Caleb's Discovery

        Written yesterday afternoon:

  Monday through Friday has become such a routine.  The alarm goes off, I snooze it, it goes off again, and I lurk into the kids’ room to wake up Makayla, vowing to go to bed earlier from now on.  Kayla gets ready, and we wake up Bubba, who always whines for five to seven seconds about how he’s not waking up, before he leaps out of bed, demanding oatmeal and Mario Brothers.  Today was no different.  Even though Makayla’s school is a five minute walk, we always have to leave a good fifteen to twenty minutes early since you would think my children have never seen leaves, bugs, puddles, or flowers before.  Every day we see the same thing; every day, the children marvel over the same stuff.  And every day, it makes me smile.  On the walk to school, Caleb pointed to the moon and squealed, as if he was pointing out a box full of gold and screeched, “Sister!  Mommy!  Look!  It’s the moon.” 

“Yes Bubba,” Makayla said in her helpful, big sister voice, “It is the moon.  Earth only has one moon.  Some planets have a lot of moons.”

“Uh huh,” Caleb said.

We walked a little more, me gripping Caleb’s hand, Makayla stomping on bugs and picking up leaves.

“Mommy,” Caleb said.

“Yes son?” I asked.

“If the sun makes us warm then does the moon make us cold?”

“No Bubba,” I said, “The moon does not make us cold.”

“Then what does it make?” he asked.

Before I could say anything, Makayla said, “Bubba, the moon makes the waves in the ocean because it pulls on the earth a little bit and pulls the water.  That is how the moon makes waves.”

“Will the moon suck us all up?” Caleb asked.

Makayla looked at me with wide eyes.

“The moon will not suck us up,” I reassured them.

We dropped Makayla off at school, chatted with the crossing guard, who every morning mutters about “these drivers,” and started on our way back home.  Halfway home, Caleb found a pecan that was still green and stopped to pick it up.  I am very used to having to stop multiple times anytime we walk anywhere, while Caleb picks up random things or inspects bugs.

“Mommy…look,” he said, showing me his green pecan, “Are there caterpillars in it?”

“No Bubba, that is not a cocoon.  That is a seed.”

“I want to keep it forever,” he said, “I want to see what’s in it.”

When we got home, he tried to stomp it open and failed.

“Would you like for me to break it open for you?” I offered.

“No,” he said, “I would like to just play with it.”

“Do NOT put that in your mouth,” I told him, “It is not food and you could choke.  You can play with it if you promise not to put it in your mouth or throw it at the kitty.”

“I promise,” he said.

“Do you want to run in the front yard before we go in?” I asked him.

“No,” he said, “I don’t want to get an injury.”

Haha.  Two days before, while running, he had tripped and scraped his knee.

We went in and I got on with my daily stuff.

“Can I watch TV?” he asked.

“You cannot,” I told him, “Remember, you are grounded from TV today for getting into the coffee mix.”

“That’s right,” he said, “I am grounded today.  I will never get into that stuff again.”

I went on with laundry and dishes and cleaning, and since I hadn’t heard from Caleb in a while, went to check on him.  He was sitting under the kitchen table with a sharp pair of scissors, cutting into his green pecan.

“Stop!” I shouted, horrified at how close he was to cutting himself, “Bubba, put the scissors down!”

He dropped them and looked at me with a confused expression and said, “Why Mommy?  I’m seeing what’s inside of here.”

I crawled under the table, grabbed the scissors, put them up, and came back to him.

“Do not get into the scissors son.  You could have cut yourself and it would hurt.  If you want to see inside your seed, come get me and I will help you.”

“OK, Mommy,” he said, “But LOOK.”

He showed me his green pecan.  I saw he had successfully cut it in half. 

“That is neat, huh?” I said, “It’s fun to see what’s inside of seeds.  But we do not EVER put stuff like that in our mouths.  You could choke or it could make you sick.”

“I know it’s not food,” he said, “I just wanted to see what was in here.  It’s cool in this seed.”

I marveled his pecan and said, “That is very neat.  Let’s break it apart more to see the rest of it.”

“No!” he screamed, which made me jump, “I don’t want to hurt it.  It’s my friend.”

He cradled the two pieces of broken pecan, took his shoes and socks off, put one piece in one sock, the other piece in the other sock, stuffed the socks in his shoes, and said, “It’s time for them to take a nap.”

Ok then.