What the Kids Are Doing

Daphne:
Stalks me while I'm on the phone, demanding to "Talk! Talk! Talk!" to whomever is on the other end. Today she got ahold of the phone (it wasn't on) and held it to her ear. "Talk Daddy," she informed me. Into the phone, she said, "Hewo? I fine."

Stuart:
Having read all our Baby Blues comic books thoroughly, he went digging through the cabinet and stumbled across a vast storehouse of treasure. Stuart has discovered Calvin&Hobbes.

Stuart also says that he'd like public school. He could sit still all day. He likes sitting still. "You mean, like the way you're hardly sitting on your chair right now?" He adjusted his hindquarters so that he was actually touching the seat of the chair, to prove his point. Thirty seconds later he leaped out to see something. I made him sit back down. Ten seconds later he was up again. I told him to sit back down. "But I'm not in school!" he protested. Case closed.

Addie:
At the garage getting the van inspected, there was a glass globe paperweight. Addie asked the receptionist, "What is this strange ball?"

"A globe," the lady answered.

"See," I said, pointing. "There's North America and South America."

"And Central America," Addie said, also pointing. "And Africa, Asia, and Europe..."

The receptionist said to me, "You homeschool?"

*
Last week, Addie asked me in frustration, "Why do some people's mouths curve into a smile, but mine just goes straight?" And thus did I introduce the topic of literary devices (and cliches).

***
The kids were fine with me being gone all of Saturday. When I left again Sunday afternoon, Darren explained that he would be taking care of them again. That's when they got worried.

"But Mama is the one who knows us," Stuart said.

"Are you sure you'll know what to do?" Addie said.

"Mama's the one who's always with us," Stuart agreed.

Vindication is sweet.

-- SJ