It's striking how fast the day goes by when you spend it in bed--asleep and nursing a nasty headache. Well I did spend 45 minutes on ESPN.com, catching up (the Braves will not be .500 at the All-Star break by the way). Nonetheless a few items did capture my interest.
My six-year-old twins (Halle and Emma) kept popping in and out of the room (the two oldest children were at camp, the youngest with my wife), asking me to resolve their conflicts, address their letters, and authorize their candy consumption. One of these disputes involved the following exchange: "What's wrong?" / "Halle said India is just a big ball of poop." / "And that makes you sad? (nodding). Why are you interested in India?" / "Because Aladdin lives there." / "I think he's from Saudi Arabia, but close enough." / "I want to go there someday."
Later I was off to the doctor's office where again they insisted I stand on the scale, fully clothed, with my shoes on, and my wallet, keys, and phone in my pocket. Why? Nothing about a headache diagnosis asks, "how much do you weigh?" But since I knew this would happen, I made sure to wear sneakers, not boots; shorts, not jeans; and go sans ballcap. And as usual, I weighed five pounds more than I do at home. I got the female nurse-practitioner and in the interest of full-disclosure had to reveal something to her I'd rather have shared with a dude. Ah well, I'm getting pretty good at that now.
At dinner time I took Madison and Marshall (10 and 8) to Target because Marshall had $36 burning a hole in his pocket. While I was there looking at sunscreen he launched into the following conversation (names have been changed), both of us talking at full volume: "Dad, do you know Xavier McDoo from church?" / "Xavier, from our church? No. Is he in your class?" / "Yeah, he has kind of short, scruffy hair..." / "Is he chubby?" / "No." / "But he's in your class? Have I taught him during children's church?" / "Yeah." / "Do I know his parents?" / "I don't know." / "Well, I think I've heard the name Xavier McDoo, but can't think of who that is."
Once we had moved further into the store, I asked Marshall why he had asked me about Xavier. "He was just over there," Marshall said, indicating an area clearly within earshot of my big mouth. "He was standing there?" I said, "...while we were talking? So he heard the whole conversation? I asked if he was chubby!"
After comparison shopping at K-Mart where I gave the kids a history lesson on why the Big K just wasn't cool back in my day, we headed home listening to Madison's grand soliloquy on the reasons why 10 is such an awkward age: "You're too old for toys, and all the good stuff is so expensive and all you can see is kids' movies and I really want to see 17 Again and Marley & Me and..."
Nice Xavier McDoo reference!
Posted by: darnell lamb | July 14, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Love this snapshot of your family life!
Posted by: Karen | July 14, 2009 at 11:30 PM