A Day in the Life

When people see me around town with my children in tow they often say something to the effect of, “Are they all yours?” Or, “Oh my, how do you do it?” I usually reply along the lines of, “Yeah, they're a real blessing. It’s a lot of fun around our house.” Because they are and it is. Here are a few of the highlights, or punch lines, from a typical day in the life of our family.

When chastised for not waking up promptly this morning, Measle (6) protested that it was not her fault. She didn’t know she was supposed to wake up. She was sleeping. “It’s not my fault if I don’t know and how can I know if I’m sleeping?” And the defense rests.

Then as I was sitting at my computer Mr. Monk got up from his school table, walked over to me and asked, “Mom, how many meters are in 6 feet?” I grabbed a sheet of scratch paper and started asking him questions. First I asked him how many inches were in 1 ft and he said 12. Then I asked him how many inches were in 6 ft and he said 72. Then I said how many cm are in 1in and he said 2.54. Then I said, “OK, now what did the question say?” Mr. Monk looked at me kind of funny and said, “What question?” “You know, the problem we’re working. What did the original question ask?” He acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about. This went on for several frustrating exchanges until finally he insisted, “Mom, you don’t get it. There is no question. I mean, there was no question. There was never a question! I was just wondering.”

My initial reaction was, “Well, why the heck are we working this problem? I mean what kind of person sits around wondering how to convert 6 ft into meters? And why aren’t you doing your school work, anyway?” It took me a few minutes to see that he’s curious and that’s a good thing. I have no idea why he was curious about that particular problem (instead of his homework), but at least he’s curious. Curiosity I can work with.

A few hours later, when asked about his day at “school”, All American Boy (3) said his favorite part of his day was science. Not playing at the playground, not eating lunch, not working puzzles, but science. Hmm. I wonder what 3 yr old science is like.

Then tonight after dinner, Twinkle Toes (8) turned on the oven, arranged cookie dough on two cookie sheets and baked cookies. Meanwhile, Mr. Monk (10) asked his dad if our pasta came from his garden. Should I be concerned about this? Is this a boy thing? Of course, this is the same boy that when questioned this summer about why he was getting into the car with his slippers on explained that it was because all his socks were dirty. I’m sure that made sense to him, but to the rest of us…

And just to top off our day, Baby Lu thinks she can play the piano.