Thankful for Road Trip Thoughts

When my kids were little I was most concerned with the questions they might ask when they grew up. Sex, drugs, parties, what did I do when I was their age. Turns out those are probably not the hardest questions one can get from one's kids.

Try: "How does a tree grow?" or "How do cars and things move when no one is pushing them?" or even "If we're losing our skin all the time, there must be skin all over the place!"
And, "Are all condos as fun as ours?"

These all came from our middle son, Alex just tonight during our car ride to Keystone. His older brother, Ethan and younger sister, Evelyn were asleep in the car, having succumbed to the after-affects of Thanksgiving dinner and fun rough-housing at their cousins' Shelley and Tyler's house (and my cousin Candi). So Alex had the undivided attention of mom and dad. No siblings to interrrupt, to answer the questions for him, to talk over him as is often the case when there's more than just one of them in the room/car. This was like hitting the lottery for little Alex. He stayed awake and peppered question after question, each more thoughtful and farther "out of the box" than the last.

After Ric had to explain the inner workings of the internal combustion engine, Alex asked, "Mom, How are the ways that people die?" Ric started answering that there are lots of ways that people die, sometimes from old age, their heart just stops working..." and his sentence comes to a close, after which Alex asks, "tell me more ways."

It may seem a little morbid to many, some of these questions he asks, but he is just so fascinated with all the ways in which people work, function, move around, and other ways that the world works. His little brain is so creative at times like this when it's quiet and he's the only one thinking and asking.

One morning about 6 months ago, out of the blue Alex asked, "Does your brain roll around when you move your head from side to side?" I laughed my ass off. And these are the things that Alex thinks about, or at least the ones he puts into words. I really wonder about all the queries in his head that don't get spoken, or when there's not mom or dad right there at the right moment to answer for him, so their not voiced. I don't think he asks these odd things to other adults.

The thing that really gets me about them is that they're such GOOD questions! We forget how much comes naturally to us as adults, all the things we already understand that are so confusing to kiddos. Only when they speak their thoughts in these rare, quiet moments can we really understand how much growing their brains are doing.

Ric explained that some people die in the water and it's called "drowning." Alex said, "but not in the ocean because it doesn't have a drain." It took us a little bit to figure out what he was getting to, but basically he revealed that he thought "drowning" only happened where there was a "drain" present, like in a bathtub or in a pool. Like..."draining" if you will.

Nights like this are what are so sweet about raising kids. When the hustle and bustle of the day has waned and it's quiet like it hasn't been quiet in days and they're not fighting or competing for attention or being loud just for the sake of being loud. And there's a moment to really enjoy each other with a quiet and thoughtful conversation together. Like the night stops for just a moment for you to appreciate one of your kids for just who they are, plain and simple, with all their smart, thoughtful, wise questions.

Sometimes it takes a little road trip like tonight's to get us to stop "doing" and just be with each other. This is what I'm thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to all.