Pencils

Good morning everyone!

I was sitting here with no idea of what to write about, when my dogs and my daughter saved me once again.

Darwin Barges In

Darwin has a rope toy that he loves. It is the only thing thick enough and long enough that I have been able to find that lasts longer than one day around him. (Right now we are at three weeks and counting.) He had picked it up and was shaking it around in order to entice Mandy to play tug of war with him, when all of a sudden both of them raced off into the bedroom. I looked up as they raced back into our great room, only to realize that Mandy was leading, with something long and white in her mouth while Darwin was chasing her with the rope toy. I managed to save the bath towel from Mandy without further damage, although she has made it clear to me that she thinks I am just being plain unreasonable.

Mandy and Darwin Confer

Then Kayla sat down to eat breakfast, but immediately jumped back up again, ran to her room and returned to the breakfast table to announce that she had put her money in her pocket after all.  Naturally, I was curious as to why she needed money.  She told me it was because she wanted to get pencils from the pencil machine.  (The school has acquired a pencil vending machine this year.)

Now, press pause on that thought for a minute, and travel back in time with me three weeks to our school shopping expedition where we bought two dozen pencils for her to use at school.  Fast forward to yesterday, and view her book bag which at the time had one dozen pencils in its front mesh pocket that I could see, and another dozen in the front pocket without mesh which I found while checking her homework.

Electric Pencil Sharpener

With that in mind, you will understand why I was at least mildly curious as to why a child already overly gifted with pencils would wish to acquire more.  She at first tried to tell me that the pencils from the pencil machine were already sharpened.  That’s probably the wrong tactic to take in a family as blessed with the gift of kindler and gentler satire as we are.  I gasped and said, “Oh no; you might possibly have to find a pencil sharpener in the school so you can sharpen a pencil.”  She looked at me, and I added, “Even worse, you might have to use a manual pencil sharpener.”  At that point I knew I won the logical argument, because the half-smile that plays across her mouth when she knows she can’t win the discussion but doesn’t know how to back out of it arrived.

Manual Pencil Sharpener

So then I said, “Let me guess.  The pencil machine has pencils that are really pretty.”  Straight faced, she told me that wasn’t why she wanted them at all. 

A Winning Pencil Without the Right Words

Still, as a mom, you have to pick your battles, and I wasn’t willing to engage over 3 quarters when I am sure we have more important battles looming in the near future (can you say homework and reviewing basic math facts?) so having shown that I could have won the discussion if I wanted to, I let it slide.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy