Ian drew this picture in the car last night, coming home from dinner. He explained his idea—in exhaustive detail—on the way to the restaurant.
Be sure to click through and hover to read the notes. He was very specific in his design.
From The Memory of Old Jack, by Wendell Berry:
‘…When they stop the children are instantly scrambling over the tailgate.
Hannah gets out. “Listen! I want you both to mind now, and be good.”
“We will,” Margaret says.
“Mattie, did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
Her warnings to Mattie always leave her with the impression that she has just spoken to a squirrel. She will take care of him when he needs it, which he will.’
Grandma Georgina had foolishly taken four Wonka-Vite pills, which—at the rate of one year per second—made her eighty years younger. Unfortunately she was seventy-eight at the time. As Charlie worryingly did the math, Willy Wonka assured the boy that he’s developed a cure for such an eventuality: Vita-Wonk. Mr. Wonka explained that, to counter the youthful effects of Wonka-Vite, he scoured the earth for the world’s oldest living thing.
And before I read the next sentence, I turned to Ian, nestled in the crook of my arm, and asked, ‘What do you think it was? What’s the world’s oldest living thing?’
He squinted and thought for only a moment. ‘A tree?’
I’d asked the question assuming that he’d been following the book, following the words. ‘Tree’ is an easy one, and apparently my assumption had been correct. Except, for some reason, I asked, ‘Why?’
‘Because they keep growing.’
We’d talked, ever so briefly, about plants during a walk on Saturday. How they keep growing. Ian made the point that some plants can’t grow [upward], so they use other things to grow, like telephone poles.
And in those few seconds, Ian had reasoned that because plants keep growing, and because trees are the biggest plants, they must be the world’s oldest living thing.
I didn’t speak, didn’t know how to respond. I felt like Creb, in awe when he realizes that Ayla can count higher than ten. There I was, banging rocks together to hear the pretty noise, while Ian was using them to build a house.
I felt wonderfully surpassed. Laughing and coughing, waving the cloud of dust from my face as I watch my son race into the distance and pause, waiting for me to follow.
Ian doesn’t want to read. He loves being read to, he just doesn’t want to do it himself. I’m of two minds. On the one hand, I was also worried that he wouldn’t crawl, walk, talk, count to ten, or eat an ice cream cone without using his ears. Still working on that last one.
On the other hand, we’re readers. We make weekly trips to the library. Ian has his own library card. I’m fairly sure the librarians are plotting to ambush me in Non-Fiction if I request just one more book by Alastair Reynolds.
We don’t have cable and don’t watch a lot of movies. Ian and I occasionally bond around Guitar Hero or Mario Kart. Last week we played Duck Hunt.
If this kid doesn’t start reading, what the heck is he going to do around here?
I’ve been busy at work lately, and the other day worked off my frustration by putting my son in a head-lock. He returned the favor by putting my nose in his eye. It wasn’t an accidental poke in the pupil or schnoz in the sclera. He put his hands to my face, and gently but firmly pulled me toward him until my nose was resting in the corner of his eye. Again and again and again.
Strange.
And as my fingers played along his ribs and under his armpits, I asked Kelly, ‘Wanna go out for I-C-E C-R-E-A-M?’
Mid-squeal, Ian raised his head. ‘Ice cream?’
Stink. Er.
Last night Ian opened a tea shop in the bathroom. He set cups of Mr. Bubbly bathwater along the edge of the tub, and cried his wares through the door.
‘Mommy, do you want green tea?’
‘Do you have any iced tea?’
‘No. But I can make it for you!’ Another cup joined the ranks.
‘Daddy, do you want some green tea? Or iced tea? It doesn’t cost anything!’
‘Wow, you’re serving free tea?’
‘Well,’ he shrugged, ’sometimes I have to charge something because my lawyer says so.’ I tried the green tea.
Later, Ian’s bubbles thinning, I tried the iced tea. ‘This is pretty good. Do you have any iced green tea?’
‘Not today, but I’ll make some for you tomorrow.’
‘How much will it cost?’
‘It’s free!’
‘I thought you said your lawyer told you to charge something for it.’
He smiled and proclaimed, ‘He died!’
And I’m passing the savings on to you!
