bedtime stories

I've always loved the conversations that me and my kids have at bedtime. For us, at the moment the air is quiet and the room is dark, our kids have always let us into the part of their mind that has random thoughts, worries, dreams and stories. It is almost like a whole additional sleep state--the moment before the drifting off to dreamland that they will share just about anything with us. And, if I pause for just a moment, instead of shushing or being annoyed...the bedtime ritual can be worth it all.


Ella: "You know that edge where the earth ends...and you can see the universe..." "Where would that be? Can we walk there?"

uhmmm.. what do you mean? the world is round"

Ella: "Pause for thinking......Duh. I know the world is round. It is a circle. And, a circle has one edge! See? (as she draws a circle in the air, and demonstrates where this earth/universe edge is."

no, remember. The earth is like a globe--a ball. If you start walking, you could walk all the way around and come back to the same spot.

Ella: silence

And, in the silence, you can tell she does indeed know that the world is a ball, but for the moment of the conversation, she was so lost in your thoughts, her imaginations that she traveled to that elusive spot when the edge of the world was at her fingertips.


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Ella to Dad: "I'm quitting school. It's boring. Mom said that if I just stopped going to school we would get in trouble and you could even get arrested."

Dad: yes

Ella: "what was the name of that war where we got our freedom?"

Dad: uhmmm...Revolutionary War.

Ella: "Well if we have our freedom then why can't we just do what we want to do?"

Ella: "When do we get a new president? Do you think they could make it so I don't have to go to school?"................

Ella: "Dad??" "Do they make bras for girls? "Cause if they do, I think I want one"

Dad: Silence.