Driving Miss Madison

 

My child's brain is beautiful.  And exhausting.  This is just one recent example of how my five year old frequently sends me into a downward spiral of inadequacy:


Madison, in the car on the way to a friend's house: "Mom, when you cut a tree down, you have to like cut it down away from you so it doesn't fall on you, right?"
Me, already wishing I'd had more coffee before this conversation: "Yes, you're right.  What made you think of that?"
Madison: "Oh, one time Da and I were on a walk and I saw this tree that was cut down and I thought to myself, 'they must cut that tree in a certain direction so it doesn't fall on them.'"
Me, lost in a sea of wonder at my five year olds musings: "Oh." 
A few minutes later, it dawns on me that I can use this to engage her in conversation with her great-grandpa, so I tell her he used to be a logger, that she can ask him about cutting down trees and he can tell her exactly how they do it.
She says "Well that's okay, I already have it figured out."
Sigh.

We are pointing out flags now, and the topic of the Pledge of Allegiance comes up. 
She forgets it, so I say it.
Madison "One Layer Deeper" Fisher...asks me what "indivisible" means after hearing it. 
I explain that its something that you cannot divide.  I say "like a deck of cards, you can split up, that's divisible.  A rock, is not really divisible."
I explain why we use it in the pledge.  I tell her I'm going to name some things and she can tell me if they are indivisible or not. 
Very first example I give, "A tower of Legos".
She says "Well, the Legos are not indivisible but the tower is."
"O...kay... you seem to get it.  Lets talk about something else!"
Three seconds later.
"Mom what does transparent mean?"

Oh my Lord.  WHY didn't I stop for coffee?

"Transparency is about how much you can see through something.  Kind of like the toys at your light table, they have a certain level of transparency, the light can shine through them and you can see through them."
One minute goes by.
"So like the window is transparent because it is clear?"
"Yes honey, that's a good one."
Another minute.
"Okay so how come the word has the word 'parent' in it, but it doesn't have anything to do with parents?"

Need.  More.  Coffee.
Gaaah!

"Wellllllll (internal heavy sigh), the root of both words, 'par'...has to do with the base of something, the foundation of something (I'm thinking, this could be wrong, I'm pretty much pulling this out of my ass at this point, but I should try).  Transparency is about the... foundational color.  Parents...are your foundation, where you came from..."

"Hey look!!  That truck has ice cream on it!!"

Whew. 
Secretly thanking God for the distraction....
And now her two year old brother is screaming about ice cream.  At 8:30 in the morning.
Sweet.




© 2013 Sarah Fisher