“I want my door closed because I want it closed beCAUSE.” —Paul
Asides
where is my mind
Paul said, like, three priceless things on the way home from school today, and I tried so hard to remember them. But now after bedtime, the only one that stuck is, “I let out a biiiig toot.”
mom moment
Mom moment: During Annie’s sick-day-at-work, we left the office once to walk a lap around the Tower in the pretty sunshine. Typically, Annie sneezed as soon as she looked up at the bright sky. Because she was sick, she also ejected two bullet trains of snot. And since I had not had the foresight to bring tissues, I just pinched the whole wad of mucus off her face with my fingers. I smeared them clean on the sidewalk, and dabbled them through the shrubbery to finish the job. I like to think a 19-year-old sophomore witnessed this and learned something about life.
last question
Immediately I have said goodnight and closed the door:
MOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!
I open the door—Yes?
Annie: What happens if a bear loves eating mustard?
conversations
A: Paul, what’s your favorite thing? To play with at school?
P: A school bus, and a fire truck, and a truck, and a school bus, and a truck.
she has an active imagination
Last words from Annie before nap: “What happens if a changing table has sharp teeth and eats people?”
one more question
“Mom. MOM.”
I’m standing at their door, aiming to close it, 20 minutes past bedtime: “Okay Annie, you can ask me one question.”
“What happens if a bear eats people? With honey on them.”
sweet and sad
Annie: “Usually when Dad is gone I think there are bears everywhere.”
homecoming
I returned home from a trip last night, and the family came into the front yard to greet me. Annie ran into my arms like a lovers’ reunion in a movie, but realized mid-hug that she had sticky banana-hands from dinner, so cocked her wrists back and assured me that she was not going to touch me anymore until she washed them. While she adjourned to do that, Paul informed me in a piping voice that I had ridden on an airplane—“You, you ride in a AIRpane!”—and goggled from the doorway at the green taxi that had dropped me off. He had a big scratch on his face from, apparently, I kid you not, getting in a fight with another kid at school over a nap mat. Annie swooped back in from the bathroom for another hug, this time with clean hands, and asked me if I wanted to go snuggle on the couch, and maybe “read a book or something?” I wanted nothing more.