“Mom, Did You Know….”

The timer is on. 10 minutes. Write. GO!

The baby is sleeping. The boy has a play date next door.

Before I launch into my scatterbrained thoughts today, I have a question for Ms. Manners. What is my reciprocal responsibility to a nanny-led play date? Am I expected to return the favor? Host? If I don’t, do I “owe” the nanny some consideration? Or my neighbors who pay her? Since keeping watch of the kids is her paid employment, by accepting another under her watch, as directed by her employer, is she accepting more responsibility? Or is that part of her current job description of keeping the children in her care happy and engaged? Presumably, she has freed her hands a bit by having a playmate over as hopefully all she has to do is referee every once in a while. (I’d like to think my child is well-behaved and plays well with others. I have been told this, but I also take this with a grain of salt. How often do people speak the truth about your child?! Especially people you just met? )

I always want to remember these days of staying home with my children. I’m already starting to get nostalgic and to romanticize these days because the Boy starts kindergarten next year. Is it possible? My world changes again. I want to hold him in my arms always. To protect him always. To answer his gazillion questions always. To watch yet again another episode of “Phineas & Ferb” with him. To play Star Wars Legos and have my hand cut off once again by Darth Vader. To remind him again and again to flush the toilet and wash his hands….WITH SOAP!

Yesterday, we did our one errand for the day – a trip to the pet store. While in the car, these thoughts are my son’s stream of consciousness:

(1) “Mom, do you know what the Bermuda Triangle is? It’s a circle that sucks ships into the ocean.”

(2) “Mom, did you know a squid can swallow a shark?”

(3) “Mom, did you know that an octopus has a hole in it to squirt out ink?”

(4) “Mom, do people’s hearts still work once they are broken?”

(5) “Mom, I do not want to work. I want to stay home with the babies.” How are you going to earn a living? Who is going to pay the bills? How are you going to eat? “My wife! She can be a farmer.” (I guess he finds my job of blissful domesticity alluring. Although now I’m trying to impart of him that I do have a “job” even though I don’t leave the house every day like daddy.)

(6) “Mom, I never want to get a tattoo because I don’t want to hurt.” Who told you it hurt? “You did! You said that they made little holes in your skin to put the ink in.”

(7) “Mom, I want more Jedi Legos.”

That’s all I jotted down while at the stoplights. They make for interesting and entertaining conversations for sure!