Saturday, April 16, 2005
Animal, Grass, Tree?
Because Lee is in so much pain when he tries to drive, I dropped him off early Thursday morning for the MRI that will tell us the extent of damage in his herniated disk. While he was lying in agony in the MRI tube, I was running errands with the kids. We were contrained by the fact that (1) I had both boys in tow, (2) it was 7:15 in the morning, and (3) we needed to stay close to the hospital so that we could get back quickly when Lee was dismissed. Since tax day was looming, I decided to brave the post office to get our tax return on its way. While I was doing my best to keep Max in line, he spotted some US Postal Service postcards on the wall. I asked him if he could read one of them in particular. Imagine my astonishment when Max said, "It's 'happy birthday'!" Then he chirped, "I want to buy that sticker and put it on our letter." Wouldn't that have been a nice surprise for the IRS, getting a happy birthday message with our tax return? Perhaps "happy anniversary" would have been more appropriate. But where the IRS is concerned, I'm reluctant to do anything that might make our return more noticeable that anyone else's.
Thinking that surely Lee couldn't be much longer, we headed back to the hospital. Max was getting bored waiting in the car and begged to do something. So I decided to try to teach him "Rock, Scissors, Paper," although I had doubts about whether he'd catch on. Silly me. It took him about a nanosecond to get the hang of it. But he didn't want to commit to a symbol until I revealed which one I'd chosen. Then, after a pause, he'd pick the object that beat me. Initially I thought he may have been picking the winner at random. But with very few exceptions, he kept winning and winning and winning. And then I understood that he really did understand.
After a dozen or more times, Max must have grown bored, because the next go-round, when I picked Rock, he chose Tree. I explained that there was no such thing as Tree in this game and that he had to pick Rock, Scissors or Paper. He replied, "Well, I can draw a tree on paper with my crayon!" Then he began to choose other objects at random. I picked Scissors, he picked Car. I picked Rock, he picked Volcano. Then he said, "Let's play "Animal, Grass, Tree!" For all I know, he may have even worked out the rules.
Thinking that surely Lee couldn't be much longer, we headed back to the hospital. Max was getting bored waiting in the car and begged to do something. So I decided to try to teach him "Rock, Scissors, Paper," although I had doubts about whether he'd catch on. Silly me. It took him about a nanosecond to get the hang of it. But he didn't want to commit to a symbol until I revealed which one I'd chosen. Then, after a pause, he'd pick the object that beat me. Initially I thought he may have been picking the winner at random. But with very few exceptions, he kept winning and winning and winning. And then I understood that he really did understand.
After a dozen or more times, Max must have grown bored, because the next go-round, when I picked Rock, he chose Tree. I explained that there was no such thing as Tree in this game and that he had to pick Rock, Scissors or Paper. He replied, "Well, I can draw a tree on paper with my crayon!" Then he began to choose other objects at random. I picked Scissors, he picked Car. I picked Rock, he picked Volcano. Then he said, "Let's play "Animal, Grass, Tree!" For all I know, he may have even worked out the rules.
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