Free Your Mind, And the Rest Will Follow

I am so tired! Not a restful weekend! I can't believe I said I could finish a project by Monday. A yard sale and a church party have pretty well tapped my stength and wrecked my mental focus. (So what am I doing? Blogging instead of working. Yep. One of my better ideas!)

Anyway: I wanted to try and reconstruct some car commentray I overheard from the front seat to the back tonight. There was so much of it coming out of the small fry's mouth (he's often more verbose when he thinks no one is listening). And most of it made perfectly good sense.

On the way to church, Miles offered a play-by-play of the cars & drivers we passed, with a little color commentary on notable vehicles and some spontaneous delight over the Chewy Lifesavers in his hands. The transcript would go something like this:
"Oh, another big truck! And jess a lee-tle truck. We sure have a lotta trucks on our roads. Look! A trailer one. He is going home, I think. Yeah, I think he is going home now.... Everybody is going home. Or to our church! I bet that... that grocery truck going to our church. With the groceries in it. Yes! For our party! I bet he is!.... Ummm. A red one. Oh, my favorite. Look! A police car! After work, he will go home. And talk to some kids. Ah.. Ah.. A lellow one! Oh, look, my OTHER favorite! It's red and lellow and green and orange. First the red and then the lellow and the green -- green is my other, real favorite. Oh, and the orange one. One, two, three ones and another one. HAHAHA! Red and lellow and green and lellow and red and lellow and red and lellow...."

On the way home, Miles began some Old Testament-meets-toddler accounting of the men in the family. "I have a Shannon and a Shannon (only one person) and then there's Uncle Justin. Are there two Uncle Justins? Who is the other Uncle Justin? Oh, Potote Miles! Psssst! (Slaps his head.) And Shannon and Joshua and Grandpa and Timmy. And Paw Paw. And Papa Jim..."

Then he began to sing-song the names, to add colors, and I zoned out until I heard: "And Jessie. Aunt Jessica (which comes out sounding like "yes-i-ka") is my Jessie. And Uncle Justin." Now, this is notable only because I've NEVER heard ANYBODY call Jess "Jessie." But it's logical, and she's his Jessie....

So much STUFF gets worked out during the short, 10-minute drive from church to home! I think it has to do with the passivity of the carseat. Miles is NOT a natural car sitter. Or a very passive person. But he has learned the hard way to give up the fight, to accept the snuggly straps, to settle in and let his mind wander wherever the car goes. You know, like the philosophy of En Vogue: "Free your mind, and the rest will follow."

I just wonder... What could the kid tackle if we lived further away?