Our middle daughter, Rachel, is attending college 2 1/2 hours away from home. She is an elementary ed/special education student. Her week-end visits are not restful for her.....at all. She is the sister that Lucas and Eli treat with great deference and in return expect complete and utter servitude and unending playtime (I'm aware that doesn't make sense ~ it's the way they roll).
Sydney is their anchoring sister. She's here day in and day out, they know her moods, likes, dislikes, friends, boyfriend (Parker we are so grateful you like to laugh). She is their school transportation, "boss" when we aren't home and generally the sister they are most likely to bicker with and not listen to until she comes unhinged...... because that's what brother's do.
Alison is their sister of "idol" proportions......(Alison do NOT let that go to your head!). She is the sister that they are awed by (Eli loves to see what her hair color will be week to week), she is the one they are, shall we say. intimidated by. When she brings out her RN voice they listen up. It's similar to a mom voice but I think they aren't quite sure if she's carrying a syringe as back up :) She has never threatened this, they definitely respect the nurse side. When she speaks they listen for the most part and think that because she has her own place she is the absolute goal to achieve. From day one Lucas has said he wants to be a doctor because Alison is a nurse. Not sure if it's his view that nurses are female and doctors are male or he thinks he would finally get to boss Alison....not even then buddy!
But I digress. Eli is very aware that Rachel is on her way to becoming a teacher, therefore, in his book just short of Alison's "idol" status. He wants her to read, to listen to him read and pretty much impress her with how smart he is. Saturday she took them into the library to check out books....that's another whole story.
As he waited to go, he wanted a snack, I gave him a banana. As he's eating it he says, "Hey, Mom. Does banana have sugar?" Ok. Can you tell we really, REALLY watch how much sugar he gets? This is a pretty standard question for him these days. He knows things don't go well on sugar overload. I said, "It has potassium, that's good for you." I asked if he could say that word. He said no but then Rachel asked him to repeat it that was a different story, no need to impress the mom anymore.
I don't know why but English words that he has learned since coming home don't have an accent. It's probably a very well proven fact of English language learners but when listening to an accented conversation suddenly change to a non accent for one or two words is interesting. The word potassium was a little hard to get him to try but when it came out it was clear, with all the sounds. It was also accompanied by a huge grin for his sister, to let her know she should be adequately impressed. To make sure she stayed in awe of his abilities, he's been practicing this word......a lot!
No comments:
Post a Comment