More stories about the kids

I get all kinds of hard-to-answer questions these days from Strider… One of my favorites recently was “How big is God’s tooth?”  There is great fascination with superlatives… how big God is, who’s the greatest in the world, where the tallest mountains are, etc.

A memory to remember:  In church a couple weeks ago Rayna and Strider climbed up into the same chair to sit and listen.  Strider put his arm around Rayna’s shoulders, and then Rayna plugged her thumb in and leaned against Strider’s chest.  They looked so content!

One of the things I love about Rayna:  No matter how she wakes up in the morning or from a nap, she always has an immediate smile.  We can get her up from the deepest sleep and before she can barely open her eyes, she stretches her neck up and gives us a big ol’ grin everytime!

Strider was telling me an interesting fact that I didn’t know the other day.  I asked him where he learned it and he replied, “From Fred.”  Upon my questioning glance, he clarified, “… Mr Rogers!”

Strider announced to me the other day that he was thinking about what he would wear to his first day of college when he’s 19.  This is what he said:

“I’m going to wear red socks, light navy blue pants, and, Mom, do boys ever wear earrings?”

After I told him that yes, some guys do wear earrings and I had particularly seen some guys wearing diamond earrings recently, he resumed,
“And I’ll wear shiny purple diamond earrings.”

Then I asked him what his shirt would be like.  He said,

“It will be a shirt that says…. ‘Surprise!’”

Sounds about right.

I’ve tried to NOT call Rayna “Peanut” because I think it’s such a silly nickname (it’s a food after all) but she really is just a peanut!  And she has decided apparently that she really likes this name.  She told me the other day, “I’m cute.  I’m funny.  I’m peanut.”  And whenever she says it, she scrunches up her face, brings her little finger and thumb together in front of her face, and says, “I’m a li’l pea-nut” in a funny voice.  So if she doesn’t have any complaints, and the name fits, then Peanut it is!

Strider and Rayna recently came to Wingate with me because Pete was out of town.  We had to wait a few minutes for their babysitter to show up, so they had some time to interact with my students before class started.  Rayna immediately started walking around “working the crowd” as she always does, and Strider marched straight up to the podium and said, “Hello Class.  Today I am going to be your teacher.  It is going to be VERY boring.”  Fortunately my students have a good sense of humor!

Well Strider has hit a “fascination with numbers” stage lately.  We’re glad he’s becoming so in tune with measurements and math around him, but a lot of the time we’re just wondering how much longer we’re going to have to answer his questions.  Here are some examples of the many, MANY numbers-related questions we get every single day:

• It’s 12:00 here, so that means it’s 6:00 in Italy, right?  But what time is it in Russia?  And what about in Seattle?  9:00?  So what are they doing right now?
• Do you know when it’s going to be 26 degrees in the capital of Iceland?  Tonight!  And do you know what the low is for Mansfield tomorrow?  20 degrees!  And what do you think the high AND low are for Anchorage today – 22 degrees!   And guess what the temperature is going to be here on Saturday – 45 degrees!  Well, that’s at around 3:00 it will be that temperature.  Can I go look at the weather?
• What will I be doing in a million minutes?  That will probably be on January 8, 2008.
• How old will Daddy be when I’m 67?  And how old will I be when Poppa is 80?  And how old was Great-Grandpa in 1924?  And how old will I be in the year 2400?
• And what is 60 * 4000? And about 46 million times 73 million?  And how much is 14 times 27? 
• Ok, if ¼ is smaller than 1/3, and 1/5 is smaller than ¼, then I want a ONEth of a cookie! (he means a whole cookie).  Or actually can I have a TWOth?
• How about if you count to 24 and I’ll count to 12 twice, and we’ll see who win.

 He can also tell you when every car that he walks past is due for their next inspection.  And we get plenty of “Mom, they’re overdue!  Why didn’t they get their license plates renewed yet?” questions.

And my personal favorite:  He was sitting outside by the curb one day and when he came in later, we had this discussion:

Me:  What were you doing out there?

Strider:  Oh I just sat down and thinked.

Me:  What were you thinking about?

Strider:  My birthdays.

Me:  What about your birthdays?
Strider:  Well I was just trying to figure out when my birthday will be on a Saturday.  It’s when I turn 10.

He also is really into Jeopardy right now (the show), mostly because he loves to watch the players’ scores go up and down.  He gets a kick out of their wager amounts especially for final jeopardy.  The other day we were playing basketball and he was keeping score very creatively.  At one point he was behind by 16 points, at which point he announced that this next play would be a “daily double” worth 16 points!

By association, Rayna is also now in a “number stage.”  She comes up to me quite frequently and says stuff like “I have 40 cents again” or “It’s 40 degrees now.”  She also asks me what time it is quite often.  None of these concepts mean anything to her whatsoever, but she doesn’t want to be left out of the conversation!

Whenever Rayna says a word that we can’t quite decipher, and she sees us getting a confused look, she just says, “It’s Spanish.”

Strider has been trying to grasp more of the world of TV sports.  Apparently Pete was explaining to him at one point that the basketball scenes they were watching were just “highlights” of a game not being played at that moment.  Later Strider was nowhere to be found… until Pete finally found him curled up hiding in Rayna’s bed.  Pete asked him what he was doing and he replied, “These are highlights of the hide-and-seek game we’re going to play tonight, Dad!”

The other day at Pete’s office, Rayna climbed up in a chair and crossed her legs just so properly… I guess she’s turning into a little lady!