Kids Random Questions and Thoughts

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jone. 
Facebook is full of baby pics with captions of what they are really thinking. The great thing about having a five year old is that you never have to wonder what they are thinking. I often wonder why they are thinking about that, but there is no answer. I wish I could capture all these random wonderings before they get suppressed by me, his friends, teachers, bosses and social acceptability.
A typical 5 minute drive to Gran's house.
"Which is more important, the brain or the heart" "So without one you would die" "Can a beaver cut down a tree?" "is the Eifel Tower made of metal?" "Can lava breakdown the Eifel Tower" "Which was the last Dinosaur left alive" "Why do we have meat eaters" " I can spell cot C  O  T" "Is Jesus dead" "Why does dvd not work in the cd player?" " How does a dvd work?" "2 sleeps until my playdate" "Superman can't be in real life because he can fly, but Flash can because you can exercise to run faster, Batman can also be real" "Could Superman live inside a volcano if only kryptonite can kill him" "Can a King Cobra kill you?" "You can be an Alligator wrestler but not a crocodile wrestler because that is dangerous" " How does the movie get from the satellite to the TV?"
Look we are here!
It is exhausting. He is also not happy with answers that don't sound logical. Grunts and non commital noises are unacceptable. Full undivided attention is the only acceptable behaviour. I try, but there are certain days when I just can't take the talking anymore. At least once a week I declare that we are to have a silent drive, no one is to talk until we have passed 3 traffic lights. We often make 1 which is enough time for me to take a deep breath and the guilt start to seep in that I am suppressing his spirit and reducing his potential. Then I start a conversation to try make myself feel better and make up for my short comings as an impatient mother. His need to talk overwhelms his need to sulk and remind me I have ruined his thought process. During our minute of quiet time, his head filled with 10 more thoughts that he is bursting to share.
Before I fetch from school now I hydrate, get my sugar levels right and look around at all the kids being fetched by car services and remind myself how grateful I am that I can fetch my kids and get to hear all their random questions and thoughts, soon they will keep them to themselves and I will be competing for their attention.
There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. ~Walt Streightiff 

Playing Roses and Thorns

When I read parenting articles I always get something out of it. If it just reminds me to do things again that haven't for a while. At a restuarant watching kids jumping on the castle, reading an article on separated parents. They spoke about playing Hi/Lo or thorns/roses with your kids regularly. When the boys came to eat their pizza's (I mean vegetables and water), I thought yes lets try this. I get blown away every day as to how much I underestimate my boys emotional maturity. 5 year old yes, expected answer. But then when my 2y11m answered, it made me a little teary that he could understand the idea of the game, and that I had never done this before. His Rose was seeing the big snakes in reptile shop, his Thorn when friend Nic pushed him at school.
The holidays came and went and as with all resolutions this game ended. Then suddenly I had some school redusal and tears, so decided to try again with more longevity. As it turned out my youngest was being hit by his friend regularly and was causing the problem. Discussing it with his teacher etc lead to problem being resolved and back to smiles. As always positive results leads to consistency.
My oldest is has taken to this and each night in bed he asks me what mine were for the day. Self reflection is not that easy, but when you get a response " I didn't know that made you sad" I realised that kids maybe need to know sometimes how they can impact on your day, or even that other things are also important to you.
Driving home from holiday, on my own with 2 kids in car, a bit anxious. I ask boys and get the response that there was nothing bad about the holiday, they enjoyed all of it. With a smile I could then focus on the road because it was worth every kilometre.