Doing homework with Joey

Last night, I had my most favorite annual training with the Fire Department: Ice Rescue Training!!! Yay! Honestly, folks, when else would you be able to jump in a local lake that is frozen over with ice and take a half-hour swim with your friends when its 16 degrees out and snowing? We do wear 'Mustang' suits which are the rescue service's equivalent of a dry-suit (SCUBA reference here), so I guess its kinda cheating in a way. Believe it or not, you actually get warm floating out there in the water... I know I do.

While I was at training, the girls (Jenny and Brooke) had an enchanting encounter with our son Joey....

Well after bedtime, ~8pm, the two homework-doers noted the discerning rustling sound that indicates that children-non-sleeping-after-parents-put-them-to-bed-ness so often encountered in that hour long period post lights out.

Yes, both Joey and Jess love to neglect the immediate sleep desires that their parents nightly attempt to enforce like chasing peas across your hibachi plate using chopsticks after a full helping of sake (not that I would know what that's like). Let's try this... its like having a plate of magnets and trying to organize them using a reverse polarized magnet: it just never connects. And so, they just never go to sleep at a decent time each night.

So, our nightly routine elongates itself on a very repetitious calendar, yet, I think we might actually enjoy it, even if it does create great stress while in the thick of it.

Last nights two hour excursion led the two slumber eluders into Joey's room, wherein Jess denoted that her "Princesses" were attempting to take a flight on Joey's Christmas gift from Grandpa Jim - a two foot long plane, of course - with a destination of 'Disney World.'

When told about the current predicament ("it is after your bedtime", "you need to go to sleep", "you're driving us nuts"... you name the nightly parental excuse - we all make up the same ones), Jess replied in a very defacto mannerism that they were interrupting her now already in-progress flight and that they'd need to wait untill post Disney arrival before she'd even allow the possibility of a return to her room.

So, somehow that situation was mitigated by the Brooke and Jenny, and Joey and Jess were settled into their rooms in the hope that they would stay there and sleep.

A quiet and uninterrupted half-hour passes.

Joey arrives in the living room - as if out of nowhere, I'm sure, as he has a way of silently stalking you and then just running up and making a blazen statement while you're bewildered with the shock of his presence with assuaging reasoning of something like: "My fire boat just fell off my bed, and... I was getting it and I realized that I was thirsty, so I got something to drink, and my blankie was not in my bed, so I got it, and... and.. I just thought I tell you that... I love you. Good night'. And like that, he usually just disappears back into the darkness of the ascending stairs and goes back to sleep without further ado.

But, this was not the case last night.

Now, remember, all this is coming second hand from both Jenny and Brooke, so, I might missing some details, but, I've laughed about this since hearing it, so here it goes...

At initial arrival, Joey's nightly statement this evening was that 'he was hungry.' Not too surprising, as both he and his elder sister seem to defer dining at the family dinner table each evening by opting to torment the rest of us with a continual stream of reflective statements about what one did to the other, or about this magic ability they both have to just know that they aren't going to like a particular food just by visual inspection, or with Jessamyn's constant inability to sit still at the table - she always slips down or off to the side of the chair before announcing the infraction, or the now every night Joeyism of: "oh, it's time to eat and now I need to state to everyone that I have to go potty".

Needless to say, this script of actions prevents the actual proper intake of sustenance by each inmate, and thus results in a late-night request for food (something they hope they'll like better than what they should have eaten at the dinner table, like fruit snacks or a granola bar) at the point of tucking them into bed and saying 'good night.'

Jenny was able to assuage his desires by immediately producing an apple that had been earlier placed in her book back in case she felt the need while at class.

Munch... munch... munch...

"Oh... I'm thirsty.... Don't worry, I'll get it myself."

An almost elven looking figure of our child, acting adult, takes himself into the bathroom to grab a stool which is then used to assist with a mountaineer-like climb onto the counter by which access to the glass storing cupboard is made. He procured a glass that was then half-filled with freshly gotten water from the refrigerator's allocation device.

He returns to sit with the two elder students still engrossed in their studies.

He eats a little more.

Munch... munch... sip... munch... spill

"Oops. I spill-ed some of my water. Don't worry, I'll clean it up."

He again returns to the kitchen, fetches a paper towel, even though his mother had advised him to grab the "blue" towel from the handle of the stove, and returns to the living room.

He cleans his mess up.

"What are you guys doing?"

"We're doing our home work."

"Oh.... I wanna cuddle."

So, he takes what remains of his apple, the paper towel used to clean up his mess with, and his empty glass to the kitchen, throws the apple and towel away and places the glass next to the sink. Such a good boy!

After a few minutes of cuddling at Jenny's feet, he sits bolt upright and states:

"Ok, I'm done cuddling now."

He then starts reciting his own version of the 'Doe, Ray, Me' song most of us remember from the 'Sound of Music', but he's been working on at school. Although, out of order, he gets the melody right 'Doe and deer, ray a drop of sun, doe ray me.'

When asked what he was doing, the following objection was voiced:

"Shh, I'm doing my homework!!" he states tersely.

And he proceedes again with working on his song.

Jenny interjects: "I really must speak with Mrs. Kelpin about this homework she has given you that keeps you up past 9pm."

He keeps working on his "homework."

"Ok, I'm done with my homework now. I beat you guys. I'm done with my homework before you two are."

And with that, he heads up to bed, not to be heard from again 'till morning.

Of course, I missed all of this, but a very jubilant Jenny and Brooke shared every detail with me.

jp