What Will We Do Then?

For Teancom's birthday, we gifted all 3 of our kids a Razor Scooter.  Nothing fancy, just the basic version.  And while they tell me that their bikes are better, they ride those scooters all the time.  They've spent more time outside in the last 2 weeks than they have for all the rest of the summer combined.  (Though the weather has helped.  It's been lovely.)

A few days ago, Miciah came inside and said, "Okay, we're ready."  For what?  "We've come up with a Razor Scooter Routine and we want you guys to see it!  It's really cool." 

So Rob and I headed outside to watch the really cool routine, which consisted of the kids riding down the street in formation and weaving in and out of driveways all the way back to our house.  We loved it.  They loved it.  It was happiness.

I turned to Rob and said, "They're going to get older, you know, and what will we do then?" 
Rob smiled.  "Not watch Razor Scooter Routines."

True story.  Right now the kids are at fantastic ages.  Miciah is not yet "too old" to play with her brothers, Tank is no longer "too little" to do fun stuff, and they all like to play together.  This is a fleeting state of being.  Soon enough there will be teenage drama, and a billion activities that infringe upon our quiet family time.

Still, we'll enjoy it while it lasts. 

It made me wonder what else we won't do when they get older, and I thought that I needed to make a mental list of some of those things.  So here are a few other things that won't happen when they're older.

Miciah's Store

Miciah has made a store in her room.  She took some little pebble things and designated them as money - M's.  That's what the money's called.  M's.  Then she collected things of hers that she was willing to part with, and gave them a price.  She told the boys that every day they get a certain amount of M's to spend - 20.

On Day 2, Teancom came out of his room in the morning and immediately went downstairs.  When he walked back upstairs he said, "I just wanted to check if the store was open.  It's not.  Miciah's still asleep."  It wasn't yet 8:00.

Another time, Teancom came upstairs and said, "Mom, do you like my painting?"  Thinking it was something he'd painted, I said, "Yes, I do."  And I did, in fact, like it.  I thought it was actually a little too good for a 7-year-old to have produced, and it kinda looked like a Miciah creation.  Teancom continued, "I just bought it.  It was 15 M's."  I smiled.  Ah. 

Yet another time, Elijah came upstairs and his friend who was over at the time said, "You stole that."  I was wondering what was going on, but I finally figured out that Elijah had stolen an item from Miciah's Store.  I nicely talked to Elijah about how he shouldn't steal things, even if it is from Miciah's  made-up store.  Elijah shot back, "But, Mom.  I bought something today from Miciah for 20 M's and it broke while I was playing with it.  I asked Miciah for a refund and she wouldn't give me one!  That's not fair!  20 M's was all my money!"

I then had a chat with Miciah about bad customer service.

"What will we do then?"
Not negotiate disputes over M's.

Ticks

Elijah's friend, Andrew, spent the night and randomly when he woke up in the morning he discovered a tick on his body.  Rob pulled it out, no problem.  We supposed the tick came from when they were playing outside in the backyard.  That seems strange, but apparently ticks are bad this year. 

A few nights later, on a particularly blissful night, we decided to sleep with the windows open.  Teancom started to object."No, close the window!"

I thought he didn't like the fact that the fan would be placed in the window, or maybe he thought it would make his room too hot.  So I tried to make him feel better.  "But it's such a beautiful night.  The fan will draw in the cooler air.  It'll be awesome."

"But I don't want the window open.  Ticks can get in."
Ah, that's what this is about.  "Ticks can't get in."
"Yeah," Elijah chimed in, "There's a screen.  Besides, Andrew brought that tick in from outside.  It didn't come through the window."
Teancom wasn't having it.  "They can still get in."
I was patient.  "Teancom, there's a screen.  They can't get through the screen."
"They can bite through skin; they can bite through the screen."

I stopped in my tracks.  Excellent reasoning.  Skin doesn't even have holes in it - a screen does.  Water can't get through skin - water easily gets through a screen.  Skin is clearly tough, tough stuff.  A screen, not so much.

All I could come back with was, "Trust me, they can't bite through the screen."
Thankfully, Teancom accepted that and allowed the window to stay open.


"What will we do then?"
What, indeed.