I must write quickly...my mind is like a sieve.

10 minutes ago I had the most fascinating convo with Abby. It's one that will probably not translate that well into a blog post, but why not try.

The background: It was the tucking event...that's where the covers are placed over the child in a very specific way. You know, just enough so as to cover the neck....but not to be too much over the stuffed lamb and certainly not over the buddy pillow. The tucking event is the last frontier before the turning off of the light and the parental unit room departure. The tucking event comes after the situating event which is where all 283 of the stuffed animals, babies and pillows are arranged such that each will have a proper night of sleep. No telling where all this fussing comes from.

During this whole process, there are what I like to call breakpoints (do I have any programmers in the crowd??). These are places where the entire thing is brought to a halt due to some action of the child. This action (could be any number of things) is one that has been refined and perfected over the last 4 years or so. It could be something like her water not being "fresh" or one of the 283 stuffed something or others has been left in the living room. Lately, the thing that really is working for her is the, "I forgot to tell you what I learned in school today". Yeah....what am I going to say to that? "Um...I'm not interested, go to sleep". That'll win me Mom of the year for sure. Of course, I love to hear about things that she's learned and want to be eager to encourage her that learning is fun...yadda, yadda.

SO. That's where we were tonight. It was the "I forgot to tell you" breakpoint at the tucking event procedure.

Now that I got all that out of the way, I forgot half of the conversation. I will try my best to reconstruct. I will start off by saying, this was mostly a monologue, in true Amaro fashion. There were so many hand gestures going I thought I was going to have to take a pill. Throughout the entire thing, I was wishing I had my video cam setup because it would have been the perfect content for a Sunday Convo video. I wish, wish, wish I could somehow convey her voice inflections and facial movements.

"MOM. I forgot to tell you what I learned in school today. "

"Ok, why don't you tell me quick about it since it's getting past your bedtime."

[sitting up, placing her hand on her hip] "Do you know what MATTER is?"

"Well, isn't it stuff that takes up space?" [note to readers: I did graduate from high school...just so you know]

"[picking up her buddy pillow] THIS IS MATTER. [picking up her doll] THIS IS MATTER. [picking up her book] THIS IS MATTER. [picking up a glass bowl and knocking on it] Matter is everywhere. There are 3 types of matter. Solid, liquid and gas. [continuing to knock on the bowl] THIS is solid....do you see? It's not moving around like all crazy. [picking up her water bottle] THIS is liquid....THIS is a whole nuther story. See how the water is just moving around? The air. The air is a gas...you can't see it. Well, sometimes you can see it. Like when water is boiling...the bubbles. But it's all matter. Matter is everywhere."

At this point, she proceeds to pick out everything she can in her room to tell me it's matter.

"This book? MATTER. The dresser? MATTER. The fan? MATTER. My clothes? MATTER." And so on, and on, and on. And on.

I'm thinking to myself, at what point can I interrupt her without seeming insensitive to what she's saying? Is she going to move on to the matter in the hall bathroom? How do I win here?

"Hey." I interrupted. She looks at me...that precious face so excited about her new knowledge with only the slightest hint of irritation that I butt into her list of matter.

"Yes?" she says.

"I can tell you something that is NOT matter".

She looks at me - in utter amazement as if I had the keys to unlock the universe.

"REALLY? What?"

"My love for you!" I say.

It took her a moment....it was like she was putting that data through that little processor of hers. But once it computed she SQUEALED...at which point I tickled her and gave her a kiss and said, "Sleep tight!"

Breakpoints cleared.
Program execution continue.
Parental Unit OUT.