Tia, Mago Elf Liam, Nem-nem Niamh, Lil' Bug, and I. (kid names are aliases)
//As I carried Nem-nem on my shoulders recently, on a walk:
Nem-nem: “All children have toys.”
Me: “No, not all children do. I’m sad about that. And some children have sad things in thier lives. Even so sad that some people don’t want to talk about them.”
Nem: “Like they don’t have computers? . . . Or thier parents don’t have computers?”
Your life is more good than you know, Nem. I’m grateful.
//
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?”
////Every day is a battle to get vegetables into Nem’s tummy. (Nem is four years old at this writing.)
This evening:
Tia: Nem, come here and get some veggies in your tummy…
Nem: Actually, I don’t very much eat those.
I chuckle.
Nem: What? What’s funny?
Me: You are.
Nem: No I’m not.
Me: I think you’re being very silly.
Nem: No, that’s not silly!
Later, I could’nt recall how she phrased her reply (to write this), so I asked her.
Me: Nem, what did you say about vegetables?
Nem: I said I don’t very much eat those…And it’s not funny. At all.
//