"
"Just wanted to see if you were ready for you Math test tomorrow."
"Geez, Mom...........of course I am. Do you think it's gravity that keeps the oxygen around us so that we can stay alive?"
"Ah...............sure..................gravity and Geez."
Sometimes his questions drive you batty. He can be incessant with the statistics. It was like we created this monster when we introduced him to hockey and then to the game of baseball, the jackpot of serious statisticians. The tap turned on and he hasn't found a satiation point. It's quite hilarious to hear him discussing some little sports tidbit on the phone with his Grandfather (another sports fanatic). You'd swear they were peers. The two of them went to Cooperstown this past summer to take in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Wish I had armed them with a tape recorder................. the questions and permutions of past glories..................manna.........
Every morning starts with a trip to the Sports channel to catch up on the latest scores, highlights and stats.............it doesn't matter which sport it is, Maxwell has the angle.
He's not a serious little chap all the time, my Max. He's actually quite funny and if he wants to he can whip up the laughter quotient in the house with one wicked quip or dance move. In fact, it is his desire to be a comedian when he grows up. Jack Black and Will Ferrell are in his radar. Can create a rap lyrical song off the top of his head........changes the words to songs to fit the scenario at will........just like the funniest man I know...........his Dad.
Last night he was asking me if lawyers make a good salary. When I stated that yes, they did and that he would make a great lawyer because his brain worked in that way ..........he responded very quickly with ..........."Now that would be a good combination .......a Lawyer Comedian .......betcha there aren't many of those."
Yeah Max, normally they are the butt of the joke.
Lately, we have been playing Scrabble in the evenings. I have yet to win a game, but the two of us have had many laughs over the definition of words and scoring calculations. (Geez, I look at that sentence and think..................how friggin' geeky is that?) The other night, I had put the word "perm" on the board for oh........about 5 points. Max added a the letter "s" to the front of the word and asked me the obvious question.................what is sperm? As I took a breath and tried to figure out how much information he really wanted to know..........I started in on the definition........."well.................." Like always.......but this time with a look on his face that told me he hadn't realized he was heading down the path of discussing sex with his Mom..........he used the new information with the stored brain stuff and replied.........."So, they are like tiny tadpoles. I store tiny tadpoles? I am made up of tadpoles? Gross...........OK........that "s" is on a double word score........so that's 12 points for me. I'm winning........"
He makes me laugh out loud. His take on life makes his whole family laugh out loud. He also makes my heart melt.
Last night, as I reading and Max was playing a basketball game on his gamecube, out of the blue and with feeling, he asked me..............."Mom, how has your life been so far?" Given that the night before I was venting my anger and tears over an unrelated personal incident by turning into a mad hatter craft designer at the dining room table, which he observed.........I thought he was gauging how I was still feeling. Testing the waters so to speak. I assuredly answered that I was quite happy with my life..............
"How about you, Max?"
He answered......"I don't know why I've been thinking about this so much, but I think I'm very lucky. I have a great life. So many others don't."
He stopped me in my tracks, like many times before. I realized that it had much more to do with the news of the world, the upcoming Remembrance Day, and connected to the book he is reading in school about a girl who lived during World War II. He was connecting the dots in his head again. I put down my book and moved over to the couch closer to him. Together we discussed the importance of family and friends, of love and belonging, of living in Canada and not having to live in a place where war and lack of food is a constant, and of being responsible for others who are less fortunate because of our personal fortunes.
A teachable moment for both of us.............as always.
Satisfied with the conversation, his little ticking brain clicked when he realized the time. He jumped onto the couch, tucked in beside me and turned on the real basketball game........the Raptors were playing. Lucky for us............more stats to add up.
I'm home today with my son. Normally, he's an early riser like me but this morning he was cocooned under a duvet complaining of a belly ache that miraculously disappeared the moment I told him that we would call in sick and stay home. I could tell all week that he was wiped out and needed a break. His pale little face revealed all. So, as I write this he is hunkered down on the sofa under a blanket in his Sponge-Bob jammies catching up on cartoons and sports news. He's had his toast and apple juice served to him..........the colour is returning to his relieved cheeks.
Sometimes we just need a break....................and a time to catch up on conversations.
Some of the most interesting conversations I have are with my 9 year old son. He has one of the most inquisitive ticking brains that I know. It's always been that way. When he was attending daycare as a preschooler for example, the car ride to the centre almost always included a thought provoking question from Max in the backseat thrown forward to his sleep deprived parents in the front..........often he would perseverate on a topic, allowing it to ruminate over and over encompassing a whole week of related questions. Other times, the questions or the topic would arrive out of the blue. Sometimes he just wanted a simple answer.......... and other times he just wanted some additional information to glue onto the stuff he already knew. Many times, he left his mom and dad baffled and wondering how to answer.
Do you think there are more grains of sand on the beaches than stars in the sky? What is the capital of Chad (he was stuck on the country Chad for a couple of weeks........don't know why, but we all seemed to learn a lot about this African country which previously hadn't given much thought to) How does the gas make the car work? What time is it now in Australia? What is your favourite kind of dog? Why do the leaves turn colour?
On and on and on.................brain food for all...................
My son is a sponge for learning. Not a darn thing gets past him. He is an alert observing being whose senses pick up all sonar blips. The Christmas season when he was 3, Max asked me whose birthday it was we celebrated.
"Jesus," I stated.
"Jesus? Heeeeeeeeee was born on Christmas Day?"
"Yes. Jesus was born on Christmas Day to Mary and Joseph." Thinking that this was a teachable moment, I stopped what I was doing, turned to face Max to give him more information. "He was born in a Manger in........." Max interupted with a quizzical look on his face and asked..........
"Well then who's Geez? You are always talking about Geez? I thought it was his birthday on Christmas.........??"
Busted! Note to self.............mind your gutter mouth............
Max learned numerical concepts like a duck to water. He was born to count, to calculate and to store statistics in his personal calculator in order to spew them out to support the point he is attempting to make or to answer a question..........or to drive us bonkers. Our fridge was covered in magnetic numbers. He could count in his head from the age of 2. A multi-tasker in the male sense of the word, he actually learned to count while learning to use the facilities. That is where male multi-tasking occurs, right?
Adding turned into multiplication at the side of his older sister as she struggled to memorize her "times tables" in 4th grade with the help of verbal quizzing. Max at age 5 then had them licked the first go around. Drove his sister crazy! Now that he's in Grade 4, when I look at his agenda book to see if he has accomplished the list of homework duties and see that he has a Math quiz on mulitiplication........I lob him one............."Max, what's 8X7?"
Without a beat he answers.........."56, Why?"
"OK.......What's 7X7 minus 8, plus 3?"
"44, Why?"
"Just wanted to see if you were ready for you Math test tomorrow."
"Geez, Mom...........of course I am. Do you think it's gravity that keeps the oxygen around us so that we can stay alive?"
"Ah...............sure..................gravity and Geez."
Sometimes his questions drive you batty. He can be incessant with the statistics. It was like we created this monster when we introduced him to hockey and then to the game of baseball, the jackpot of serious statisticians. The tap turned on and he hasn't found a satiation point. It's quite hilarious to hear him discussing some little sports tidbit on the phone with his Grandfather (another sports fanatic). You'd swear they were peers. The two of them went to Cooperstown this past summer to take in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Wish I had armed them with a tape recorder................. the questions and permutions of past glories..................manna.........
Every morning starts with a trip to the Sports channel to catch up on the latest scores, highlights and stats.............it doesn't matter which sport it is, Maxwell has the angle.
He's not a serious little chap all the time, my Max. He's actually quite funny and if he wants to he can whip up the laughter quotient in the house with one wicked quip or dance move. In fact, it is his desire to be a comedian when he grows up. Jack Black and Will Ferrell are in his radar. Can create a rap lyrical song off the top of his head........changes the words to songs to fit the scenario at will........just like the funniest man I know...........his Dad.
Last night he was asking me if lawyers make a good salary. When I stated that yes, they did and that he would make a great lawyer because his brain worked in that way ..........he responded very quickly with ..........."Now that would be a good combination .......a Lawyer Comedian .......betcha there aren't many of those."
Yeah Max, normally they are the butt of the joke.
Lately, we have been playing Scrabble in the evenings. I have yet to win a game, but the two of us have had many laughs over the definition of words and scoring calculations. (Geez, I look at that sentence and think..................how friggin' geeky is that?) The other night, I had put the word "perm" on the board for oh........about 5 points. Max added a the letter "s" to the front of the word and asked me the obvious question.................what is sperm? As I took a breath and tried to figure out how much information he really wanted to know..........I started in on the definition........."well.................." Like always.......but this time with a look on his face that told me he hadn't realized he was heading down the path of discussing sex with his Mom..........he used the new information with the stored brain stuff and replied.........."So, they are like tiny tadpoles. I store tiny tadpoles? I am made up of tadpoles? Gross...........OK........that "s" is on a double word score........so that's 12 points for me. I'm winning........"
He makes me laugh out loud. His take on life makes his whole family laugh out loud. He also makes my heart melt.
Last night, as I reading and Max was playing a basketball game on his gamecube, out of the blue and with feeling, he asked me..............."Mom, how has your life been so far?" Given that the night before I was venting my anger and tears over an unrelated personal incident by turning into a mad hatter craft designer at the dining room table, which he observed.........I thought he was gauging how I was still feeling. Testing the waters so to speak. I assuredly answered that I was quite happy with my life..............
"How about you, Max?"
He answered......"I don't know why I've been thinking about this so much, but I think I'm very lucky. I have a great life. So many others don't."
He stopped me in my tracks, like many times before. I realized that it had much more to do with the news of the world, the upcoming Remembrance Day, and connected to the book he is reading in school about a girl who lived during World War II. He was connecting the dots in his head again. I put down my book and moved over to the couch closer to him. Together we discussed the importance of family and friends, of love and belonging, of living in Canada and not having to live in a place where war and lack of food is a constant, and of being responsible for others who are less fortunate because of our personal fortunes.
A teachable moment for both of us.............as always.
Satisfied with the conversation, his little ticking brain clicked when he realized the time. He jumped onto the couch, tucked in beside me and turned on the real basketball game........the Raptors were playing. Lucky for us............more stats to add up.
6 comments:
Isn't it amazing that if one listens well enough, they can actually learn something new from their child. We always think of ourselves as the "teachers"... never once realizing that we are the students more times than we admit.
I had to giggle about the subject of sex that came about from the Scrabble game. We never quite know where the questions will come from.... only that we are prepared to answer them.... and hope for the best after that.
Lovely story today... it warmed my heart to read this and remember back to this morning just before I woke up from a wonderful dream I had about my own son. Even though Chris is now 20, I dreamt of him when he was still a little boy... and woke with a smile on my face because he had just given me the best hug in my dream. I've had that thought on my mind all day.
Your son sounds like one terrific guy... but that does not surprise me knowing you.
He sounds like a wonderful kid - but his math isn't THAT great. "SPERM" on a double word score, worth only 12?
Unless (brow furrows sternly) the problem lies with his mother's journalistic accuracy ;)
Hi there! You really made me miss having my kids around the house- They both have babies of their own to do "teach-ables" with now-
My Gramps was a big tall-tale teller... he would've come up with a "Sperm whale" story,
n the boy would've had all kinds of strange, untruthful info floating through his brain... Maybe that's why I'm so creative...!
Max sounds great!
Hi Ellen. I'm glad you enjoyed my story. It was nice to have the "downtime" to finally write a piece about him. I have written a couple of children's stories with Max as the main character (yet to be published...hopeful sigh.......) but had never put my thoughts down in this manner.
Balbulican......ooooops......I didn't dare ask Max the real score while I was writing! It's his Mom's math that tanks.
Hi Snaggle.........kids do grow up and leave the nest quicker than we a blink of an eye.... writing this post, I realized how quickly my son has gone from infancy to age 9.....less than a blink! Thanks for stopping by.......
You had me in stitches today! I think Max is so cute and I love your stories about him. He seems like such a fun fella that I would be afraid if my daughter met him because the two would be crazy together...or we'd become inlaws!!!!
It is really sweet that you are so intuitive with your kids and that you make time for them. You are just like the "Leave it to Beaver" mom. Your kids are very lucky to have you just as you are very lucky to have them.
That Scrabble game just kills me!!!! Thanks for the laugh today and I can't wait to read Max's next adventure.
Thank you Sunny......however, I"m far from Mrs. Cleaver, believe me! OMG!
Max's teacher this year has organized a daily writing exercise called "demand writing." Each day, they pick a topic out of a hat and sit down to write about it for 5 minutes or so....no rules...no worries about grammar....just write from your creative imagination. The kids are loving it. Last night Max was "catching me up" on the topics and his "take" on them. Every story he has written in the past week had the word nacho in it....don't know why.....but the last "topic" was the word "Lord"....hence Lord Nacho was invented.
When I asked him why he was stuck on the word.....he told me he is just going through his "nacho" phase........whatever..... :)
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