The post in which I...

...tell everyone that I'm not a wife (yet), or a mother (yet). So why am I here? Well, what teacher (which I am) doesn't have a million stories about the unpredictability of those sometimes tiny creatures we gestate for 9 months before sending them out into the world? To speak in the vernacular of those crazy internet cats: storez. I haz 'em.

One of my earliest stories, and one of my all-time favorites, deals with a very precocious 3-year-old named Ethan. Ethan was one of those kids who you just never knew what he was going to do or say. His play was no different. During free time one morning, I noticed that he had an elaborate Lego setup going on one of the tables. And when I say elaborate, I mean huge. The chairs, the table, no surface was safe from the presence of those tiny pieces. I watched him for a while, trying to figure out what was going on in his mind because he was quite intent on the project. After a few minutes I walked over.

"Hey Ethan. What are you building here?"

"I'm building a spaceship!"

"Wow! That's fantastic. Are you going to the moon?"

"Uh uh. I'm going to the sun."

Now I should say here, that this stunned me. And that's not easy to do. But I went with it.

"Won't you be hot?"

He gives me this look. You know. The look all children have genetically programed into them for when they know the adults in their lives are just stupid. I call it the "duh" look.

"I'll wear sunglasses."

I blinked. And then I tried not to laugh. "Okay Ethan. The sun it is."

He went about happily building his ship for the rest of his free time. I learned a valuable lesson that day-- sunglasses can make anything happen. And Ethan, all of 3, remembered to think outside of that proverbial box.