Memos from the Middle

Daddy Gets the Space Time Continuum?

I plopped down heavily onto the couch after a marathon work day.

“How was your day, Mommy?” the Princess asked, climbing into my lap like she used to do as a toddler.

“Oh,” I groaned dramatically with the six-year-old body making its way with knees and elbows to its personal comfort. “It was fine. Just busy, I guess.”

“Did you get a lot of work done?”

“Yes, I did. What did you do today?”

“Lots of stuff. I cleaned up the whole house, and nobody helped me. I made a sandwich. I watched some TV and read some books. I baby sat Bubba. I had a great day!” Her smile, with new adult teeth, stretched proudly across her face.

“That does sound like a great day!” I readjusted my body to sit as comfortably as possible with an added 55 pounds on me. I settled my head lazily on the back of the couch, wrapped my arms around her snugly, and kissed the top of her head.

“What did you do today, Mommy?”

“Well, I had a few meetings with some teachers, and I sent some emails. I also started planning some professional development.”

“What’s ‘professional development?'” She asked, shifting her weight hard to my left side, making room for Daddy on the couch.

“They’re training sessions to help teachers.”

“How do you do that?”

“You know all those books I read and meetings I go to? Well, I use the stuff I learn in those and combine that with  what I know our teachers need support in to help me figure out how to help them and students. Then I sit at the computer and create the training with my team. Then we practice how we will show it to teachers. Then we fix it to make it better. Then we practice again.”

“Oh,” she said, feigning interest. “Uh, Mommy?”

“Yes, Baby.”

“I forgot to tell you what else I did today.”

“Ok. Well, what else did you do today?”

“I took the laundry to the basement.”

“Well, you did already tell me that you cleaned up the whole house, right?”

“Go get the pictures you drew today.” Daddy’s voice slid warmly into our conversation.

“Oh, yeah.” The Princess hopped down off my lap and ran full speed toward the back of the house. Walking back, holding papers reverently in front of her, she proudly presented one to me. “I made this for you, Mommy. It’s a picture of a garden.”

“Yes, I see. It’s beautiful, just like you.”

“I made  this one for Daddy,” holding it out, beaming. ” It’s a space-time continuum.”

“Are you kidding, Princess? I get a picture of a garden and Daddy gets a space time continuum! Somehow, that just doesn’t seem fair!”

“Well, Mommy. Maybe I can give you some professional development so that you can make your own space-time continuum.”