Sunday Silliness

I'm leaving town this week, so I'm not sure how posting to the blog will go.  But before I go ... I wanted to leave you with this silly bit.

O kept leaping from couch to chair to couch over and over and so finally, while I was working on a computerized project, I pulled up a chair next to me and told him to sit there to "practice sitting."  He wasn't really excited about this idea (as you might imagine a boy who leaps from one piece of furniture to the next as a matter of transportation and entertainment might feel about sitting still).

He would sit for a minute or so and then he'd be sliding his body down off the chair and I'd remind him to practice sitting on the chair.  I told him that the sooner he sat there nicely, I could see that he'd learned how to use the furniture better and I'd release him to try his newly-practiced skills in the great wide world.

But, he's a very squirmy kind of little boy and sitting is just not what he likes to do.

He started bargaining with me about getting up to sit in another part of the room to read.  But the point was not that he'd be entertained, the point was that he was learning to sit nicely and not mistreat our furniture.  So I told him no, that I thought it was best if he continued to sit by me quietly.

He said, "But I'm so bored!"

I said, "That's okay.  Being bored is good sometimes."

He said, "What?!"  How is bored good?"

I said, "Well, sometimes when we're still and quiet, we can learn something really important."

He said, "I'm only learning how to be really bored.  I'm so, so, so bored, Mama.  I think I'm as bored as a camel!"

Truthfully, I can tell you, that is the first time I've ever heard that metaphor used.  But I was just teaching O and J about metaphors earlier in the week as we studied weather in science.  We talked about the rain pounding as hard as elephants, etc. (which it was! and shook us all from our beds because it was frighteningly loud). 

So I praised him for his good(?) metaphor and he still had to sit there.  But after a couple minutes, I guess he got bored of complaining, so he got really quiet and still and so I released him.  I think he was pretty good for at least ten minutes after that. 

Have a nice week, if I don't get around to posting till I'm back.  Don't spend it bored ... as a camel.