Archive for the ‘Jayden’ Tag
March 04 2010 ·
13 CommentsPosted in:
The Kids · Tags:
conversation,
Jayden “Mommy, what’s a soul?”
Jayden is at that tender age where his brain is an absorbent sponge, greedily soaking up every morsel of knowledge it can. What’s scary about this is that the breadth of the information he’s storing comes straight from me, as I’m his preferred go-to person. Though when he must turn to his father, the experience doesn’t fare much better. This responsibility is not taken lightly. I want to make sure I’m answering his questions honestly and correctly to the best of my limited ability. Which means I can’t just make this stuff up.
At 6 years old, most of what he asks is fairly simple. Some, however, hinder me perplexed.
Then, there are those questions that leave me staring slackjawed at the wall, hoping he’ll get distracted by something else and forget it altogether.
“Um, what?”
“What’s a soul?”
“Well… it’s… uh… it’s kind of who you are.”
His eyes began to squint in confusion. I didn’t blame him, I was about to confuse myself.
“You know, it’s… well, like your spirit.”
“Oh… Mommy? What’s a spirit?”
Shit, kid. “Why don’t we just Google it?”
February 23 2010 ·
10 CommentsPosted in:
The Kids · Tags:
Jayden,
life A normal dinner. Meat and beans, both baked and green varieties. We were seated around our living room coffee table, the setting for most of our meals. We have an actual dining table, but it’s seldom used except when company comes over, or in the morning when Ethan eats his breakfast.
Per usual, we were fighting with Jayden over a bite of greens. It takes 15 minutes to get one morsel in his mouth, and then he does the scrunchy yuck face until he manages to painfully coerce it through his gullet. I’ve never been extremely fond of vegetables myself, either, so I understand. I do. However, it’s not like I’m making him eat an entire plate of brussel sprouts. We’re lenient here, a couple mouthfuls and we consider the basic food groups sufficiently covered.
Perhaps as another means of stalling, having already tried the “I have to go to the bathroom!” route, he mentioned out of nowhere, “I wish every fork was a spork.”
You have to appreciate the boy’s creative tenacity.
Which, then led to a rash of spork-sational questions.
“Have I ever used a spork?”
“Do we have any sporks?”
“Does the store sell sporks? Because I think we should buy some.”
If it means you’ll eat your vegetables with a little more ease, or at all, I’ll agree to buy you a spork truckload.
February 16 2010 ·
9 CommentsPosted in:
The Kids · Tags:
Jayden,
quirky Jayden sometimes has bizarre preferences for toys. For instance, we were at a thrift store this past weekend. After taking the kids to the doctor. Where we were told, oh hey, yeah, they’re really kinda sick. So it totally makes sense that we schlepped them around to dirty thrift stores. Awesome idea.
Anyway, as with most stores, thrift or otherwise, the kids bee-line sraight for the toy section. There, they tend to dig and grab at anything they can get their fingers around and then refuse to let go. It’s the ultimate in impulse decisions, and that’s why our house is running out of space.
Ethan claimed yet another stuffed panda to add to his collection. Maddie got a book. Jayden, though, found the gem amongst gems.
A toy chainsaw.
He wouldn’t put the thing down. Of course we bought it.
As we were standing in line for check-out, there was a nice woman behind us making small talk with Jayden. In place of hello, however, my son blurted out, “I have a CHAINSAW!”.
“Oh, neat”, she replied, politely but hesitantly.
“Yeah, it’s a CHAINSAW!”, he wouldn’t stop.
She probably thought he was crazy. She may very well be right. That was the most animated he had been in days, though, thanks to a double ear infection. Turns out, stopping by the thrift store was, actually, an awesome idea. Especially when we returned home and he screamed through one end of our house to the other, wielding this bright red plastic chainsaw above his head like a merry mask-adorning Texas madman.
February 10 2010 ·
11 CommentsPosted in:
The Kids · Tags:
conversation,
Jayden My kids don’t seem to be the kind to form cute names for things. Sadly, a bottle is always a bottle. A book has always been a book. A fork could easily be misconstrued as something else, but you’d just be twisting vowels around. I mean, Maddie refers to the cat as her brother, but I’ve yet to decide if that’s charming or confused. As well, they also rarely mispronounce. So when it happens, however briefly, I get a little amused.
Since I needed to wash dishes, I gave the boys a choice between Barney or the Fresh Beat Band. The fact that they actually chose Barney should tell you all you need to know about the appeal of the Fresh Beat Band.
As I was scrubbing last night’s dinner off a pan, Jayden comes in to inform me of Barney’s make-believe itinerary for the day.
“He’s gonna use his imagination!”, he buoyantly chirps. “To go to Hawalle!”
“Go where?”, I asked just in case I had soap bubbles in my ears.
Excitedly, he repeats, “Hawalle!”
This is why children make life a little bit brighter without even trying. In the midst of grease and stuck-on noodles, it made me smile. I almost hated to correct him.
“You mean Hawaii?”
“Oh, yeah, Hawaii! He’s gonna go there!” I don’t know, though, Hawalle sounds nice, too. Although I just Googled it and it appears to be a city in Kuwait. Which would make for a much different episode of Barney.
February 01 2010 ·
6 CommentsPosted in:
The Kids · Tags:
Jayden,
milestones 
Jayden finally lost his first tooth the other night. The Tooth Fairy was tired that night, though, and didn’t feel like stopping by the ATM, so we didn’t put it under his pillow until the night after. He ran out of his room that morning, exclaiming, “I got $5!”. A tooth’s rate has gone up since I was a kid, that’s for sure.
