#growing brain

[im-guppie]

Tired Body, Active Brain

Sometimes, no matter how many ways and times you look at it, a situation remains a series of questions without answers. It exists to be further analyzed, not solved.

[aboutthebrain]

How the brain ages

[callalillie-blog]

As I've mentioned before, the kid is really into having us tell her stories these days.  My father triggered this by passing down the "Oscar Story" tradition (basically, a story about Oscar the Grouch with the content modeled after something relevant in your child's life) from my childhood, and ever since he told her one a few months ago the requests to A and I have been relentless.  I instituted a 2 story maximum before bedtime this week because I was running out of story ideas - and because it is totally obvious that "tell me a story" is really a stall tactic to avoid actually going to bed.

Last night I'd forgotten to brainstorm a few ideas before I tucked E in and really struggled to come up with a simple topic on the spot.  I wound up telling her a story about Grover and his crayons, mainly because E had thrown a fit a day or so ago because all of her crayons were broken.  In the story, Grover and his mommy collected all of the broken crayons and made new ones by baking the pieces in ice cube trays in the oven.  When they were done, they had brand new crayons that they had made themselves and they were happy.  The end.

E woke up forty million times last night.  She was wide awake, wanted to be told stories, to have her back rubbed, to be held.  At first I thought she was stalling but by the fifth time I'd gone in, I came to realize that something was bothering her and that she really needed some comfort.  Right before I left the final time, I asked her what was on her mind.

But the crayons, Mommy, she said.  How did the pieces get to be new in the oven?

Parenting lesson #40,001: Don't tell your kid a bedtime story that involves a science experiment.  Apparently, she will think about it all night and it will bother her to the point of insomnia, and as a result, you won't sleep, either, until said crayons are actually made.

At least now I have an activity for us to do this weekend.