Desert Gills

    Our kids' school had a friendly soccer game recently.  The kids' teacher played goalkeeper, and had our 4 year old J tag along with her in goal.  After observing for a little bit, J figured he knew a better way to help his team.  Finding some large-ish stones, he piled them into a small wall across the face of the goal.  The teacher was perplexed, but he explained that this would help keep the other side from scoring.  (Seems much more efficient to me than her method!)  After a few minutes, the sagacity of J's idea was confirmed.  A ball beat the keeper and was rolling in for a goal, when it was stopped by his little wall.  'No Goal!' he cried with glee.  His teamates cruelly undercut him by deciding that the goal ought to count.

 

I was gazing out the window, sighing that, "Its sad to have Thanksgiving without my family."  Al. overheard me, and approached with a concerned look in her face.  "Daddy, *we* are your family!  We are *here.*" When I explained being away from her Aunties and Uncles, she understood, that I missed "my other family... of far descended relatives."

Over dinner this week, I was explaining to the children how World War 2 represented a shift in naval warfare, as aircraft carriers took the ascendency.  I explained how, "Battleships could fire shells at targets 20 miles away," but this proved to be no match for naval aviation. A scrunched her nose and looked at me.  "Why would they fire shells?"  It didn't seem very effective to her. We had to explain that I was not talking about the seashells we enjoy collecting at the beach.

Sometimes it pays to do things the old fashioned way.

Sweet & Sour Cobra soup was a big hit with the kids.  In fact, a couple days ago a the guard was called that a viper had been sighted.  A. sat up straight, "Really!"... she was so excited at the thought that that viper might become a tasty dinner like the cobra had been.