“How was school today?” I asked the kids when I arrived home from work. It’s my usual line. I followed it up with my other usual line. “Tell me something good which happened.”
The usual responses, depending on the child, are stories about painting pictures or playing handball or, very occasionally, receiving an award. Miss9’s usual response is to tell me something awful which has happened to someone and I have to steer her back to the topic. It’s not that she’s pleased someone is upset, it’s more that these little dramas play on her mind. She’s the main reason I started focusing them on the good stuff.
Today’s stand out response was from Miss6, who said, “Goo goo, ga ga.”
“I’m sorry?” I said.
“Goo goo, ga ga,” she repeated.
I looked at the other kids, who were all standing around expectantly. There was obviously something here I was missing.
“Someone want to interpret what she’s saying for me?” I asked them.
“She’s being a baby,” said Master8.
“Clearly,” I said. “And…?”
“And today she was a baby at school,” said Miss9.
I looked at Miss6. “Sucked your thumb? Wet your pants? Crawled on your knees?’
“Goo, goo, ga ga.”
I looked back at the other kids and raised my eyebrows.
“Crawled around on her knees,” said Master8.
“At lunchtime,” added Miss9.
“Why would she do that?” I wanted to know.
“Because,” said Miss6, finally finding her voice and grinning at me, “I opened my lunchbox and inside was a baby’s bottle full of milk! I pulled it out and went, ‘Ahhh!’ “
It seems, in the morning hustle and mayhem which is our kitchen, Miss1 had snuck one of her bottles into Missd6’s lunch box as a special treat for her big sister.
“So I was a baby all lunch,” said Miss6 happily.
That’s one of the things I love about Miss6 – although she is high maintenance in almost every aspect of family life, she rolls with the punches in situations the other kids would get embarrassed by.
And that’s what I love about asking the kids about their day at school, I just never know where the question will end up taking us.
When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’ Facebook Page.
’raising a family on little more than laughs’
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That is so cute. My daughter put her dummies in her cousins school bag when we stayed over once (we did not know this) and when we searched every room and car and couldn’t find them I had to go a buy more. Then a few days later got a call from my brother saying his then 10 year old daughter was so embarrassed at school when she opened her bag and found them. That’s when we knew Miss 1 1/2 loved her cousin.
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