Visit from the kids

[fbhjr]

One of the great parts of the holiday season is that my two godchildren are often passing through my area to visit their grandmother (who lives about 70 miles north of me) or their great grandmother (who lives about 20 miles east of me) and drop by to see us as well.

My wife and I ventured out to do some shopping on this insane shopping day. We only went as far as the bookstore across the street, and the market on the other side of the road. Neither were too bad today.
I got the kids a big book of dinosaurs. When I say big book, it’s about 2’ wide and 3’ tall. But, they were having a 2 for 1 sale on them, so I got myself an equally big book on astronomy at the same time.

They were going to get here about 5 PM, but didn’t get here until just after 7. Given their 5 state tour of folks, that’s pretty good.
Al dropped the kids off then drove a state away and back to return his mother home while Constance and the kids stayed here to visit.






My wife suggested I get out the big bag of puppets, and we had a good time playing with them all. (If the pictures are fuzzy, it’s just because the kids were moving around a lot. That’s a good sign...)

After that, we went on to playing World of Warcraft. I know it’s a game rated for teens and up. I know they’re only 8 & 4. But, I also don’t just let them run wild with the game and only let them go to places there is nothing scary and no humanlike things get killed.
Much like me, they find “Stompy” running around squashing low level monsters pretty funny. (Tonight Only: Stompy in the Night Elf starting area! Get your tickets now!)

It was nice to see their mother. We don’t see her as often as she does not usually make the trips north. But, she did for Thanksgiving.
There is always a challenge making conversation with someone who is an MD and a PHd in genetic engineering. The stuff we see on the Discovery Channel or read about in Scientific American is the stuff she does for her job.
Good stuff. I’m glad folks are working on genetic problems in humans.
But, a bit strange in conversations.
“I was changing the genetic structure of mice to research Downs Syndrome, how about you?” she’d ask.
“I mostly design file cabinets,” I said.
The thing is, she doesn’t seem at all arrogant about it. It’s what she does for her job. I’ve known a lot of arrogant people in my life. Some I thought earned it, some who didn’t. I’m not sure I’ve met anyone who I thought did earn it as much as she does. But she isn’t.
And the kids she has are brilliant. When playing with the puppets, Gabriele was saying her badger could fly.
“No, it can’t,” 4 year old Ben told her. “It lacks the webbing between its legs that a flying squirrel would have.”
This was after the start of the puppet playing that was “separate the animals by their order.”
They had birds, mammals and reptiles all properly grouped. I did have to add the category “mythical” to stop an argument between them about the sea monster going in fish or reptile. Ben was already pondering if the dragon should go with reptiles or birds.
“It’s a lizard,” he said. “But it flies.”

It was good to see them. As always, I wish they lived closer to us. But, it’s good to see them when we can.

Comments

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad you got to see them. I know you adore the spuds. They are smarter than most adults and still very much little ones at the same time. Constance is very nice.

[kismets-kiss.livejournal.com]

I love the grouping and "design" discussions! What amazing kids, very cool that you got to hang out with them.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Their father was my roommate in college back in the 80's.
He was smarter than me. And, their mom is way smarter than we are.
So, I'm not at all surprised the kids are as smart as they are. But, sometimes is it strange to see it in action.