Energetic Children

68. Math Club Competitions. The agony and the ecstasy of it all! Lou and one of her teammates (on her team of three) were very animated during competition. As his mother pointed out, they couldn't sit still. YES! and the Tiger Woods arm when they were right. O-OH. and the looking at each other and slumping when they were wrong. ARGGGH. and the hands pretending to tear her hair out when she realized she should have done something else. WHEW. and collapsing on the table when it was all so exhausting. And AHHH. With the hands in the air and down (deep cleansing breath anyone?) when it was all over. It was so fun to watch that who won was almost irrelevant - oh - except to Lou's team - who won 1st place. All the aerobics must have helped bring their oxygen levels up for some good quick thinking and teamwork. Great job Sweetie!

69. The S-Train and questions. Questions. Questions. Remember that post about numbers? That is a very typical conversation. A few weeks ago he got a bat book from the school library. The next couple of days sounded like this - nonstop. "Mom, what happens to bats when it rains? Do they get wet? Or does the water run off like ducks? Mom, are bats related to birds? Mom, can bats fly as far as grandma's house? You don't think so? What about the school? How far do they fly? Can they fly very far in one day? Why do they only fly at night? They're nocturnal? What's nocturnal? Why are they nocturnal? Because the insects they eat fly more at night? Why don't the insects they eat fly during the day? Then they could fly during the day. Where do bats live? Can we see some bats come out at night? I'm your pet fruit bat." "Go get some fruit, fruit bat." Comes back with a banana. And at various times during this is dressed like a bat with a cape as the wings. "Do I look like a bat? Or not really?" He found directions for a bat house in one of his books and now wants to make one and to know where we can hang it.

The good thing is - these are awesome questions. The sad thing. I know none of the answers. The problem. The questions don't stop long enough for me to look up the answers to them. And with google today, it might be possible for me to answer questions like this in a way my mother's generation could only imagine with a curious child.

This week our talking is running around Halloween. This is one excited about Halloween kid! "Do we have any Halloween decorations? Why don't we have more? Can we put them up? Can we put them up now? How about now? I want our house to look more spooky every day. Can we get some spiderwebs? I really want some spiderwebs. We can get them at the store. Can we go to the store and get some? How about now? What are the spiderwebs made out of? Is it the same stuff as in quilts? It won't stretch as far? Why not? What is the quilt batting made our of? I'll put up those decorations. (My children did put out most of our decorations themselves. Looks pretty good.) I'll take those pumpkins. This is my pumpkin. This is your pumpkin. (Shows me a stuffed pumpkin for each member of the family.) (At the store.) Can we get a skeleton? Why don't you like the spooky decorations? I love them! What's this? I want this broom. I could be a witch. Watch out! (Swings giant plastic grim reaper scythe.) Can we get this pumpkin? This is cool. What about this?"
Etc.

The enthusiasm is contagious. In the past this has become background noise to me. I say yes and no and answer in the appropriate places, but if I listen hard to everything, well, I'm tired. But lately I'm finding that the harder I listen, the more I'm realizing that this kid asks really cool questions, and can be really funny, and has more energy than a jeep full of monkeys bouncing down a dirt highway. (Don't ask me why that image, I just tried to think of something that had a lot of energy and didn't stop.)

70. I have a blog follower! :-) Not bad for a semi-private public blog.
Thanks Sis.