The Force

We’re sitting at breakfast. M-ito is playing with his organic O’s but not eating them. He sneaks another piece of sliced apple.

“Eat your cereal,” I say, for the sixth time in as many minutes. It’s getting late and we have to get to school.
I pick up my glass of water and M-ito waves his hand in front of me.

“He doesn’t need to eat his cereal,” he says in a soft voice.

“Yes you do,” I reply.

He waves his hand in front of me again and says, “He doesn’t need to eat his cereal.”

I look at him now with my full attention. “What are you doing?”

He waves his hand in front of me again and says, “He’s not doing anything.”

“Yes you are,” I say. Then it hits me. He’s trying to use the force. I smile and he starts to giggle.

He waves his hand again. “No he is not.”

“You have to use the force for good,” I say.

“He is,” M-ito replies with another wave of his hand, though he’s laughing so hard along with me that it’s really hard to hear what he’s saying.

When we both stop laughing I say, “You still have to finish your cereal.”

Then he waves his hand one more time…

Money, Money, Money

“M-ito,” I began. He’d assumed sleep position (hands in prayer beneath his cheek – hands and head on pillow) and was just closing his eyes. “Tomorrow you’re going to have to stay in aftercare for an hour after art class, remember? I’ll pick you up at five.” 

He opened his eyes and looked at me. “Why do you have to be late tomorrow? I don’t like aftercare.”

“I have a job I’m getting some extra money for that I need to go to a meeting for. And your teacher will be there tomorrow so it should be fine.” There’s been problems with bullying behaviors from older kids in aftercare and one teacher stopped it while the other didn’t – or wasn’t aware of it – or didn’t have the to energy to deal with it or the skills. Anyway it was the good teacher tomorrow who would be there so I was confident in the hour being fine for M-ito.

“But Dad-dito,” M-ito said, “isn’t it more important to come get me from school than for you to make money?”

I stared at my son for a moment. “Of course it is. But this is an important job and we need the money. I’ll be there by five. I promise. You can get some homework done while you’re waiting for me.”

He closed his eyes, not happy.

I’ll be with you when school finishes on Tuesday – I’m taking a half-day, I thought but didn’t say. II was away four days last week, in Syracuse for three of them and Dallas for one. I had barely seen him all week. But today we’d spent today together – gone to a holiday party and a birthday party for a friend. I told Mom-ita this story. 

She laughed, then said, “He’s got your number.”

Yes, he does.

Playpen Attachment

A man came by yesterday in the evening to take one of the two playpens we used with M-ito. It’s such a simple thing to give something away to another who is needy. The couple has a nine month old.

Our playpen wasn’t used much. Mom-ita used it more when M-ito was an infant. She used the changing table that sat on top of it more than anything. I don’t think I ever used it except for changing our son. but it allowed her to take a shower and go to the bathroom. At least until we found the exer-saucer and that took over that job. We gave that away over the summer.

M-ito never really liked the play pen so he didn’t spend a lot of time in it. But giving it away was difficult never-the-less. I handed it over, saying, “Give it a good home, please.” It sounded trite and stupid to my ears.

The young man said, “We will.” He smiled at me, with what seemed like some sense of understanding. That’s all I really needed.