Saturday, September 26, 2009

Well at least they aren't normal....




My grandson Zaya is now five years old, and his little sister, Mim, is four. When they came in the door for a visit today, their faces were excited and they both began to talk at once. Zaya wanted me to help set up a simple potato growing experiment he had been reading about on the trip over. He proceeded to lay the book on the floor and read me every step. Meanwhile, Mim was delivering a present she had made for me and watching while I opened the envelope. There was an autographed, decorated card along with a hand drawn picture of...
"what did you draw for me?" I asked. "
Without a moment of hesitation she told me, "It's the inside of a dog. You know, his egestive system."
So,of course, I taped it to the refrigerator while I opened the crisper to search for a potato with eyes.
"In a few days," Zaya assured me, "several buds will appear, but if you see white flowers, stop watering it."
"Oh, why should I do that?"
"Because if you don't, the potato will rot."

Then they were off--Mim to drag everything out of the toy box and Zay to see if the wii was up and running and if any new video games had magically appeared.

Later, while jumping on the front room couch cushions, Zaya cut the bottom of his foot. As I ran warm water over it and applied antibiotic salve, I tried to get in a lesson on the dangers of jumping on couch cushions and opening ones foot to bacteria. He quickly re-assured me:
"Don't worry, Grandma, those bacteria that manage to escape into my foot will be killed by macrophages and neutrophils."
"Neutrophils?"
"Well, and other leucocytes; they are lining up right now to attack"

...And they are, of course. I'll go straighten the couch cushions and consider another strategy: simple commands perhaps.

2 comments:

aftergrace said...

Ooo, fun time at Grandma's house.

Potatos, wii, bacteria, couch cushions, and dog's digestion.

I wonder what they will think of next, those cuties!

Carina said...

I'm just so glad their grandmas understand them!

When we went to the Art Exhibit in W'ville they had an area marked out for children to do chalk paintings. They asked Zaya what he had drawn (first mistake) This is bacteria. It's e-coli. Then he drew a cold virus and a flu virus before I finally dragged them off to something else. I can only handle weird looks from strangers for so long.