A Conversation with a 10 Year-Old

(*Note: this conversation occurred after several attempts to get Alex into bed.  Also, please note, that Alex has a tested IQ of over 130)

I hear a bedroom door open and instantly know who's it is.

"Alex, go to bed.  If you get up again, you're losing your PSP for the rest of the month," I warn.

"Well, but, Aiden, I had something to tell mom.  I guess I'll tell you."

"No, you need to go to bed.  It can wait for morning, unless it's life-threatening or something," I respond, exasperated because we go through this bedtime nonsense every single night!

"Well, it's just that something scary happened, Aiden."

"Okay, fine.  What?"

"Well, you know that lamp you put by my bed? And you know that little knob you twist to turn it off and on.  Well, I got it stuck in my nose and I didn't think it was going to come back out."

Cue crickets to fill the extended silence as I stare at Alex in awe.  There is no answer to this statement.  There is nothing in the entire world I could possible say.  So, I say,

"Alex, go to bed."

"But Aiden, it was scary and now I can't fall asleep."

"Let me get this straight," I say.  "You, at age 10, decided to unscrew the knob for your lamp, shove it up your nose, all while you were supposed to be falling asleep and now you want my sympathy?  Go to bed.  I'm coming to take the lamp out of your room.  You've lost that privilege.  We'll see you in the morning.  And please, resist the urge to put anything else up your nose!"

Maybe I just don't understand 10 year-olds!

Live Bait

For the past few years we have lived in hawk country.  All three kids are familiar with hawks, including their feeding habits.  Therefore when we see a hawk circling high above, the kids all know there's a good chance that something is dead on the ground down below.

Apparently the kids' curiosity about hawks has not been satiated.  Today when we saw a hawk flying high in the sky, they all stared and admired it from afar.  But "from afar" is not good enough for these young scientists.  Oh, no.  If they are truly going to experience these majestic creatures, our kids need to see them up close.

Well, just how will they get the opportunity to see a hawk close enough to truly observe it?  Not in a museum or in books and pictures like some scientists might settle for.  No, our children are going to bait the thing.

Having a shortage of dead field mice or other appropriate hawk bait, the kids pondered for a moment as to what they could use.  They didn't ponder long before deciding that Annie would be a fine substitute for a lousy field mouse. 

Once the "bait" had been decided on, Ashely and Alex quickly began gathering up all the branches, sticks and leaves in the yard in order to cover up Annie.  I'm not entirely sure why they would want to hide their bait so well, but alas, these are young scientific minds at work and you've got to expect some trial and error learning to take place.

Annie took position lying in the grass, conjuring memories of Anne from Anne of Green Gables and her Lady of Shallot production.  All she needed was a dory and a river, and it would have been a perfect reenactment. 



I didn't actually know that the kids had planned any of this.  It wasn't until I saw Ashley and Alex begin to cover Annie with the branches and leaves that I asked that question that all parents regret asking once it leaves their mouth: what in the world are you kids you doing?

"We're trying to get the hawk down here," Alex says.

"Ummmm, how?" I ask, warily.

"By making it think Annie's dead."

And this is where all their plans for scientific discovery came to a screeching halt.  Besides the fact that it was probably an exercise in futility, I couldn't stand to bare witness to Annie's eyes being pecked out by a hawk. 

I don't think Alex and Ashley would have liked to see that either.  At least, I hope they wouldn't.  But, then again, they did volunteer Annie to be the bait in the first place.

The Green-Eyed Monster

Our little Annie has a very vivid imagination.  For the most part this leads to lots of giggles and good play times.  However, when her imagination heads towards unhappy subjects, things get a little crazy.

Take last night for example.  Holly had already struggled to fall asleep before her first day at her new job.  Alex had pushed his luck by coming out of his room over and over and over again (that's a whole other blog post).  I've been struggling to sleep while I (im)patiently wait a call back from my new VA clinic so I can get my meds. 

But sometime after 2 am, everyone was sleeping peacefully in their beds.  Then Ashley had an accident.  Then, then all hell really broke loose.  I hear Annie and Ashley standing on Holly's side of the bed bawling about the green-eyed monster in their room.

Note, that due a particular episode of Arthur, Annie is convinced the green-eyed monster used to describe jealousy is a real thing.

This green-eyed monster, however, is apparently much scarier.  It's glowing.  It's glowing in their hamper.  It's somehow going to eat us all!  It's, IT'S, IT'S . . .

. . . just the smoke detector.

Muddy Frogwater Festival

If you're looking for something to do in the Walla Walla area this coming weekend, the place to be is Milton-Freewater.  Being new to the area, we have never been, but the Muddy Frogwater Festival sounds like fun.  Many of the events are free, although be sure to double check the food-related events to see if you need tickets in advance.

The festival is held at Yantis Park.  There is also a parade on Saturday morning which starts at 9:30 at Freewater school.  A full schedule of events is available.

If you've never been, come check it out with us.  If you've been before, let us know how much fun we have to look forward to!

We're in Onion Country

We have now been residents of Walla Walla for a whole month!  So far we love our new town.  It's very Goldilocks - not too big, not too small, but juuuussst right!

Alex is convinced we've moved him to Mars.  Our neighbor in our duplex has a three year-old boy who in no way satisfies Alex's need for peer interaction.  We keep having him look for the positives and promise he'll make friends when school starts in 6 days.  But, he's 10, so none of this is good enough!

If Alex is the extreme on the "I don't like it" end of the spectrum, the girls are firmly planted on the other end of the spectrum.  Perhaps it's because they have one another to play with or because they aren't 10.  Whatever the reason, they seem perfectly pleased with our new home.

The grown-ups have the following things to say about Walla Walla:

• We live one mile from the state pen, but you'd never know it.
• We live in one of the worst neighborhoods in town, but besides the kind of run-down yards and roads, you'd never know it.
• The people here are so dang friendly!  We don't miss catty sorority girls and obnoxious frat boys at all.
• We haven't heard bad things from anyone who's lived here for awhile.  Even folks who want to leave say it's a good place to raise a family.

So, that's the update for now.  I promise to have some cleaning tips, recipes, photos, local "to-do"s, and other Aiden-like snarkiness.