Brain Drain

This week has been really unusual for me, since Gus has been in a little camp at the school he will go to next year, and Finn and Ruby have been home with me.  It's so rare that I spend time with Finn when Gus is gone, and I'd forgotten how it can be.  It can be great, on the one hand, because when he's not working on antagonizing his brother he sometime tries really hard to be helpful and sort of Eddie Haskell-ish.  He helps me with Ruby, or he reads, and going on errands is much, much easier with just one of the two boys (for some reason, when we all go on an errand together, the boys end up wrestling on the floor of wherever we are).  Plus, Finn is really interested in almost everything, so he is a good companion in a way, because he will listen and ask appropriate follow-up questions.  So that's all great, and he really enjoys having some time without Gus in the picture, which is partly why I staggered their camps in the first place.

However.  You knew that's where this was leading, right?  I find that the child's mind is a little like a vortex that I seem to be caught in as we go through our days.  Every single thing that happens requires so much input on my part that by the end of the day, I'm in a vegetative mental state, yet Finn is still going strong.  It's like he's sucking the mental life out of me.  Example, "Mom, quiz me."  Me, while trying to find an address in an unfamiliar neighborhood, "Uhh, what?"  "Give me a money quiz.  Three ways to get to a dollar."  Me, "okay, name three ways to add up to a dollar."  Finn, ready with his answer, of course, since he was thinking about it before I even asked, "one hundred pennies, two half dollars, a silver dollar."  WTF?  Those are not normal ways to make up a dollar, but whatever.  So I appropriately admire his prowess and return to scanning for the street that I can't find.  "Mom, ask me more."  So I toss off a few more quizzes, and he aces them, and then I totally run out of ideas.  After about three rounds, I can barely think of my own name, much less come up with a denomination of money to quiz him with.  Hard to believe?  I know, but you try it when you're also using many of your other senses at the same time.

So I have to shut down that little fun, and Finn is dejected for a while.  But only for a little while.  Once he can sense that I have relaxed (having found the address we were looking for, transacted our business, and gotten back in the car), he strikes again.  "Mom, how much blood would you say the average ten year old has?"  Me, "I have no idea."  Finn, "well, does a baby have less blood than a grown up?"  Me, "Yes."  "How does it grow?"  Now, here's where I should have bowed out with my customary response, "hmm, your father knows so much more about stuff like that, we'll ask him when he gets home," but I didn't.  I was distracted and started down a lame explanation of red blood cells and how they live and die in our bodies.  "But where do they go when they die?"  "Mmmm, just back into your body, sort of, I think."  "Where?"  And that's when I realize that I really have no idea how that all works, although I did at some point in my life (8th grade science, maybe?), but I have become a person who cannot answer the questions of a 7 year old.  "You know what, Finn, let's find out all about that from dad later today."  Finn, "okay.  Mom, wouldn't it be funny if you could fold up a car when you don't need it?"  "Mom, what are they talking about on the radio when they were talking about bombs in Uganda?"  "Mom, who were you talking to on the phone?"  "Mom, have you ever been to Japan?"  "Mom, do you think we can buy the next book in my series today?"  Me, finally, "Finn, Mommy's head hurts, so we need to take a break from talking for a while and just look out the window."  "Okay.  Mom, did you see that car over there?  It had a really funny-looking thing on top.  Remember when we went to the art car museum in Houston?  Do you think we could ever decorate our car like that?  I think it would be cool to do it like a shark, and then there could be like a person's feet coming out where the mouth is.  Wouldn't that be cool?"  Me, drive car off the road into a tree.

So, next week Finn heads off to camp and Gus will be home with me, which is a much different phenomenon entirely.  I'll let you know how it goes.