Gotta Get Kangaroos

You'll notice in these pictures that our backdoor is open. It was THAT warm here today to require the opening and airing out of the house. Sandals, shorts, short sleeves, and still a little sweat - that kind of gorgeous welcome into February. Sorry, just rubbing it in a little bit :)

I have a ton of work to get accomplished today (writing this is my mental break). I worked all day yesterday and most of the night last night reading and writing. For those who don't know, the department is in the middle of candidate visits and the first-years hosted a party this week in addition to the extra course-work and business of Rhetoric Review (which was more this week than others) - all of this added up to a lot of time away from home fulfilling other obligations than family and homework. Two more weeks and we'll go back to our regular busy-ness of school and work.

I am seeing the effects of my week's preoccupation with work in Turner, most especially the past two days. He is vying for my attention in all the wrong ways, and I've been reacting in equally incorrect ways (i.e. impatience with the talking back and disregard for requests). So I sat down and considered his perspective and realized it wasn't fair to go from being me - the mom I like - to crazy busy, impatient, not cooking lady - the mom I've been this week - without really offering him a warning or explanation. He gets in trouble and I take that opportunity to explain to him why I've been disengaged and to ask him what would he like to do with Mommy. He wanted to do puzzles. He chose two. I took them downstairs to the table and we worked and switched and worked. I was able to read from the open book beside a little as long as I answered most of his questions and acted impressed when he needed me to do so. We had not been outside yet, but I saw his ball on the floor and the sun in the sky and inquired. He obliged and went upstairs to secure his sunglasses. He was gone for about thirty minutes, in which time I finished one chapter and was just starting the next when he came downstairs with a new plan.

"I built a house."

"Wow. Can I see?" I go look at it. I tell him that if he'll pick up his blocks we'll take them outside and build on the patio. He is excited and starts demolition on his house. Once outside I sit in the beach chair and pick up a block to help him. He admonishes me to stop and to just watch. He wants to build a house special for me. Super! I grab my book and get some more reading done. I look over the top of it occasionally and compliment his work (which, as you can see in the picture is really cool). He places each block with strategy and often moves one block to multiple spaces before deciding which is perfect. He narrates his building process and I fall into the disengaged, but pretending to be engaged, mom routine where I say "Uh huh" a lot and "wow" with much enthusiasm. He buys it becuase everytime he looks at me he sees me looking at him (I know about that eyes in the back of the head now; I can sense the moment he looks at me and I am always ready with a smile for him). He gets the first house constructed and I ask to take his picture. He was jubilant to say cheese and show off his workmanship.

"We need to get the kangaroos now."

"What kangaroos?" We've not watched anything with kangaroos. We've not talked about the hoppy animals. Where did mention of them originate?

"You know," he smiles at me. "The KANGAROOS." perhaps saying it louder will make me understand. It works for people who don't speak English, right? If we just talk louder and slower they'll get it.

"Okay. So where do we get the kangaroos?"

He sits back down at his project and looks at it more closely. He moves a block or two. He looks at me as I put the camera away. "We get them at the store."
"What store?"

"The one down the street."

"Really. Have we been there before?"
"Yeah but you'll need to look it up on your tumputer."

"Oh," I laugh, "is that what Mommy does when I don't know where to go?"

"Yeah. And we find it in the list."

"We sure do." I google directions a lot.
"So we'll get the kangaroos?"

"I don't know. We'll see."

He starts to put some blocks in the bag. "Where should all the udder animals go?"

"What animals?"

"The ones we'll get at the store."

"I don't know. Why don't you build them a barn?"

"Ok. And a house."

"Yeah. Make a farm. Just ensure that the house is far enough away from the barn so that we don't have to smell the barn smells."

"Yeah cuz kangaroos poop a lot." They sure do!

He constructs the barn, but with twice the dialogue and consideration of block placement. I am really impressed because he is matching the pictures on the blocks to those around them. That is probably what he was doing earlier, I just didn't notice in my very well scripted act of engaged mom reading theory. His barn is below. Notice the stick (probably too small to see but it is there) in the tower. This is the flag pole.

After de-construction of the barn and lunch, Turner and I go out to enjoy the day with a little walk. I grab a bag and his hand and we set out for our adventure. His mission is to pick up interesting things along the way to share with Daddy tomorrow. This way Daddy will know what the neighborhood has to offer even though he hasn't been able to go for a walk around the block yet. I offer him the mission as we stand in front of our door on the sidewalk.

"Do you accept the mission Turner?"

"It starts when we say rocket. ROCKET!" He takes off running toward the street pulling me behind. We make it around the block and fill our bag with flowers, sticks, cool rocks that look like glass (I promise they really are not glass), pine cones (yes we have those here too), and leaves. the bag gets heavy just as Turner gets tired. His lungs are so weak and the constantly runny nose and cough he gets from school or wherever just makes it worse. I hate hearing the rasp and I hate even more that I forgot his inhaler. I carry him home. He gets in the front door and puts his head to the floor. "I'm tired." I put our treasures by the front door and I lay down beside him. He rolls over, smiles at me, and says, "I love you Mommy." Whew! I'm glad he so easily forgives me for being too busy sometimes to do the things I REALLY want to do. What a beautiful day it is in every letter of the word. When he awakens from his nap we are on the search for animals and kangaroos. He has a whole list of them. It seems my mission may be larger than I had hoped.