Loves and Fears

A lovely weekend was had by all here at the MIS household. JeepMan got to spend two whole days helping a buddy build a Jeep in Capitol City. The kids and I took a weekend at my folks' house, and my sister joined us there as well, as her hubby was also taking a project weekend.

I love staying with my folks. They are homebodies like me. Not that I don't like to go out and do things, but really, I don't need to leave home to feel that my day was well-spent. This is a fundamental difference between JeepMan and I: he feels that staying at home doing mundane things or just "hanging out" is a detestable time-wasting activity. Many are the weekend days that we have argued about how he feels we have "wasted half the day" or more by not being up, showered, dressed, and out of the house before noon.

Seriously? Gee whiz, I thought relaxing was what weekends were for! My idea of relaxing does not involve showering, let alone wrestling with two kids to get them out of the house...just to BE out of the house!

Anyway, weekends with my folks are my kind of weekends: get up whenever, hang out in our pj's, drink some coffee, make breakfast (or more often, "brunch"), then putz around finding something to do. Frequently we play games with the kids, (Plato used to call my mom "the game grandma"), chat, putter around the yard in the small fruit orchard or the huge garden, then maybe decide to go somewhere, or not. Either way it doesn't matter. No planning, no schedule. Just right.

When JeepMan is there? You can watch him fidget. Not ALWAYS, you understand...over the years he has mellowed considerably and can just go with the flow sometimes. More often than not, though, he ends up hand-washing/detailing the car, mowing my folks' lawn (it takes a long time, good for him!), or running errands. He just can't relax. Or maybe that's how he relaxes? I'll never understand it. His Type A vs. my Type B, I guess.

So this weekend he was hanging out building a Jeep, eating pizza, and drinking a couple beers. He was in Jeep Heaven!! I was snuggling my kids, drinking a couple coffees, chatting with my family, and wallowing in yesterdays' stink: Traveling Mom Heaven!! What a nice weekend.

Saturday we did finally get around and leave the house en masse to go to the Science Center in Capitol City. We rolled out the door around, oh, 1:30.... all the while the disembodied voice of JeepMan screeching in my head, "It's so late it's hardly even worth going now!! It's not even worth the admission price now!!" as I giggled crazily and stepped on the gas while my sister shot me a sideways glance of concern from the passenger seat. Truly, 2pm to close (5:30) was about perfect for my little sleep-deprived offspring. Suck on that, JeepMan!!! Whee!

We took in two demonstrations: Fire and Ice (featuring Dry Ice sublimation, Liquid Nitrogen reactions, and Hydrogen gas combustion), and Crazy Chemistry (highlighting the creation of gas by solids and liquids, as well as the hydrophobic properties of oil and water). Lulu was impressed by the demonstrations, but Plato was hanging on every word, and later told me it was the "Best Day Ever!"

The next morning at breakfast brunch, we were all chatting away when Plato broke in with, "Am I a Carnivore?," through a mouthful of ham. We talked a bit about Carni-, Herbi-, and Omni-vores. Plato decided he was an omnivore, and then my Dad asked Plato if he was a "Phobi-vore." Plato mused on this for quite some time, and with a little prompting decided this meant "was he afraid of his food?" He quickly brought up the science demonstrations from the day before, reiterating the fact that oil is hydrophobic, meaning it is "afraid of water." We asked him what hydro meant (water), and phobic meant (afraid of). We asked him if he was hydrophobic, and he replied, "No way, I LOVE water....but CATS are hydrophobic." We then discussed other phobias. He decided he is "Monster-phobic," "Big Dog-phobic," and "Shot-phobic," amongst other things.



Then he asked what the word was for "like." We explained that "-philic" means "loves." He replied, "Oh! Then I'm 'Mommy-philic!!" (awwww...) He then went around the table naming everyone and putting "-philic" after each name. Even Lulu piped up with, "And I'm Pwato-philic!" I wonder how much she learns from just listening to us...

Finally Plato was quiet for a minute or so, thinking...the boy is ALWAYS thinking. He got a mischevious twinkle in those chocolate-brown eyes, flashed his no-front-teeth-grin, and said, "Mom? Know what else I am?"

"Girl-philic!"

Oh boy.