Brian and I got to drive Analyse and Elliot to Illinois a week ago
Sunday. What a delightful trip it turned out to be!!! See, at one
point, while the sun was still hitting us ever so brightly (in big part
due to us heading west), Mr. Elliot suddenly asked, "hey, why is the
moon out already?!" He was looking out his side of the car as we were
going around a bend. We gave him a couple of possibilities before he
turned to the window and loudly asked, "Excuse me Mrs. Moon, why are you
up already?". I chuckled and in a sort of different voice answered,
"because it's later than you think Mr. Elliot. It's almost your bed
time, but Mr. Sun is shining extra bright not wanting to go to bed
tonight."
That started a conversation that Brian and I agree easily lasted over
an hour. Very possible that it was over two hours. It'd be going really
strong for quite awhile, then due to something said, something else
would be talked about, or, there would just be a pause, either way,
after a bit we'd again hear, "excuse me Mrs. Moon......."
He questioned if I had any children. "I have a bunch of sons". "What
are their names?" My brain went blank. When we had hit the road, we had
pulled away from our little family having a weekend gathering together. I
had done all of the shopping for it on Fri.. My head was a mess, but
there was no way I wanted to put a stop to a delightful conversation
with these GRAND children!!! So just loud enough that Brian could hear
me over the roar of the highway, I questioned Brian about the names of
planets, hoping that either a) the kids wouldn't hear us, or b) due to
the fun of it all, they'd ignore it. One of the two worked. ;-]. "The
names of a couple of my sons are Saturn and Uranus".
"Excuse me Mrs. Moon, do your sons every do anything that gets them in
trouble?" I chuckled. "Yes, they are typical children who often do such
things". "Excuse me Mrs. Moon, is one of your sons naughtier than the
others?" Brian and I both chuckled. "Saturn gets in trouble a lot!"
"Excuse me Mrs. Moon, what does he do that gets him in trouble?". "Oh,
sometimes he doesn't take care of his plate and stuff off the table
(something we had been working on with all of the GRAND children that
weekend). Sometimes he won't help pick up or clean up when he's told
to." And several more examples were listed. But he kept re-asking that
question. We decided later that it was something he could think of to
ask, and he wanted the conversation to keep going. So did we!
"Excuse me Mrs. Moon..." every single time he asked a question, whether
I had just answered his previous one, or if there had been a lull in
the conversation, he always started with that. So darn sweet, cute,
fun!
At one point, the name of the planet 'Pluto' got brought up. Elliot
explained that people don't think it's really a planet anymore, it's
something else, but he wasn't sure what. Analyse had tried to explain
but didn't get real far either. With a chuckle I commented, "Pluto is
definitely still a planet, it's just that a lot of those muggles on
earth keep confusing things since they don't understand our ways."
"Excuse me Mrs. Moon, did you say MUGGLES ON EARTH?!?!!!!" "Yes".
Delighted laughter came from the back seat.
After I had sang a song to the GRAND kids at bedtime the night before,
Benson had then played a section of a Harry Potter book on tape for them
to listen and fall asleep to. Thus, they totally got the reference to
muggles. "Excuse me Mrs. Moon, who are the 'muggle' people?" "Oh you
know, the ones that don't laugh very often, the ones that don't believe
in using their imaginations, the ones that often aren't very fun to be
around." Both kids shared that they knew exactly who those type of
people were. It was quite comical!
When asked if I had a dog, Brian whispered that it was of course
'Pluto'. When I spoke that answer, Analyse exclaimed, "Just like on
Disney!" Our cat's name was 'Mercury'.
"Excuse me Mrs. Moon, do your sons have any sisters?" "Yes, one". "...
what's her name?" "Venus". "... your sons are lucky they only have one
sister, I have two" "HEY" Analyse exclaimed. Elliot's delighted
laughter proved he had totally meant for that jab to hit. Brian and I
again had a hard time controlling out laughter.
I used the word "again" because it happened frequently. A few times we
were quite glad for the roar of the busy highway. Such as when after
finding out the Mr. Sun was my husband, Elliot had questioned why we
(Mr. Sun and Mrs. Moon) were always going up and down on one another.
Mr. Sun had winked at me and quietly stated, "Oh, you'd be surprised how
much fun that can be". "Excuse me Mr. Sun, what did you say?" "Oh,
he's just being naughty Mr. Elliot". Mr. Sun got hushed when he
continued to make quiet little comments. ;-b
One of the things my sons were suppose to do, were things like light
the stars at night. That got a totally awed reaction/response. "... how
come sometimes a lot of the starts are lit but sometimes only a couple?"
"Because sometimes Saturn doesn't do what he suppose to, or he does but
then goes back and blows them out." In an altered voice Brian had
started talking as though he was Saturn, stating how he didn't like to
have to do so much work, etc.. Analyse started talking over the top of
him, as though she was naughty son Saturn, she didn't seem to like what
Brian had to say. Sigh...
Somewhere along the way, the name of the "Milky Way" had been brought
up. "No, that's a candy bar". "Really?!" Elliot had replied in amazed
awedness. He didn't think he'd ever had one. He's going to be getting
one in the mail soon from Mrs. Moon. (Shhhh ;-] )
When questioned if I had any friends, I had replied "Santa". I tell
you, their responses were making this so-o-o much fun!!! I was asked if I
knew Santa's wife, and elf's, and reindeer (who's names were then
listed both verbally and in song form).
I was always "Mrs. Moon". I've since decided that the next time I sing
the ole song, o/~ "Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon, you're out too soon, the sun is still
in the sky....."o/~ I need to change it to 'Mrs. Moon'.
After the third hug and kiss goodnight, as Elliot rounded the corner to
go up to mommy's apartment, he called back "see ya later Mrs. Moon".
"See ya soon Mr. Elliot" with a giggle he stated, "Yeah! 'soon!!!' ".
