Fortunately Everyone Thought It Was Funny (And I Paid For The Soda)

Earlier this week I mentioned that pregnancy is making L’s Mother a little bit . . . foggy at times, well . . . I have another example:

We were out grabbing a quick bite to eat, and L’s Mother ordered a combo, then decided she didn’t want the soda, so she cancelled the combo.  As we’re getting settled in at the table, I see she’s drinking a soda.

Looking at her askance, I asked, “Where did you get that cup?”

“I had to get it myself,” she said cheerfully.  “I realized I needed soda to settle my stomach.”

“Uh-huh,” I said slowly.  “And do you realize that since you cancelled your combo order, that soda is profoundly unpaid for.”

“No!” she exclaimed in disbelief, “I didn’t . . .”  She paused, her eyes widening as the fog lifted.  “Oh . . . I did, didn’t I?”

We Have A Winner

And the solution to the L. Naming Issue (as suggested by Devon in the comments of the previous link) is to include the middle initial as well.  This has the advantages of simplicity, elegance, and it doesn’t require me to make any potentially confusing changes to category names, so that’s what I’m going with.

Thanks, Devon.

Pregnancy Is Making Her A Little Foggy Right Now

While I contemplate the L. Naming Issue, here’s a quick interlude:

“Pictures are magic,” L’s Mother announced as she admired a painting last night.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Pictures, paintings, drawings, animation . . .” she clarified.  “All magic because they’re things I can’t do just like going to the grocery store and remembering everything I meant to pick up there.”

How The “L” Am I Going To Make This Work?

Another thought stemming from last Friday’s announcement started innocuously enough.  Over the weekend somebody asked me if we had a name picked out for our daughter yet, and we do.  As is my habit, I won’t be posting her full name in this blog, I’ll just refer to her here by the first letter of her name like I do with my son L.  The first letter of her name is going to be . . . “L.”

Huh.

So Five Years Makes SOME Difference

Lots of random and not so random thoughts in the wake of last Friday’s announcement.  Let’s start with this one though:

First off, somebody unintentionally offended me over the weekend by telling me they noticed that my “second child” announcement was less elaborate than my “first child” announcement.  After a little back and forth we realized she was thinking of this post when the actual announcement was this one.  Once we cleared that up, I still had to admit there are some differences between the two announcements.

Most notably the expressed panic level is dramatically less in the second post, and the gender is mentioned where it wasn’t in the first one.

There’s a good reason for both of those differences.

Five years ago we needed to wait for the ultrasound to determine gender, this time we didn’t, and I’ve also learned some coping skills over those years which is why the expressed panic level is so much less.

My actual panic level is only about ten percent less at best, mind you, but that’s a separate issue.

Sleep, We Hardly Knew You . . .

So if it seems like I’ve been talking about parenthood a lot lately, there’s a reason for that.

As it happens, I’ve signed up for another tour of duty (a girl this time), and should be getting a lot more of the parenthood experience in about six months or so . . .

So I Figure I’m Not ALWAYS The Boring Parent

I try to teach my son good life lessons, I really do.

This morning, for instance, when he asked me what I wanted to do, in a burst of early morning honesty I answered, “I’ll tell you what I don’t want to do.  I don’t want to clean the coffee pot, grind coffee, boil water, and then wait twenty minutes for the coffee to be ready, but that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Why would you do all those things that you don’t want to do?” he asked.

“Because I want coffee,” I replied.

This is a tricky concept for a five-year-old, which is why I spelled it out like that, but after doing so I had a moment of self-doubt where I devoutly hoped that not all my lessons come across as pedantic as this one did to me in retrospect.

Then I remembered my son’s lesson from yesterday, which was to be suspicious when playing in the sand and your dad calls you over saying, “Check it out!  I made a Sarlacc pit, come see!”  (My hand was, of course, hidden buried under the sand.)

So Now It’s Time To Get Off The Computer So My Son Will Do The Same

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

– Eleanor Roosevelt

We Need To Talk, Son . . . But Not Today

As mentioned before, my 5-year-old son is more than passingly familiar with the Star Wars universe, but there are gaps in his knowledge.  For instance, he’s watched numerous episodes of The Clone Wars, so he knows who Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka are, and he certainly understands that the title “Darth” is a Sith title, but he’s shown little interest so far in sitting down to watch the full-length movies, so some of those knowledge gaps are . . . significant.

Case in point:

Last night I was mentioning how certain sections of the Internet have exploded following the season 2 finale of Star Wars Rebels because it featured the long-awaited face-off between Darth Vadar and . . . ahem, Anakin Skywaker’s former padawan, Ahsoka.  Having watched a clip of the encounter, I was describing it to Lala and L’s Mother when L, wanting to be included in the storytelling, chimed in, “And then Anakin came to help her.”

I had no idea what to say to that.

I still don’t.

That’s Good To Know

Last Friday I mentioned Lala’s (questionable) assertion that I’m Batman.

Naturally, not long after that a friend of mine named “Robbin” asked me if that made her my sidekick.

“Only if you wear the costume,” I replied with a wink, thinking (incorrectly) that would be the last word on the subject.

I was then informed that, “If you are Bruce Wayne rich and will cover my living expenses, THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!”