Monday, February 18, 2013

The Upper Hand

So, Jake's been a handful lately. It would be more accurate to say he's been a mindful because he's not physically overactive, he's cunning. His mind works quickly ... and bitterly sometimes.

Saturday morning he was upset we didn't have pancakes, his go-to breakfast for eight years. Yes, he's eaten other things for breakfast and there have been other mornings he went without pancakes with much less drama. But this wasn't one of those mornings.

I told him he could have cereal, biscuits, bacon, sausage, eggs. Hell, I'd even make chicken nuggets. What about waffles? Aren't waffles basically pancakes? No. No. And no.

So I gave in, sort of. I told him I would take him out for pancakes, just the two of us, but we were going to talk about his behavior lately. That's both the dark cloud and silver lining in our current situation. He's old enough that if you catch him at the right time you can truly talk to him. But that also means he's old enough to be shrewd.

Off we went to our local diner, one of Jake's favorite spots. It's busy, we sit at the counter. The waitress brings me coffee and menus. I tell her we don't need the menus. Jake knows what he wants ... And he orders himself .... waffles.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Joke's On Me

Tonight I was helping Abby with her homework, trying to come up with five 'an' words. She was stuck after thinking up 'man' and 'fan' on her own.

"What about the thing I cook dinner with?" I said, trying to suggest pan.

"Microwave isn't an 'an' word," she told me.

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Talking About My Generation

Abby and I were having a deep discussion the other night when SpongeBob caught her attention and she lost her train of thought.

"Wait a minute. I need to restart my brain," she said.

It did make perfect sense, but was 'restart' even in our vocabulary 20 years ago?