“Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men.”

TBD is four years + eleven months old.

Achievements unlocked this past month: the random-answer/surrealist stage of telling knock-knock jokes, playing Go Fish and dominos with strategy,* pedal biking with training wheels. This last the current consuming passion, practiced at every opportunity.

(Not reading yet, to my surprise. Doing Chinese learning apps is, interestingly, helping with English spelling.)

Not much narrative to this update, mostly a series of random observations:

• The Monster Threat Level** is back to low, after being too minimal to register for months. Processing illness and death (including one of our cats last month) are big component stressors.


• When asked to think about what name to give our new cat, TBD decided on Sam in a few seconds. Sam is adored, in no small part because he's a mush who follows people around and lets TBD pester him.


• At last weekend's March for Our Lives, TBD’s sign was “Love Everything in the World” (dictated) with a multicolored heart (self-work) on the back.


• Playing Airport involves all the Hot Wheels cars traveling to the airport by shuttle, going through a long security line, getting snacks (optional for some travelers), and waiting at the gate to board. (When we use the car carrying case as the plane, boarding becomes cleanup—win!)


• Media consumed includes repeat-looping audiobooks of the first 8 Junie B. Jones chapter books (some of Junie B's phrases have shown up IRL but so far no new forms of her brattiness), the reboot Magic School Bus (a couple times through), The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That (and man does School Bus highlight that Cat doesn’t do nearly as good a job), the reboot Voltron (rewatch), and the first two Danny Dragonbreath books.

As for talking, talking:

“I wish I had more homework right now.”

“I wish I was a plant and I already growed and then you could eat me.”
(we've been gardening)

“I’m going to stay up for a very long time until I get tired and then I’ll go to sleep. Deal?”
Janni: “No deal.”
(bargaining is getting more sophisticated)

“This is just a suggestion, and you may not want to do it, but maybe ...”
(more than once used to preface a proposal they suspect won’t be approved—though once it was, actually)

“Is space always up?”
(I managed to quickly answer, “Yes, unless you are in space, in which case it’s all around you,” instead of getting tangled up in how deep a question that is)

"Can lizards stick to X?"
(repeat question, is specifically asking about geckos)

“Is Trump even ...” (hesitates, draws thumb and forefinger close together) “... a little bit nice?”

(during a bedtime worry about monsters)
Me: “I'll protect you from anything that can hurt you.”
TBD: “What if it hurts you?”

“Doctor Luther King ... He died. Why? ... But those he talked to fixed it.”
(MLK's assassination, included in an early reader we've been rereading, is only one part of what's being processed about death)

"When $cat died, did she have her fur?"

"Hey hey, ho ho, the generator's got to go!"
(mangled protest chant)

"Mommy’s a poopyhead! Daddy’s a poopyhead! Everyone’s a poopyhead! Except me. I will take over the world.”

"Spring into action!" (suddenly runs off chasing cat)


Those last two summarize so much of life right now.


* Still working on Uno strategies, which are indeed more complex.

** How often us parents have to dispel, or otherwise give reassurance about, monsters in the vicinity. This has historically been a good general measure of stress levels.

---L.

Subject quote from A Question, Matthew Arnold.