Mom, can you eat thyme?

Yeah, I use it when I make roast chicken.

(Grabs a fistful) … Here mom… can you make some roast chicken tonight?

This morning shocks me!
(why?)
It’s so quiet. And there’s lots of sounds. No matter happens to this morning it’s still a nice morning. And no matter whatever texture I see it’s still a nice morning. And that’s what makes it shocking. Bgogck! And no matter what sounds I make it’s still a nice morning… Just the two of us going out for a date…it’s nice!

J: It looks like she’s smoking! (Maddie has a stub of breadstick sticking out of her mouth like a cigar.)

Me: How do you know about smoking?

J: Sometimes, my dad or my teachers make me walk past people smoking.

Me: What? Where?

J: But I just turn my head and don’t breathe. (He demonstrates.) Dad did that once.

Me: Did what?

J: Breathed in A LOT of smoke. It bent his lungs.

Me: It bent his lungs?

J: Yeah but he got them fixed.

Me: Oh he did, how did he do that?

J: Oh, just went to the doctor.

Me: Hm. Well that’ll do it I guess.

J: Yep.

Halfway through his second giant piece of watermelon: Actually, I don’t really like watermelon!

Joseph, did you fall asleep at rest time today?

Sort of. I was whimpering.

Why were you whimpering?

Remember at the beach when I was sleeping and daddy went to Starbucks without me and I cried?

Yes. But why were you whimpering today?

That’s why. I was remembering it. It was making my cold, icy heart melt.

It’s nighttime and it’s a pickup truck. The steering wheel looks like a person but it’s not. And then there’s some lights on the front. I’m in the pickup truck with a pet. And it’s Kinker. That’s the cat that grandma and grandpa had that killed birds. There is a blue moon up there. The green thing is where I carry stuff in the back. We are going to buy some wool in the night. I’m going to knit it. What is it called, knit? I’ll knit it into something people would like… a doll or a scarf or a blanket.

Me: Joseph, don’t put those stools close to the step, Maddie will push them off.

Joseph: Nah, she’s not that strong.

Me: Yes she is–if she can push a stool all the way across the floor, she can push it off a step. Then she’d fall right on top of it.

Joseph (as he moves the stools back to the table): Duly noted, mom.

Me: Mmmm, this gaspacho is perfection!

J: Mom I wanna try! I wanna try your perfection! (tastes) Ewe mom, that isn’t perfection. That’s gross!

“I was trying to get that butterfly to recognize me. And to love me.” (sigh.)

Joseph, do you know where Uncle Matt is right now? Thailand!

What’s Thailand?

It’s a country. Pretty far away.

Do they all wear ties there?