One of the things we struggle with on a daily basis is asking Kiera how her day was at school. I think most of you probably have the same struggle. It usually goes something like this. Aaron or myself ask, “Kiera, what did you do in school today?” The normal response that we get from Kiera is “Nothing.”
We have started trying to ask different questions to get other responses. Sometimes it works and sometimes it snowballs into craziness. It’s amazing the things that a little mind can come up with. Take today for example.
After work, we picked Kiera up and headed to the store. As we were driving, Aaron asked, “What did you do today?”
“Nothing.” She answered. Aaron hung his head at her response. Now, we know that “nothing” is not true, because Mrs. Rangel sends all her work home once a week.
Aaron asks a more detailed question. “What letter are you working on?”
Finally, we get a real answer. She told us the letter that they were working on and then we were met with silence.
“What did you do in recess or P.E.?” I asked.“We ran four laps. Coach Valencia told us to run around the tree but not the gate and then we would run as fast as we could and touch another person and then they would run.” She explained, stopping to take a breath.
“Oh. It was a relay.” Aaron stated.
“Hmm…no. It was a race.”
“But it was a relay race.” Aaron said. He opened his mouth to explain in more detail and that’s when Kiera and her imagination took over.
“No. It was a hotel race. That’s what I am going to call it. A ho-tel race.” She made sure to emphasize the word hotel.
I turned my head and looked out the window to hide my smile. Aaron does so much better than I do when it comes to being serious.
“Really?” He asked with a straight face.
“Yup. We live in a hotel.”
“We don’t live in a hotel. We have a house.” He clarified. “We have stayed in a hotel on vacation.”
“Don’t tell people we live in a hotel because we live in a house.” He finished.
First, let me just interject how interesting it is to me how we managed to get from a relay race to us living in a hotel. Second, I will go ahead and let you know that we are making it clear to Kiera about the differences between silly stories and the truth.
We survived the trip to the grocery store and made it home.
While Aaron made dinner, Kiera and I went through the DVD collection to pick a movie. She decided on Peppa Pig and informed me that she was not going to eat with us but she wanted to eat in her room and watch her movie.
From time to time, we let her have her independence and watch a movie and eat in her room. Although, if you were to observe how our meal goes, I’m sure you would laugh until you cried. Usually, when we split up and eat in different rooms, Aaron or I will pause the movie every few minutes and yell, “Kiera?”
“Yes?” She will respond.
“Are you ok?” One of us will ask.
“Yes.” She yells back and we resume our movie.
Tonight, we split in our separate rooms and began to eat dinner and watch our movie. Aaron had cooked Kiera’s favorite meal, corn on the cob and barbecue chicken.
About ten minutes into our movie and two pauses from checking on Kiera, we hear, “Daddy?”
Aaron paused the movie. “Yes, baby?”
“Do we have more chicken?” she asked from her room.
Aaron and I looked at each other in disbelief that she was already asking for seconds. He answered, “Yes, we do have more chicken. Eat all your corn and I will get you some more.”
Satisfied with his answer, she answered with ok and we resumed our movie.
After three more movie pauses to check on Kiera, Aaron got up to put his plate away. He stopped by Kiera’s room to check on her food situation.
“Finally.” She sighed. “I have been eating my corn for an hour! Can I have more chicken now?”
He took the drama queen’s plate… I mean, Kiera’s plate, cut up another piece of chicken and took it back to her. She thanked him and he left her room and we resumed our movie. I’m sure, by now, you are beginning to realize we don’t get very far watching movies at our house.
A few short minutes back into our movie and we hear, “Mommy? Can you come here, please?”
Aaron paused the movie as I got up from the couch. As I walked to her room, I asked, “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I didn’t get more slime.” She answered as I walked into the room.
That caused me to pause. “More… slime?”
“Yes.” She said and pointed at her plate. “Slime, like right here.”
I looked to see where she was pointing. “You mean, sauce?”
She nodded her head at me and shifted her attention back to Peppa Pig.
I took her plate and applied more “slime” otherwise known as barbecue sauce and took her plate back into her room.
“Thank you.” She said, accepting her plate.
I left her room and went back to the living room to watch a few more minutes of our movie.
“Daddy?” She yelled a short time later. “Can I have more chicken and corn?”
We paused the movie and looked at each other incredulously. Aaron got up to check on her while I prayed she wasn’t going through another growth spurt.
I gave up on the movie and began to clean the kitchen while he was in her room. Shortly after, he joined me in the kitchen. “She isn’t so much hungry as she really liked the food. We’ve decided that she should save it so she can have it for lunch at school tomorrow.” He said.
Kiera followed him into the kitchen. “Will you put my corn in my lunch too?” She inquired. He assured her that he would. As she turned to leave, she said, “Don’t forget to put more slime on my chicken for tomorrow.”
Aaron and I looked at each other before bursting out in laughter. “Perfect.” I said. “Not only is she going to tell people we are living in a hotel, she is going to tell them we are feeding her slime!”
Oh, this child.
