Archive for the ‘Jedi’ Tag
April 24 2012
I am participating in Momalom’s Five for Five. Today’s topic is on Words.
“I’m gonna kill you!”, my 5 year old son states, charging after his older brother in play. He’s thrust in the role of the bad guy, on the hunt for the arch-nemesis hero. But I have to remind him, we don’t say that word.
“Say ‘get him’, Buzz. You’re going to get him. You know we don’t say that other word.” Boys will be boys, it’s what they do. Like cops and robbers. Good versus evil. While it means the same, I realize, just a simple substitution of words sounds so much better.
Jedi overhears my correction and stops mid-run, an argument rising. “I don’t have to say it like that, though. Because that’s the baby way of saying it.”
“Everyone says it like that. We don’t want to kill, or hurt, anyone. Even when we’re playing”, I explain again.
“No, that’s for babies”, my 8 year old son continues, puffing out his chicken chest in a stance of misplaced power. “And I’m a big boy.”
Unable to contain myself, I laugh. “You are a big boy, but you’re not that big. You’re getting bigger every day, though. For now, and always, you’re still my baby.”
“Fine, how about I’m a medium-sized boy?”
“Yes, you’re my medium-sized boy”, I agree. “But we still don’t say that word.”
March 19 2012
I’m writing this because I was told to.
“I thought of something”, Jedi said to me with a smile. “Do you want to hear it?”
“Sure.”
“Do you know what those little pieces of fire are?”, he asked, touching his fingers together to illustrate how small he meant.
“You mean embers?”, I offered, unaware that his question was probably meant more as a rhetorical direction in conversation.
Rolling his eyes in a way he’s learned to master recently, he continued. “No, not ambers”, he huffed and I didn’t have the heart to correct his pronunciation. “They’re called nanoflames.”
“Oh.”
“Nanoflames. It takes like a hundred nanoflames to make a big fire. I made that up all on my own.”
“Good job, kiddo. That’s a great word. But it’s time for bed now.”
As I tucked him in under his covers, he made me promise. “You need to help me spread the word about nanoflames. You need to tell everyone you know. Put it on your blog! Because I know you have a blog and they need to know about nanoflames.”
So this is me, spreading the word on my blog. Just one nanoflame with the hopes of it catching fire. Pass it on.
March 09 2012
“I forgot tell you, there was a bully at school today”, he said right before dinner. “He grabbed my coat by the hood at recess today and swung me around until I fell on the cement basketball court.” His bottom lip quivered as he relayed this scene to me.
And that’s when my heart began to hurt.
“Why did he do this?”, I asked, internally raging at this elementary-aged punk. But I had even more questions. “Was it just because he thought he could? Has he done this before? Did the teacher see?”
He looked at me before replying, his long lashes I’ve admired since his infancy still protecting his eyes. “Yeah, I guess he just thought he could”, he only answered. “But luckily the hood on my coat cushioned my head from hitting the cement.”
And that’s when my heart began to break.
I went on to tell him just how amazing he truly is. How, when a kid is that great, other kids will try to knock them down. And he shouldn’t let them. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like you’re less, I told him. Because you’re so much more than that.
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. – Elizabeth Stone
And that is what makes parenting so incredibly hard.
March 07 2012
Recently, Jedi had a homework assignment on capacity. Which is how much an object can hold. He brought home a small cup and was supposed to guess how many of those cups of liquid filled each item, then measure.
First, he filled a medium sized mixing bowl. He guessed that 8 cups of water would fill it, and of course it had to be to the very brim. It really took 18.
Then, he did the same with a 2 quart saucepan. His guesstimate fell around 15 cups of water. It took 23. And a half. I was impressed with how little mess Jedi caused with this project, but then I spilled water everywhere trying to empty it back in the sink.
The kids, however, were enthralled.
It’s like this little house. It would be hard to guess how much it would take to fill. But we are brimming at capacity with the four of us, sometimes spilling over. And I am eternally enthralled.
February 28 2012
I fear Jedi’s diabetes most while he’s sleeping. It’s all a matter of the unknown. I have no idea how he’s doing and I don’t know if he’d jolt awake with a major blood sugar dip. My heart pauses for the slightest moment every morning I go in to drag him out of bed, thinking maybe this will be the day he’s so severely low that he just won’t wake up.
Rationally, I know the odds of this happening are slim. That doesn’t ease the worry, however. Making it a very bad time to pull a prank.
“Jedi, rise and shine, sleepy head! School day!”, I sang cheerily like I do every morning as I entered his room. It’s not unusual for him to fight my wake-up call, he’ll resist going to school at every turn, but I always see his eyes flicker open, at least. This time, they stayed shut tight. So I grew slightly more urgent.
“Come on, Jedi! Get up!”, I ordered, pulling the covers off of him. Still nothing. No change in expression or altered breathing. His eyes didn’t budge, his body continued resting in the same side position. This wasn’t like him. This was different.
I began to panic. More specifically, I began to freak out.
Rocking him back and forth, I pleaded with desperation, “Jedi! Wake up! WAKE UP!”. All without the slightest hint of movement. I thought for sure my worst fear was realized.
My mind was racing over what to do next. If I should grab the emergency insulin pen or call an ambulance. Please be OK. Oh my god, this can’t be happening. When Jedi’s eyes shot open.
“I don’t want to go to school today!”
Boy, you have got to be kidding me.
I'm Crystal. A 30-something mom to 3 young kids living in the Midwest USA. When I'm not chasing my children, I'm a freelance writer and web designer. I like to tell stories from our days and share what we enjoy...
