It was just Alexis and I in the car. Her with her glass of Dr. Pepper in her lap, wearing the same jeans and t-shirt she wore the day before, hair a mess and her white Sunday shoes on her feet and me in the front seat ... not completely happy that I am having to stop what I was doing in order to go pick up my twins from a friends house - but I do!
As we pulled out on the road in front of our house, Alexis asked me several questions about where the girls were and did I know how to get there. Am I sure I know how to get there? How do I know how to get there? I explain all of this (that the girls gave me directions). "We'll get there," I assure her.
She then proceeds to count; something she does a lot of these days. Lately, counting backwards is her thing and so she rambles on about whether she should start counting from 109 or from 100 and which one I think she should start with. I pick 109 just to see if she can do it. So she starts. When she gets to 90, she skips 90 and goes straight to 89 and I say, "You skipped 90," and she says, "I don't want to say that one." Okay. So she proceeds and gets down to 60 and asks then for my help as she's tired and it's time for me to take over. So I try and give the next number, 59. That's wrong! So I try again and give the number 60. That's wrong! We do this for a few minutes; me trying to be patient and I then say, "I'm not sure what you want me to say." She then says, "Now I have to start all over again. 109, 108, 107, 106 ..." she counts down for the next several minutes - all the numbers. When she gets to about 60 again, she says, "I don't wanna do this," and she stops abruptly. I say "G-O-O-D," under my breath and laugh for a while about this episode because it is soooo representative of my life.
On and on they go about stuff - relentlessly. And most of the time ... I am very receptive to the games, the talk, the questions, the counting, as it is natural and so often kills time that otherwise might be filled with say ... crying or whining. I do prefer the gibberish to the whining! But ... there are moments when the gibberish drives me crazy, like it could have on this day in the car, if I hadn't been so intent on spinning it into a funny moment. I have to do that - spin these moments or I will go crazy!
After the counting numbers episode, Alexis went on to highways. Naming the one she knew and then asking me, "Do you know anymore highway numbers?" And then asking me to name all the ones I knew. Way too much talk about all the highways around our city.
Then she says, "Did you hear that noise (a squeak that came out of her mouth)?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Did it sound funny?" I said, "Yes," and she continued to make the squeaky noise too many times.
Then she said, "What's 211?" Not really asking me, just talking. "It's like 911. If you move away the 2 and put the 9 next to it, it's 911," she rambles. She must have seen this 211 on one of the road signs, because she then began to go on about the road signs; the colors of some, the pictures on some, the big ones and the little ones, blah, blah, blah.
Then she says, "What are cherries?" I said, "What do you mean? They're fruit." She said, "Are they the ones that have stems?" I said, "Yes." "Are they the ones that are a circle with the stem?" I said, "Yes," just as I realized that I had made the wrong turn and stopped to turn around. She says, "Do you actually know where you're going?" after I explained why I was turning around. I said, "Yes."
She then said, "Mom, is it impossible to drive with your windows open?" I said, "No." She said, "Why?" I said, "Because you can drive with the windows open." Then she started talking about schools. "Where is the girls' school? I thought they were at school. Do I go to school tomorrow? What is tomorrow? Is today Sunday?"
I tell this whole dialog that went on during this short trip with my little daughter, as a way of showing how my days are. These are the sort of topics and the pace that our conversations take. Mostly it involves a lot of questions and sometimes my children will offer useful, or more often ... foggy details about subjects that they know nothing about or topics that are of no importance to anyone ... but them.
And ... as much as these lengthy and sometimes exhausting exchanges take out of me ... I will try to never let my children know that it is this ... relentless discussions about numbers, highways and days of the week that can sometimes drive me CRAZY!
It CAN!
Sometimes it makes me C-R-A-Z-Y --- *109, 108, 107, 106 ... blah - blah - blah ....*
On the upside ... I have learned a lot of stuff about bugs and about dinosaurs over the past 15 years. I can name you most any dinosaur - big and small. And ... Pokemon ... I know some stuff about Pokemon ... (*sigh*).