The B Gs

My niece B and nephew G visited this weekend. As one who never had any aunts or uncles who took much interest in me as a child, it's so much fun to be an Auntie. My nephew is truly a kindred spirit. As a child I asked so many questions that my mom locked herself in the bathroom to get away from me. I just consumed knowledge like Biggest Loser contestants used to consume food. I guess I still do. I can pick any boring ol' topic out there and my nephew eats it up!

G turn eight last year. In church, I handed him a piece of paper so he could write on the back of it. The front was covered with scriptures from my last lesson, and those words with footnotes had printed out in blue. At one point I glanced over and noticed he was flipping back and forth between the front and back side of the paper, and writing down a list of letters. When I arrived home later that day I realized that he was trying to decode a secret message hidden in the first letter of those blue words. He is a deep thinker in the highest form of nerdity, just like his Auntie; a true analyst. Below are a few snippets of conversation this weekend:

G: Look! The Moon! But that’s not all of it!

Me: Do you know why we can’t see all of it?

G: Because there is a shadow over part of it.

B (my niece): Because pieces of it fell off.

G: John Wilkes Booth, John Wilkes Booth.

Me: Do you know who that is?

G: The man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

Me: Wow! That’s right!

G: You’re very welcome!

G: So, would a computer engineer build a robot?

Me: Well, it would take a team of people. You would need a computer programmer, a designer, an electrical engineer…

Much later...

Me: So G, do you remember who could help build a robot?

G: Computer programmer, electric engineer...

Me: People who make pictures with computers are called Graphic Designers. Can you say that? {B & G repeat}

G: Um. I am thinking that the word Graphic means pictures.

Me: That’s right!

G: And designer means a guy who creates things, so a Graphic Designer is a guy who creates pictures.

G: {Examining with our Spin Bike} Does it go anywhere?

Me: No. It’s for exercise.

G: Then why does it have a wheel?

Me: There is a band around the wheel that you can make tighter so that you have to work harder.

G: {Spends every spare moment of the next two days examining every part of that bike}

In addition to our two little visitors, we received a temporary bird buddy for Kawi. Unfortunately, the new bird (we called Koko) turned out to be the tag along little brother that Kawi never wanted. In fact, if Koko was not in the same room as Kawi, he screamed bloody murder, so we spent the next few days keeping them together, and Kawi spent the next few days running away from Koko. Kawi got really creative today when he coaxed Koko down onto a ledge behind the couch, and once Koko climbed down, Kawi burst back up to the top of the couch, leaving a rather immobile Koko trapped on the ledge below.

Today Koko went for a trial home at our neighbor's home. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, Kawi is back to his old spoiled self.