Tia, Mago Elf Liam, Nem-nem Niamh, Lil' Bug, and I. (kid names are aliases)
//Mago: “I studied robots for four years in school! Now I can speak robot! BEEP BOOP BEEP!” Me: “See? It’s a tonal language. Listen!”
— Alex and Tia Hall (@ussins) February 29, 2016
//I might have written this down, but I don’t think I did.
When he was possibly four years old, I prayed with Mago at bed time. I wish I clearly remembered the context and statements, but it was something to this effect: I asked him what he felt, and he explained that he felt Jesus’ love.
The following Sunday, he wanted to make a statement in front of the congregation at church. I took him up to the pulpit and held him to the microphone. He mildly stated:
“I felt Jesuses’ love . . .”
That was that.
//Mago wrote this, and permits me to publish it here for your enjoyment.
I couldn’t resist proposing some additions (by simply making a copy of the document and writing them), and he enjoyed the additions, and decided to keep them.
We hope to record it as a very short audiobook to sell.
You may download it freely, at this link here: home.ussins.org/dist/The_Magic_of_Jenkins_Farm.pdf
//
So sad that we only got 3 pictures on Mago’s baptism day. And they were with an iphone instead of a good camera! Makes me want to cry. But I was busy and couldn’t do it myself. :(. Same with his birthday, which Alex did get a video of. It seems like Mago has gotten fewer and fewer pictures of him of late. And so I will dig deep and post all I can to piece together a record of this very important year for him. Maybe even actually importing video from our analog recorder! Unheard of around here.
//Me: “Great Elf William, will you forgive me if I eat downstairs? I want to do some writing.”
Mago looks confused. “Great Elf William?”
“I gave you that nick-name at my blog. I call you Mago Elf Liam.”
“Oh. . . . Elf?”
I laugh. “It’s kinda silly.”
“So does ‘Mago’ mean ‘Great?”
“Yes.”
Indeed.
(He’s halfway to eight, as I write this.)
//[I have looked up the prefix “septi” since this exchange, and oops!–I was in error. “Septi” is a combining form that means seven, not five. “Penta” is a combining form for “five.”]
Mago, to Tia: You measured Canada?
Me: Yes. It was five.
Mago: Five?
Me: Yes.
Mago: Five what?
Me: Five septiCanadas.
Mago: What’s a septiCanada?
Me: If you take the area of Canada, and divide it by five, you have a septiCanada.
Mago: Wait, so when you were five, you took a map of Canada and measured it–
Me, laughing: No–
Mago: and you drew five lines through it–
Me, laughing: No–
Mago: and you called each one of them a septiCanada?
Me, laughing: No. I made that up just now.
//I don’t know how I missed this Talking Heads song. It’s hard to imagine I never heard it (even for my crowded, unorganized, largely unrecognized collection). One day it just lit me up–even while I’m not entirely certain I understand it.
When my love stands next to your love/I can’t define love/when it’s not love/which is my face/which is a building/which is on fire!
I played it and sang it to the kids and Tia. The kids especially cracked up.
(I later learned that Mago thought I wrote and recorded this song. I wish.)
Just now I had this conversation with Nem when I played the song:
Nem: Sing it!
Me: No, I want to eat.
Nem (cries and pouts) Nooo, *you* sing it!
Me: I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to break your heart!
Nem: Okay, I’ll get ready to laugh.
//
Nemmy’s canopy drape over her bed is a caniky, and a bikini is a vikini. A few days ago she found an earwig climbing her caniky when she woke up and now she keeps waking me up at night with imagined bugs.
In our backyard this evening I saw three baby deer drinking milk from their mama. I ran for my camera but missed it. My neighbor said he saw 8 babies all together one morning recently. I need to spend more time out there.
//Mago: I just had an idea for how to find all the animals of one kind. Find a few of them and sample their DNA and then put it into a computer and have the computer analyze it, and then upload it to a satellite that scans the world for that kind of DNA, and it will find all the animals of that kind.
Me: Hmm, I dunno how a satellite finds DNA.
Mago: I dunno. A very advanced satellite.
//Me: Your world has a thousand times more wonders and distractions than mine did.
Mago: Because you didn’t have the internet.
Me: I didn’t have internet games, or games on phones, or really advanced consoles for games like the Wii. But I did have computers I played games on, and the Nintendo.
[I wish I had said: “We played Angry Birds through the snow uphill to and from school. And we liked it.”]
Mago: What computers?
Me: I had the Commodore 64.
Mago: What’s the Commodore 64?
Me: (face of dissapointment) That old computer I’ve shown you. With the giant keyboard.
Mago: Oh. What’ju play on it?
Me: A lot of things. That game “HARD HAT MACK” I’ve shown you, and a game called “ZORK” where it’s like you talk to the book–
Mago: Oh, and that game where you’re a mouse in a maze.
Me: “RADAR RAT RACE.” Right.
Mago: Wait. What’s “BLACK HAT SMASH?”
Me: Huh?…I think you mean “HARD HAT MACK?”
//After pulling Mago’s tooth out, I floss him for bed time. I look in his mouth and make a puzzled face. He sees this, and starts to be amused.
“Wait a minute”, I say.
He starts to giggle.
“Wait five minutes! Something is different!…”
He’s giggles more.
“Wait an HOUR!”
He laughs a lot.
Over the next few days he says to me at random times: “Wait an HOUR!” – and laughs.
//Overdue for posting.
//Last Friday we woke the kids up early and drove to a view down the street to watch the final space shuttle flight, which we learned would be visible over the west-northwest horizon. It was, and I videotaped it. This video features this and the kids, as well as repeated misuse of the term “rocket” where “shuttle” was meant. The video player isn’t displaying high-definition popups at full resolution (a longstanding problem I’ve found no solution for, and no acceptable alternative player either), so downloading and playing it from the link will have to do. Sorry, no medium-resolution version of this.