Space Dirt, Politics, and Life

Texas Dirt

Everyone else wanted Texas Jelly Beans, not J.J.  He wanted dirt, of course not just any dirt, Texas dirt.  He is our only Texas baby and when he heard that his dad was going to be in Texas he wanted some native soil. 
 
He got even more excited when he found out that part of his dad's Houston WorldFest Film Festival experience was going to be a tour of NASA.   They had a heart to heart about it that went a little like this.

Mark:  Space dirt?


J.J.:  Yes, daddy, if you get me some dirt at NASA then it will be space dirt.


Mark:  No, J.J., the dirt outside NASA is just dirt.  


J.J.:  No, daddy, they treat it with anti-gravity...so when I lick it I will float!


Me:  Maybe we need to work a little more on science. He assured me he was just being silly, that he did realize that licking NASA dirt would not give him super powers and allow him to defy gravity.

Politics, Don't Even Get Me Started

J.J. is ten.  He is, however not the average ten year old.  He cracks us up regularly with his observations.  The other day he was going off on a state politician.   He started complaining about this politician, called him by name and with exasperation said, "Ba-ad."  He went on to say, "I usually don't like to talk about politics but..."  He had quite a rant going and some very good arguments.

Later in the day he was with his dad when it came up again.  He interrupted, "Politics, don't even get me started."


Nothing to Fear 

We went out the other night, my husband and I.  We try to do that regularly, with 7 kids in the house we need it.  Because have older kids it is easier than it used to be.  Most of the time we only get "emergency" phone calls for the first 20 or 30 minutes of our date, then after we clarify that emergencies have requirements like bleeding or fire, it all quiets down.  But, boy there are always stories when we get home.

This last one cracked me up.  Hannah was coming out of her room when she was jumped by the two younger boys in a panic.  They had gone to bed earlier so it was a bit of a surprise.  Okay, it shouldn't have been -- they never stay in bed at first.

They were freaking out.  Rattling on and on, she finally got the gist of what was scaring them so badly.  They said they had been watching an imaginary scary movie in imaginary land and it had done a number on them.

Yep, not real movie...an imaginary movie, in an imaginary movie theater, in an imaginary land all combined to make some seriously real fear. 


71.4

He was trying to make an argument for the largest ice cream available at Superior Dairy Creamery.

We had spent the morning at a service project and after we made a detour to get some ice cream.   This particular place has a special kind of warped perception of what a scoop is, this one happens to be 7 scoops. 

His argument went a little like this, "I can eat it all myself, I'm 71.4 pounds, I need the calories!"

His eyes were seriously bigger than his stomach.  We did what any caring parent would do and helped him out.