This Title Has Nothing to do with This Post but Joe does

As I look at you – yes, you – through the screen on your computer, I must tell you, “I have a headache.” There. I said it.

I want to write a post. I want to write an entertaining post. But my head pounds with pressure; it pounds with pressures of parenting, pressures of employment, pressures of finances, pressures of deadlines, pressures of health and pressures of obligations. Can you relate? Yes, I know you can.

No worries, I’m here. And, I will do my best to entertain you. I will do my best to generate a smile on your face and leave you feeling better than you do now. (Yes you, as you eat way too many Oreos). But. And, this is a big but. This post will not be well organized. May god help you follow my thought process, without giving you a headache, too.

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The phone rings. Caller ID indicates the caller is our next door neighbor. My son placed a call to his next door neighbor friend an hour earlier, asking if he wanted to come over and play. Assuming it was the friend calling back to say he was ready to play, I handed the phone to my 6yr old son.

“Hello?” My son says in a tone of a question. “Hi, Tony.”

Obviously, I could only hear one side of the conversation. Even one-sided, I could tell Tony was ready to come over and play, but he was not allowed to watch television at our house.

“Um, Tony,” Joe begins. “How about you wait and come over at 5pm. Wild Kratts is on now, and I want to watch it. It’s about worms. I don’t want to miss this Wild Kratts about worms.”

My son has a thing for worms. I’ve been watering his worms for over two weeks. Yes, you read that right. I’ve been watering his worms for over two weeks. See, he has a bug container filled with dirt and … worms. If you know anything about worms, you know they need moist soil. So, I make sure the soil remains moist for my son’s slimy pets. And now, thanks to the Kratt brothers, I know why worms appear all over the place when it rains. I’ll share that tid bit of information with you later.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, we have a video game gadget that attaches to the television. It’s not a Wii, Playstation or anything along those lines. It is a little hand held gadget that contains Pac Man, Dig Dug, Rally X, Galaxian and Bosconian. In other words, it is a video game gadget allowing those who were teenagers in the 80s to relive their video gaming days.

Joe loves our video game gadget. He wants to play it every day. (Funny how the video game addiction strikes quickly.) However, we’ve cut him off of video games during the school week. No video games Monday – Friday morning. He is allowed to play the games again, after school on Fridays.

I had hoped the ban of video games would get Joe to focus on things like doing puzzles, coloring, building, etc. Nope. He’s replaced the video game with our Oregon Scientific Smart Globe and “Bop It”. At least with the Smart Globe, he’s learning his geography. He’s one 6yr American that can point out all 10 Canadian provinces, as well as the three Canadian territories. Okay, well – he can point to Canada, and he knows where Nova Scotia is located.

In addition to hand held games and globes, the boys have other toys. Recently, I overheard Joe talking to his brother about one of their bunnies. See, both boys were given a plastic and bendable bunny while attending a birthday party for one of their friends.

“Charlie, I’ll give you this dollar money for your bunny.” I heard Joe say. “No, Joe.” Charlie said. “I want my bunny.”
“But Charlie, this is dollar money. You could buy another bunny with it.”

Curious about the money, I walked in to Joe’s room to see what was taking place. Come to find out, Joe was trying to hand Charlie a twenty dollar bill. Twenty dollars!! Where did he get that money, you ask? Well, he celebrated a birthday in January, and he received quite a few ‘dollars’ from family members. And, the money he received was put in his piggy bank.

I didn’t take time to fully explain to Charlie what a great deal he was getting for his bunny, nor did I take time to fully explain to Joe what a mistake he was making. Instead, I gave a brief explanation about money, trading and the cost of goods sold based on supply and demand and … ugh, my head!

After picking Joe up from school, I asked him, “How was your day?” He told me he had a good day. He showed me a bag he got at school from a dentist helper. “A hygienist?” I asked. “Yes. She works with dentists.” Joe said. “She showed us how to brush and floss our teeth.” He continued. “She’s a girl. There are lots of girls in my school. There are so many girls in my school that they have a girl scouts. And, girls like to play dress up and play with Barbies. Lexi and Macki told me that maybe I could come over to their house one day and bring some of my boy toys.”

And finally, why do worms come up out of their holes when it rains? Well, it’s not because they will drown if they stay underground, which is what I thought. Nope. They come up above ground when it rains because they can. In fact, the only time they can safely come above ground is when it rains. Worms need to remain moist at all times, which is why they do their best to go back to their holes when the rain stops. Sadly, the dried up worms you find on sidewalks, streets and driveways are the ones that didn’t make it home in time.

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Be Kind. Take care of yourself and each other.