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Friday, June 20
going against nature
When my oldest son Clayton started to read street signs before he turned two, it was a sure bet that language would be his thing. His latest SATs bear that out: he scored far beyond his years on anything with words, and not so much on the stuff that deals with numbers.
When it comes to his five-year-old brother Connor, however, I'm pretty sure his birth interrupted an in-utero attempt to phone in some stock trades before the closing bell, and he's never forgiven us since. Our little math man let me know about two months into pre-K that he'd learned his numbers just fine, and he wasn't going to care about his ABCs that much since "they weren't as important."
Just last week, for instance, the AAA guy came to drag our dead Altima in for resuscitation. The shop was two miles farther than our allotted towing distance, and we had no cash in the house to pay the surcharge. (Side note to local thieves: WASTE YE NOT YOUR TIME.)
So I did what any self-respecting mother would do: I groveled at my child's feet for money. After sizing up my credit and making a few calls, Connor reluctantly handed over a ten, saying I must pay him back "the next day, with an extra dollar in interest." And then he said something like YOU NEVER PAID ME MY DOLLAR FOR CLEANING UP THE KITCHEN, EITHER, AND DON'T THINK I FORGOT ABOUT THAT.
We're thinking of letting him manage our investment portfolio for a kindergarten graduation present.
That being said, you can imagine the delight when my reluctant-reader son started sounding out and reading his first words off of a child's restaurant menu tonight. "CAT," he said. And then, "KID." And to make sure we were impressed, "STUFF."
Connor was proud. He glanced up at me with his serious little smile, as if he were thinking of something too strong and glad for words. And my throat tightened up a bit, realizing that all of us — if we keep our hearts open — will eventually learn the good, hard things that do not come naturally.
When it comes to his five-year-old brother Connor, however, I'm pretty sure his birth interrupted an in-utero attempt to phone in some stock trades before the closing bell, and he's never forgiven us since. Our little math man let me know about two months into pre-K that he'd learned his numbers just fine, and he wasn't going to care about his ABCs that much since "they weren't as important."
Just last week, for instance, the AAA guy came to drag our dead Altima in for resuscitation. The shop was two miles farther than our allotted towing distance, and we had no cash in the house to pay the surcharge. (Side note to local thieves: WASTE YE NOT YOUR TIME.)
So I did what any self-respecting mother would do: I groveled at my child's feet for money. After sizing up my credit and making a few calls, Connor reluctantly handed over a ten, saying I must pay him back "the next day, with an extra dollar in interest." And then he said something like YOU NEVER PAID ME MY DOLLAR FOR CLEANING UP THE KITCHEN, EITHER, AND DON'T THINK I FORGOT ABOUT THAT.
We're thinking of letting him manage our investment portfolio for a kindergarten graduation present.
That being said, you can imagine the delight when my reluctant-reader son started sounding out and reading his first words off of a child's restaurant menu tonight. "CAT," he said. And then, "KID." And to make sure we were impressed, "STUFF."
Connor was proud. He glanced up at me with his serious little smile, as if he were thinking of something too strong and glad for words. And my throat tightened up a bit, realizing that all of us — if we keep our hearts open — will eventually learn the good, hard things that do not come naturally.
2 comments:
love it! i want to say i had a little something to do with that... but i wasn't ever really sure how much connor was listening to me when i talked about letters. =)
:0)