Fortune cookies tonight. The lad’s fortune: “New doors of opportunity will open for you soon.” Mine: “The great man never forgets the simplicity of a child.”

The first time I ever canvassed door-to-door for a political candidate was in 1976, when I knocked on every door of every little brick row home on our block stumping for my candidate.

Tonight I rediscovered an old elementary school project, for which I’d written the following:

Go Ford

Well, it’s election day and I’m rooting for someone. Guess who??? Gerald R. Ford. He may have lost the election, but I still thought he was the best president of my time yet. Jimmy Carter won this year–that was an upset–in more than one way.

Apparently I was blogger ahead of his time.

As part of his orientation for first grade, our son received a handwritten letter from a boy at his new school:

Dear Friend,

I’m glad that you are here at _ _ E! I will see you next year. Our gym teacher is nice. Art class is fun. We get to take books from the library. Music is fun. And we get to keep books from the book fair. And it is fun at _ _ E.

Your friend,
Steven

We have a bathroom.

Our son has gone baseball crazy. He’s not so interested in hitting; it’s pitching that’s grabbed his attention.  Despite my insistence that he just learn to throw a basic overhand throw with good mechanics, he’s totally absorbed in the variety of pitches that pitchers throw.

Lad: What if I make it to the major leagues and can throw a curveball, a fastball, and a slider?
Dad: Then I will come to your games and cheer for you.
Lad: But what if I have a changeup, curveball, and a slider?
Dad: Well, you wouldn’t have a changeup without a fastball. But I’ll still cheer for you.
Lad: But maybe I’ll have a cut fastball AND a split finger fastball and a changeup?
Dad: Hmm, interesting. I’ll be very proud to cheer for you.
Lad: Maybe I’ll have the same pitches that Cole Hamels has? Wouldn’t that be good? He throws a circle-change, doesn’t he, Dad?
Dad: He does. You’re a righty and he’s a lefty, but you’re tall and lean like Hamels. Maybe you will learn to throw a fastball, changeup and curveball someday. But for now, just fastballs!
Lad: But what if I have if I have A KNUCKLEBALL?
Dad: That’ll be fun.
Lad: I think I’m going to throw a knuckleball. I need to see a knuckleball so I can learn how to throw one.

Continuing with the theme of math concepts, kindergarten style. We had a hilarious conversation this evening. As you’ll see, I really walked into this one:

Dad: Remember when we were at the garden store and we were picking up those big bags of dirt? How many bags of dirt do you think you weigh?
Lad: I don’t know.
Dad: You weigh a little more than one bag of dirt.
Lad: Like one and a half?
Dad: Not quite, but close. So if you weigh a little more than one bag of dirt, how many bags of dirt does daddy weigh?
Lad: Two and a half bags.
Dad: That’s nice, but it’s more than that.
Lad: Four and a half bags?
Dad: That’s closer. It’s actually over six bags.
Lad: Yeah, painfully close to seven.

I have to assume that the good teachers at kindergarten played some role in this little pre-algebra lecture from the lad:

This is very strong. It is twice as strong as you are. I’m using you as a kind of symbol for how strong something can be, and then I’m saying that this is twice as strong as that.

I’m really good at estimating. Did I ever tell you that?

I just got back from a few days of business travel. Lisa reports that this conversation with our boy took place this morning:

Mom:  I know you missed daddy while he was away. I missed him too.
Lad: Yeah, well, I missed him more than you. I cried you know, and that means something.