Nate Nate

Life's Big Questions, As Posed By A Budding Mathematician

"Mom," Nate asks.  "What day did Gd create the animals?"  I tell him, with about 75% confidence, that animals came on the fifth day.  "What year?" he demands to know.  "A long, long time ago," I say. "But what year?" "A really long time ago."  Nate digests this.  "It must be 19-something."  "Even longer," I tell him.  "Long before anyone you know was born.  Something like a million years ago."  Nate is undaunted.  "What time?"  he asks.  "Was it 7:30?"  "Yes," I tell him.  "A million years ago, at 7:30, Gd created animals."  "Oh," says Nate.

Nate's other great new interest is the a (thanks, Marsha!) Fibonacci series.  For those not blessed with children who demand constant researching of all things math, Fibonacci is what they called some old timey Egyptian guy based on his dad's nickname (thanks, Wikipedia!) who came up with the realization that a particular bunch of numbers in a series appear in nature in a lot of places, and something something honeycombs, rabbits have a lot of bunnies, and the Golden Mean (thanks, everyone who attempted to explain this today!).  I don't get it either.  But the way you find the next number in the series is by adding the two numbers that precede it.  So 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34...you get the picture.  And so, gotta love him, does Nate.  When I left for work, he was huddled over a notebook, feverishly calcuating the series while stuffing M candy pancakes into his mouth.  That's quite an image, is it not?

Jonah has been more focused on practical things.  When the glass repair guys showed up the other day to put a temporary patch on our window (long story short, do not attempt to swipe a bee off the window with a broom, or did everyone else already know that?), Jonah kept calling them "the movers," which makes sense, as they showed up in a big truck, just like the movers who recently helped install our swingset.  Yesterday, when we got a message and I said, "Terrific, the glass guys will be here tomorrow!" Jonah chirped, "Hooray!  The movers coming back and they fix our window!"  I really loved how he associated and remembered that the "movers" are, in his book, just another name for glass repair guys.  I don't know, I found it funny.

Jonah is also just waiting to praise Daddy for his hard work in his trial in Los Angeles.  "Daddy's coming home tomorrow!" I announced. "Yay!!!" cheered Jonah.  "I say, 'Hooray, Daddy!' and I give Daddy a gold medal for his trial!"

How did he know that that's exactly what the judge did?

Lots of Sound Bites

The guys have been serving up a lot of funny and unintentionally funny comments lately, presumably to keep me entertained while Daddy is in Los Angeles:

Me [to Jonah]:  Please get in your carseat, honey.

Jonah [completely seriously]: Honey went to Los Angeles.

*    *    *

Nate: What was Grandma Nan's mommy's name?

Me: Inez.

Nate:  What was Inez's mommy's name?

Me: I don't know, Nate, you'll have to ask Grandma Nan.

Nate: [eyes twinkling, about to make his first ever original intentional joke] What was You'll Have To Ask Grandma Nan's mommy's name?

*    *    *

Jonah: [lifting pajama shirt] See, Mommy?  Dass the bottom of my heart.  I love you the bottom of my heart.

*    *    *

Nate: Mommy, who made the whole world?

Me: [gearing up for imminent discussion of life, the universe and everything]: Well, different people believe different things.  Jewish people believe that Gd made the whole world.

Nate: In what month was the whole world in Gd's tummy?

*     *     *

In other news, we've been extremely busy with birthday party mania in the past few weeks.  We attended an excellent party at the fire station, which was fun yet scary, at least as experienced by Jonah.  Both guys enjoyed the little presentation by the very friendly firefighters, including the demonstration of their equipment and fire pole, right up until they brought out an enormously loud and powerful mega-fan, which scared the tuna salad out of Jonah, and from that point on, pretty much everything scared the tuna salad out of poor Jonah.  We ended up heading to the adjacent playground early, but not before Nate excitedly took a turn squirting the hose, which was excellent on so many fronts.  The next day we headed to TWO parties, bringing our cupcake total for the weekend to 3, plus ice cream.  This coming weekend, we have two more cake birthday parties.  There's never a dull moment.  Although we're very excited for Honey to come back from LA in just a few more days!

Hangin' Loose

This just in:  Nate has TWO loose teeth!!!!  That are really loose!  Including one that is really, really loose!  I just about passed out when Obdulia pointed them out to me (shows what I know; I hadn't even noticed).  I'm not sure why it's so shocking, especially since the dentist predicted at our last checkup that he would lose those 2 teeth (bottom middle) sometime within the next 8 months, but it feels like a really, really big deal. 

Nate is not as pleased.  "I don't want to lose my te-ee-eeth!" he wailed.  "Not until I'm 65!"  His fears were somewhat assuaged upon learning that the tooth fairy would give him cash in exchange for his teeth, but I unfortunately set him off again by advising that if the tooth fell out at school, he should remember to bring it home.  I guess that was a rather terrifying and unfortunate image for a guy with zero tooth-losing experience.  However!  It will be very, very exciting!

It's All Relative

Overheard on a playdate this morning:

Jakey:  I three.  Are you three?

Jonah:  No.  I only two.  I little.

Jakey:  Well, I big!

"Little" Jonah, it should be noted, has a good inch and 2 shoe sizes on three year old Jakey. 

The Surrealist Argument In The World

This morning, while I was trying to eat breakfast, pack my strict-diet lunch, and generally get ready to leave for the early bus, Nate, as usual, demanded that I make him some math problems.  Twenty-eight, to be exact.  I quickly scrawled a page worth, which turned out to be 21 problems, and resumed frenetic activity.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Nate wailed.  "I need twenty-eight!!!!"

"Nate, 21 is plenty.  I've got a million things to do here."

Nate, I kid you not, started to cry.  "But I need twenty-eight!!  I need them!!!  I need all of them!!!!"

This went on.  At some point, it just becomes easier to sit down and scribble out 7 more questions than to argue, so, in a huff, I did just that.  "Fine!  Here are your 28 problems.  I hope you're happy!" I snarled.  Nate sniffed.  "Thanks, Mom," he said.  And he was off.

When it occurred to me.  I know this is a recurring theme here, but isn't it kind of weird to argue with a 5 year old about how many math problems he's allowed to do before breakfast?  Is there a support group out there for either of us?

A Sad Story, Forty-Seven Dramatic Retellings

"Tavi was sad," Jonah will begin mournfully.

"Why was Tavi sad??" I will ask on cue.

"Because he didn't have a popsicle.  And he wanted a popsicle."

I know my line.  "So what happened?"

Jonah brightens.  "Dora and Boots helped him find one!"  [Note: Dora and Boots are, as always, Jonah and best friend Nate.]

"So where were the popsicles?"

"A grownup put them away!"

"And then what happened?"

"Dora and Boots say, 'Where the popsicles?' And they find them!"

"And how did Tavi feel then?"

"Tavi happy because he have a popsicle!!!!"

This is a true story.  It happened at a picnic we went to in May.  Jonah has been telling this story daily ever since.  The funny thing is, it really does get better every time.

Tales From A Birthday And Jonah's Little Mysteries

So the party, as evidenced below, was a hit.  Since our shy little guy does not typically enjoy the whole-class-extravaganza, we invited 3 buddies who he really likes to play with, hired Mr. Berry to do wacky fun and games, and called it a day.  Nate had a blast.  He wasn't wild about the idea of going first in any of the activities, so Mr. Berry asked him to pick who would go first each time.  Little did Mr. Berry know that this job was right up Nate's alley, and boy, did Nate take it seriously.  You could see the complicated calculus going on inside his head every time he had to select someone to jump through the hoops or fly over the cones; he needed to figure out who had already had a turn to go first, who had already been picked second, and who had ended up in the middle or back of the pack.  "Julia, did you have a turn yet?" he was heard to ask.  "Then I pick you.  It is your turn now."  In the end, Nate himself had a great time jumping through hoops and flying over cones.  He even joined in on the parachute action and allowed himself to be spun and sung to, which is something he's never touched in the past.  All in all, a great birthday in our very own backyard, and what could be better than that?  We were also thrilled to have Auntie Kim and Cousin Jessica visting for the occasion, especially since we got to spend several days having some serious cousin time. 

Today Jonah and I were playing in Nate's classroom when we brought big brother to school.  When I turned around, Jonah had pulled out the following four letters and arranged them on the table in the following order: M-A-M-A.  I couldn't believe it!  My heart shot into my throat!  "Oh my goodness, look what Jonah just did!" I exclaimed without thinking to the teacher.  I had no idea!  I was so amazed!  "Jonah," I asked excitedly, "what does that say???"  "CAT!" Jonah beamed.  "I love cats!"

So I guess he's not spelling after all.  He did, in fact, randomly spell a word without any idea he was doing it.  Pretty freakin' hilarious.  I should have guessed.  Jonah always thinks that he's spelling "cat."  We're not sure why, but sometimes he takes all of Steve's shoes, joins them together in a neat semi-circle, and runs to announce that he has spelled "cat." We don't really get it, but we just add it to the Jonah Mystery File, along with "why does Jonah think that the dry cleaner's has his big boy bed in it, not just the dry cleaner's that we go to all the time, but any dry cleaner he happens to walk by?" and "why does Jonah think that Grandma Nan built our house?"

Nate seems to have developed an imaginary friend late in the game.  Acooster is, as you might imagine, an eccentric guy.  Accoster is turning 98 this year, and he was, obviously, born in 1910.  His birthday used to be October 24, but he is apparently able to change his birthday; it's currently scheduled for December 25, a day known in our house not for the birth of Jesus, but for the half-birthday of Nate.  His name only comes up every so often, but I'm starting to keep track, because he is starting to make more frequent appearances.  Acooster isn't really any weirder than any of Jonah's imaginary friends.  Jonah can make a friend and a family out of just about anything.  His latest obsession is the Trader Joe's balloon we get every week.  I am not allowed to throw out any of them; they live forever in the car.  Each week, the old ones get tinier and shriveledier; those are the babies.  The fresh new one is the daddy, and the previous week's half-mast one is the mommy.  Jonah has been known to carry a tiny shriveled balloon in his hand for an entire day in San Francisco.

Tonight Jonah looked up at me during our pre-sleep snuggle and announced, "Mommy?  Boots [Nate] is my best friend."  Melt!

Old Videos of Graduation (and One of Nate's Birthday)

Sorry it took so long to put these up. 

Friends at Nate's Birthday Party

 

Birthday Parties

Just a few shots from Birthday Week: