But I actually do--honest. Miles goes to bed around 8 every night, and usually he either falls asleep reading, or else I have to go in and enforce lights out. So the elementary school is getting new science textbooks, and Raelynn joyfully came home with her old one, proudly displaying the "obsolete" stamp. And this is where I found Miles at 10:30 when I went to check on him before I went to bed. Chapter 3 of Realynn's 3rd grade science textbook. He shut it to go to sleep, but insisted he keep it under his pillow.
But it's not just science; he's heavily in love with poetry. He has memorized most of the three Shel Silverstein books we have, and spent at least one hour at the father and son campout reading poems to a tent full of boys. He just hums with energy and eagerness.
Most of the time I find myself shaking my head and laughing about Miles. The boy has an excess of life force. After cautious and careful Raelynn, Miles is plain shocking to me. I'm stealing this metaphor, but talking to Miles is a little like drinking from a firehose. I just gotta love him.
On a different note, tonight she asked me what "nuggets" are and then proceeded to ask me a series of well thought out questions with suprising clarity. After a brief stunned silence, I recovered enough to have a talk with her. I won't go into the details for you, but I felt I had to go into some details with Raelynn. I was so not planning on having that conversation when my baby was eight, but she seemed to feel far less awkward than I did when I was twelve. I usually rely on Tiffany to do things before I do, and to tell me how to do them. In this case, I only briefly considered the whole "it's your belly button" ruse she so cleverly used with Olivia as a toddler. I hope I did the right thing, but really, what choice did I have? Ready or not, eh?
Watch out, world. She's more intrepid than she seems.
