"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Monday, July 28, 2014

Matthew Monday: I Spy

We, my wife, Matthew, and I were driving on a long trip, a vacation down to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.  The entire drive takes about ten hours non-stop, but I figured Matthew is not ready for such a long non-stop trip, and so I broke the drive into two five hour halves.  Of course that assumes you don’t hit any traffic, and there was an hour delay on the New Jersey Turnpike (I guess it was for construction, but we didn’t actually see anything) and an hour and a half in the Washington D.C. area, which I guess was just because of volume.  As it turned out, even a five hour leg was too much for Matthew. 

How do you keep an active, talkative four-almost-five year old boy busy while strapped to his child seat in the back alone?  You don’t.  I’m mean, yeah, there are songs and talk games, but that gets old for adults, especially adults that are over fifty.  You want a little peace and quiet after a while.  No wonder some of these new minivans come with DVD players.  But we don’t have one.  We have our eleven year old SUV, which as it turns out turned eleven years to the day on that day.  You can give him some little toys to play with, but shortly thereafter he drops it and can’t reach it.   

And after a while, he doesn’t shut up.  Ahhhh!  He can’t go sixty seconds without saying something.  

One game we played to keep him occupied was “I spy.”  One person in the car sees something on the road, say a blue pickup truck, and says, “I spy blue pickup truck,” and everyone looks around and tries to identify it. 

Daddy: “I spy a big tree.” 

Matthew:  “That one Daddy, over there?” 

Daddy: “Yes.” 

Matthew: “My turn now.  I spy a white bus.” 

Mommy, who is driving: “It just passed us.” 

Daddy:  “I spy motorcycle.” 

Matthew:  “There’s one.  I want to go now.  I spy…”  There’s a delay here while he looks around for something to identify.  “I spy…uh…something grey and black.” 

Daddy, looking around and not seeing anything: “Do you mean this charcoal car?  It’s kind of grey and black.” 

Matthew:  “No.”  Everyone is looking around. 

Mommy:  “What’s grey and black?” 

Matthew:  “Daddy’s head!”   

Big, big laughter from the two of them.  Haha.  Me not so much. I could manage a smirk.

6 comments:

  1. I've learned new things about you form this post of yours:

    You're at least fifty with black & white hair and your car is older than Mathew!

    Right? :)

    God Bless



    You're at leas

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  2. Funny!! We used to play games too, when I was a child and I did with my kids too. Sometimes it would be who could read the billboard first (I discovered I needed glasses), whoever saw a windmill would call out POOP POOP (like Popeye), silly songs like fake words for well known songs and then my favorite was the sing along with Mitch types of family singalongs. I still sing those classics like She'll be Coming Round the Mountain, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Red River Valley, etc.

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    1. We have had it with children's songs...lol. How do you get him to stop asking "are we there yet?" I thought that was just in the movies or TV, but my God he doesn't stop saying it.

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  3. Manny! "I" spi with my little eye that Victor spelled your son's name wrong!

    Matt, you will forgive Victor #2, "I" mean Matthew remember that not "ONE" is perfect. Victor even spelled Abraham wrong once "UP" on a "Time". Yes, Victor called Abrum a ham because Abrum believed that GOD (Good Old Dad) really wanted Him to take his first born's life so The Angels in charge of the world at that time changed his name to Abraham and................................andddd...........................................and...

    END YA SAY sinner vic? DON'T BE LIKE THAT! BE NICE NOW!

    Go Figure Bro? LOL :)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham

    Please keep praying for this often Annoying Super Sinner.

    God Bless you and yours

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    1. Yes, Matthew with two "t's." ;)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_(name)

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