Thinks I've Been Thinking

I made a career (albeit a short one, but a career nonetheless) out of teaching children how to read. After all the times I've seen it, it still never ceases to amaze me how magical it is once a child finally figures reading out. All of a sudden, they just know how to string the sounds together to make words and new worlds open up because of it. And even though I've seen one of my children learn to read before, I'm just as excited for Alice . . . because it has suddenly clicked. Today she can read. Last week she couldn't (if you don't count phonics readers). Isn't it amazing?

Next week Michael and I will have been married ten years. And that has me thinking another think . . . Isn't it funny how ten years can feel like such a long time and such a short time also? As I've aged perspective must have aged with me. $10,000 doesn't seem like nearly as much money as it used to. $100,000 seems to have diminished in value as well. A week doesn't feel like very long to wait for something big (a birthday or a holiday) anymore, and every year when school starts I find myself asking where the summer has gone. I remember hearing adults talk about time and money this way when I was a child, and thinking they were nuts. Even if we are nuts, I wouldn't trade these ten years or make them move any faster or slower. They have been perfect. Though an extra $10,000 wouldn't kill me.

We finally relented to the children's incessant pleas for a pet and added a betta fish to our family. They seem happy with it, even though it is not a dog. The fish naming process was interesting to overhear. First he was named Fish. Then Silver. Then Lightning. Then Seth wanted Laser Head and Alice wanted Happy Fish, so they compromised with Happy Laser Fish, which was his name for all of a day. Michael kept plugging the name Eric but since the kids have (thankfully) never seen Monty Python, the humor of a pet fish named Eric is lost on them. Finally, one morning the two kids came to breakfast with a consensus. The fish is named Redhead. Thomas still calls him Silver. And Redhead, in his quiet fishy way, calls Thomas The Harbinger of Fishy Doom and Destruction that will Probably be my Death.

I suppose we'll have to wait to see how long that little boy will actually keep his paws out of the fishbowl.

Vintage Tears

This picture of a family gathering has recently surfaced from the past, courtesy of my cousins (also pictured).

I'm the one on the right. Yes, I am crying. Since I was a perfectly angelic child, I have been searching for an explanation for my tears in this picture. I have deduced that one of the following must have happened:

a) Charity (the cousin closest to me) pinched me. She denies it, but is an impeccable actress, and the innocent look on her face could easily be feigned.

b) Someone wanted me to eat. I was a notoriously picky eater, a trait my children have inherited and torment me with daily.

c) I was extremely alarmed at the close proximity of my little brother Jordan (pictured at the far end of the table) who couldn't have been much older than three, to the river.

d) I had realized that my bangs took up half my head, and the braids on the other half of my head were too tight.

e) I may also have just been informed of the high probability that as I grew up my hair would darken from a glossy light blonde (I wanted to look like Barbie) to a mousy brown color. This is a fact I am actually now at peace with, but at the age of five (or six?) I would have found distressing.

f) The television network had just canceled Jem and I was in mourning.

g) I couldn't find my favorite cassette with Kool 'n The Gang singing Celebrate and Funky Town.

h) Somebody beat me at Space Invaders on the Atari.