My nine-year-old son is the center of my universe. This is the story of his childhood as it unfolds. Please read the first post, "Why I started this blog," to know more.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Bed Time = Question Time

Here's the latest bedtime update. After never-ending Nemo and the Fleas fetish, Munchkin wants me to sing to him (the play list is decided by the little brat, of course) and answer questions. But first, we have to decide how many questions, otherwise the Q&A can go on past midnight without the little fellow so much as yawning.

Inquisitive Offspring: "How many questions can I ask?"
Sleepy Mommy: "Two."

Inquisitive Offspring:
"No, five."
Sleepy Mommy: "One."

Inquisitive Offspring:
"How about three, then?"
Sleepy Mommy: "Alright. (yawn)"

Inquisitive Offspring: "How does the remote control make my car any way I want?"
Sleepy Mommy: "Good question...."
(Silence...you see, Mommy is mathematically and scientifically challenged. Vertically and horizontally too, but let's not get personal here.)

Inquisitive Offspring: "Well...?"
Sleepy Mommy: "Er... they talk to each other. Through the antenna. Your remote has one and the car has one. So they talk to each other."

Inquisitive Offspring:
"Things don't talk, Mamma. And I never hear anything. I just push the...the...that thing and the car moves."
Sleepy Mommy: "Well, yes, you don' t hear anything because that's radiowaves talking to each other. They don't make a noise. They're on the same frequency."

Inquisitive Offspring:
"What's free...free...that thing you said? And that doesn't count as my second question."
Sleepy Mommy: "Erm....frequency. It's like a language. You and I speak the same language so you know what I'm saying and I know what you're saying. So even if we can't hear what they're saying, they know what they have to do and they do it."

Inquisitive Offspring:
"What if car doesn't do what the remote tells it to do?"
Sleepy Mommy: "Well, if something's wrong, like a battery runs out, or if some wire gets loose, then the car may not be able to do what you want. Otherwise it'll work fine."

Inquisitive Offspring:
"Hmm....but they don't fight because they're not people, right?"
Sleepy Mommy: "Yes, that's right."

(More silence....Sleepy Mommy's sleep-deprived brain is terrified that something more complicated is going to arise. Sleepy Mommy is right.)


Inquisitive Offspring:
"How do you make a space shuttle?"
Sleepy Mommy: "hmmm....I don't know, baby. I really don't."

Inquisitive Offspring: "That's not fair. You said I could ask two questions."
Sleepy Mommy: "Of course you can, sweetheart. But I didn't say I would be able to answer all of them." (mentally pats herself on the back for such a smart comeback.)

Inquisitive Offspring: "Okay. But could you please look it up on the Internet? You can tell me tomorrow."

Sleepy Mommy's brain stops to function. She mumbles something incomprehensible and moves to the playlist for the evening. "I must count my blessings. I must count my blessings."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

ha Ha Ha

now that is hilarious!

I have a sister who is about 14 and i dont think she has grown out of her "keep asking questions phase"

Im sure your child - will love to read this blog once he grows up :)Great blog

WRITING MOMMY said...

Glad you liked it. :) This habit of his makes me read up a whole lot and remain up to date on what's going on. He watches the news at my mum's place and invariably has questions about whatever he saw in the afternoon.
Keep dropping in.