Kid App

     Last year I taught art at the middle school level. I love working with kids at that level because they are still young enough to listen yet old enough to create great art. And anyone who is a teacher will know that kids teach you as much as you teach them. One of the crazy things I learned last year from my students had to do with sound. We've all heard of dog whistles but I had never heard of kids whistles. Well, not whistles exactly, apparently there are high sound frequencies that people under twenty years old can hear and people over twenty years old cannot.
     One of my students pulled out his phone, showed me the app, then pushed play. Three or four students around us snapped at him and told him to turn it off. I could not hear a thing. I guess students annoy each other with this app in the hallways and in class and the faculty is unaware anything is going on.
     This information helped me make sense to an incident that happened while my kids and I were biking to the park.
     Miles is a speed demon, so he is usually ahead of Nola and me. And on this particular adventure, Nola fell off of the path so I stopped to help her. Miles continued biking. When Nola finally got situated we looked up in search of Miles and he was about two blocks ahead of us. With my low, adult voice, I yelled to him. He did not turn around. I yelled again and nothing. Nola tried to get his attention, still nothing.
     Then with the highest pitch scream a kid can conjure up, Nola exhaled, "MILES!!!" He instantly stopped and turned around. At the same time, I grabbed my ears wishing that the frequency of her scream had been just a bit higher. Maybe there is something to high pitch noises and kids ears.
     
     

Naked Mom

     I don't run around the house naked but I don't shy away from it either. If I need to shower, sometimes I have one of my kids in there with me. If I need to change for the day, sometimes my kids are hanging out while I change. I don't find the need to be discrete yet, though my experience the other day was interesting to say the least.
     Miles and I were playing boats. I don't mind playing with him but my knees tend to give out after about a half an hour of crawling around on the floor. So once I hit my limit, I mentioned to him that I needed a shower. Sometimes he joins me and other times he takes a bath while I shower but not that morning, he wanted to continue playing boats. Fine with me I told him. So I went to the bathroom shutting the door behind me but leaving it unlocked as usual. I then disrobed, grabbed a towel and walked toward the shower. Luckily I was paying attention because the door flew open and I caught it before it nailed me in the face.
     "Hey, Bud, what do you need?"
     "You forgot to put the pretend boat on the pretend trailer."
     "Oh, sorry Bud. I'll get it once I get done showering, okay?"
     "No, mom! I need the boat on the trailer otherwise I can't drive back home!"
     "Bud, I'm naked right now and need to shower first. You are just going to have to wait."
     Crying ensued. Now, I'm not one of those moms who can ignore crying. I realize that some women have a gift and can tune it out in order to get things done but not me. It digs deep into my soul and I cannot relax for anything. And I really wanted to take a relaxing shower, just five minutes of alone time. So I gave in to my crying little man.
     "Okay, okay, I'll help you get the boat on the trailer." I made a quick motion with my hands and added some sound effects then said, "there."
     "No, mom, I need to back the trailer up first." He replied almost laughing at my attempt to place a nonexistent boat in the wrong spot.
     How silly of me, I thought.
     "Just wait a minute while I back up my truck."
     So I stood there, naked with the bathroom door wide open watching my son back up a fake trailer. He actually didn't seem to notice my nakedness, all he cared about was getting his pretend play right.
     "Watch your foot mom."
     "Oh, okay, thanks," I said moving my foot out of the way.
     "Okay, I've got the trailer in the water now you can put the boat on it."
     "Right," I replied. Then I made a clicking noise to show that I hooked the rope on the boat. My next move would be to mimic the sound of the power winch. I would have been a much nicer moment had I not been naked but again, Miles could only stare in the direction of our fake boat.
     "Alright, Bud, I think we've got it."
     "Thanks, mom," he said. Then he got into his pretend truck and drove out of the bathroom giving me our trademark two honks on the way.
     I closed the door behind him and jumped my freezing butt into the warm water of my shower. Miles is very serious about his vehicles and apparently I will do almost anything to humor my kids.