Extraordinary Conversations/Ordinary Breakfast

There are times as a parent you think you have a good idea. A better than average idea. In fact, one could even consider a GREAT idea.

Many Sunday's ago I had one of those ideas.

Since all of my children are secretly ingesting some kind of mutant growth hormone behind my back, the need often arises for them to have clothing to replace the ones that no longer fit them.

At the time, Jon and Noah seemed to be focused not only outgrowing, but destroying, their pants and I could not longer put off replacing them (the pants, not the boys).

So.....my great idea was, since Brandon was at a pumpkin drop with his friend, that I would take the remaining three children out for breakfast.

I have learned that growing boys can devour a small dinosaur for breakfast, go to church, and ninety minutes later, be ready to devour a medium size dinosaur.

I even understand reason behind this: After church, their brains are fully engaged which awakens their stomachs. It is my duty to take care of their unsaitable hunger before unleashing them on the unsuspecting public.

Selfishly, and in the interest of full disclosure, I was also hoping the bribe of breakfast at Perkins would make the words, "You ARE going to the store with me to try on your pants before I bring them home." would make the process of pants shopping easier and less painful. For the record, it's amazing how loudly boys can protest in between massive bites of dinosaur, pancakes, and bacon.

We arrive at Perkins, order our food, and wait. During the wait, instead of plugging into video games or looking at each other with dumb looks on our faces, Jon, Noah, Lauren, and I start discussing normal kid things...what happened at church, cartoons, interjections from the boys about how their pants fit them just fine and shopping would be a form of child abuse, and the weather.



The weather conversation progressed to hemispheres, the North and South Poles (and the total chaos on the weather if those those two Poles were opposite and the Earth rotated in a different direction), the Equator, longitude and laditude lines, the Prime Meridan, and the now infamous question,

"Mom, does the International Date Line run parallel to the Equator?" (Answer: No).

It is moments like these that I love being the mom of my children: They prove to me they articulate, well-behaved, and are capable of reasoning out things that do not involve tormenting one another or whether or not SpongeBob Squarepants wears underwear.

On the other hand.....

We are eating breakfast....at Perkins.

I am not sure that all of my brain is awake yet and I'm simultaneously thanking Rich that we paid for an unlimited data plan on our smartphones so I can google "International Date Line" in the middle of breakfast. AND "We didn't have smartphones when I was a kid." AND "I wouldn't have thought about this when I was a kid." AND "How am I going to keep up my end of the conversation with a fifth and sixth grader?" AND "I might not be smarter than a fifth grader!" AND "I still have to take these two mini-geniuses pants shopping."

Fortunately, I was able to keep up with my boys. Lauren was also able to contribute to the conversation. We did indeed discuss the Interational Date Line while eating pancakes and waffles.

We ate breakfast, laughed and talked about other things, but I am still amazed how something so simple turned into such an amazing memory.