Naps are tough on those who stay awake

"Aaah! Mom! I lost my Way-chel (Rachel)!" Makayla came screaming into the kitchen.

"Did she fall asleep?" I asked.

"Yes!" lamented Makayla.

Rachel and Makalya: sisters and best friends

Philosophical discussions of 10-year-olds

On the way home from cub scouts, Samuel, Benjamin, and their friend Oliver, started talking about planets in the "goldilocks zone:" not too close to or too far from the sun, but the perfect distance for liquid water and hopefully life.

Benjamin: Do you believe aliens really exist?
Oliver: No, I don't believe they actually exist.
Samuel, aghast: What about Spock?!
Oliver, thoughtfully: That's true...

nostalgia

I miss the pitter-patter of little feet as my children and half the neighborhood kids clomp around. They are running up and down the stairs, from the backyard to their bedrooms and back again, in an epic boys versus girls "war." One of the kids is supplying the background music of "Gangnam Style," blaring from his phone.

Ladies' man

The boys ride the bus to and from school. Benjamin, a kindergartener, has to sit in the front seat. Samuel usually sits with him. Samuel has a few friends on the bus, including Rebecca from church and Kenia from school, but the girls don't know each other.

As they were getting on the bus one morning, Benjamin saw Kenia and told Samuel that he could go sit with her instead of him.

"I started going over to sit with Kenia, but then Rebecca caught my eye," Samuel said with a twinkle in his eye and a smile, "so I sat with her instead."

I fear the time he is 16 and not just 6.

best friends?

After school Samuel told me about the mean things his friend, Ryan, kept saying to him. "He doesn't sound much like a friend," I commented.

"Yeah," he sighed, "but he's a really good racer. Sometimes he beats me. Sometimes I beat him. And sometimes we tie." Hmm, so that's what makes a friend.

-MR