Saturday, November 19, 2005

NFTV: Where's G?

Another episode of Nerd Family TV.

My three-year-old son was obsessed with letters. I was spelling every night instead of counting sheep. It wasn’t working. My husband was trying to ignore it all. That wasn’t working either.

Each day our precocious one sat at his table carefully writing letters. He’d write the letters in a row, each one a different color. All of them the exact same height. And then he’d write them in a row again, and again, and again.

Each place we went he carried one. Only one. There was a rule. There had to be. Only one letter could go with him. He had to choose, or he would try to carry them all. Neither he nor I, nor the innocent magnetic letters for that matter, would have survived without that rule.

Often Grandma and Grandpa asked our little boy to come stay with them for the weekend. On these special occasions, he was allowed to take two letter friends. On this particular visit, he chose G and R. I wondered if that had anything to do with the beginning of the words Grandma and Grandpa.

All was well until Saturday afternoon. My husband and I were discussing how the house grows when a child isn’t there. We were wondering why Einstein didn’t have a law to cover this one. During our attempts to come up with how to word it, the telephone rang. I answered it. On the other end was one very stressed Grandma.

“We can’t find G,” she said.

“Oh no.”

“Thank God, you let him bring R too.”

“Yeah, it would be ugly. Wouldn’t it?”

“I just don’t understand this kid,” his grandmother said. “I have all of these wonderful toys and he wants that one darn letter.”

“He knows it bugs you, Grandma. Don’t worry about it.”

Somehow Grandma and her grandson muddled through despite G’s disappearance. The week ended with no blood let and our son made it home safely. In no time at all, he was back at his little table writing the alphabet. The letters still each had their own individual colors. They were all in a row and perfectly the same height. But now there was one difference. The letters looked like this:


ABCDEFHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

He wrote that again, and again, and again. When I realized the difference I asked where G was. He didn't stop or look up.

“At Grandma’s house,” he said.

—me strauss Letting me be

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is awesome. What a smart little guy.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Homer Jay,
Thank you. He's in college now.

Read NFTV The Milk Story That's Episode One. It's down in the sidw bar under the cartoon me.

smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

Children have a way of grounding our thinking with their literal view and yet they spur our imaginations with their fresh and unspoiled perspectives. I think all adults should be forced to learn from children now and again, it would make us all better people to be around.

BTW, my URL has changed.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Ned,
I agree with all you say. In fact, I may have said this before, but I've met more children that I deeply respect than adults.

What? You tell me it's changed and don't tell what it is? Put that link here. :)
Liz

Anonymous said...

Myblogsite rudely shut down its blog hosting and I have migrated over to http://nedfulthings.blogharbor.com

For a short time the old site will automatically redirect you but in a few days that will cease.

This is a gem of a word verification:
akkisspa

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Ned,
That's really stinky that your host treated you badly. I've already been to your new site and left a comment--love that story. DUH I figured out how to get their on my own. Can you believe this little girl is growing up?
smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

I bet he's doing well in college! He inherited a certain gene from you, undoubtedly. Does he blog?

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Betty,
He's got that grade point you imagine. He's VP of Georgetown TV and Webmaster of their daily newspaper's website which won the nation's best award from the AP. One of his other websites is in the next post. But no he doesn't blog or read his mother's blog either, except when she tells him to (as far as I know.) :P
smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Love the story. :)

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Thanks, Liz!

Anonymous said...

Awesome story.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Sheila,
Thanks. It's even true.

smiles,
liz

Anonymous said...

Mine was missing Q's, I felt that it was a crime. :)

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Janus!
It's great to see you.

No Qs. I agree. That's a crime!

smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

The letter people don't exist anymore? We used to fight over the blow up letter people in kindergarten!

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Daedelus,
Of course, the letter people still exist! Where would they go? :)

smiles,
Liz

Anonymous said...

I enjoy these stories so very much, does he know they are here?

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Hi Easy,

Thank you, I enjoy telling these stories so much too.

Yes he knows they're here and he acts like an old man who tolerates them, but I know he begrudgingly enjoys the fact that history is being recorded.

Every now and then I point him to one.

smiles,
Liz