But Mom, 10 + 10 = 20!

I don't think that we've ever doubted Chase's intelligence. Even when he was two years old and using sign language instead of words, we knew he was smart. Yet every once in a great while (the infamous "surprise face" comes to mind), he manages to blow our minds.

Today was one of those days. I should preface this by saying that for the last three days, we've had visitors. Two neighborhood girls are completely enamoured w/Cassie. So they've been coming over to see her. One lives across the street from us, I know her well and she's a sweet kid. In fact, I've often said I wish she was a bit older (she's 10) so she could babysit and am looking forward to when she's old enough to do just that. I don't know the other one as well, but she seems nice enough. She's also 10.

Now Cassie naps for a good 3-5 hours a day and these girls tend to come over either just before or during nap. So they'll play w/Chase while Cassie naps. But the minute Cassie wakes up, they're fawning all over her. This bothers me, because I think both of my kids are wonderful and amazing and adorable and worth fawning all over. So while I don't mind when they're over, I don't like how they dump one kid for the other. I was a young girl once and I get the attraction to the baby, but the big kid is pretty damn special and deserving of attention too.

I digress. As it was another no-snow-snow-day, they were over this morning before I'd so much as showered and brushed my teeth. Cass was napping and Chase was thrilled to bits to have the girls all to himself. Around noon though, I found myself getting a little stir-crazy. I could tell Chase was getting jealous of the attention they were lavishing on the newly awakened Cassie and I don't blame him AT ALL for that. Moreover, I needed to get some stuff for lunch, b/c while our cupboards weren't exactly bare, there wasn't enough to feed a bunch of kids, either. So I headed down to the basement and told the kids that we were heading to the grocery store. The girls offered to babysit. I politely declined. Chase intervened on their behalf, I declined again.

Later in the car, when explaining to Chase that if he EVER puts me on the spot like that again, the answer is an automatic "NO" w/o any consideration at all to what the request might actually be, I explained that the girls are very sweet, but that I don't think two ten year olds are old enough (or mature enough) to babysit my precocious six year old son and my (almost) eight month old daughter. Serious as a heart attack, he looks at me and says, "But Mom, 10 + 10 = 20! So together, they ARE old enough!"

If he can come up with THAT at 6, what are we going to be dealing with at 16?

Oh, and the pic above is off Cassie almost crawling. She's almost got it down. But in the meantime, she log rolls to get where she wants and nothing is safe anymore...