cat named pig

Siena was sick last week and missed school all three days before the Thanksgiving holiday. (The less said about that time of grouchiness and frustration the better.) She went back to school yesterday, and last night at dinner we asked her how it was to be back.

Since boring parental-type questions (like “how was your day?”) tend to elicit bored teenager-type answers from her (like “good” or “OK” or “fine – can I have the car keys?”) I’ve learned to ask specific questions. I started out with the tried-and-true “What was the first thing that happened when you got to school?”

This was Siena’s response:

“Well, as soon as I came into the classroom, all the kids jumped up and ran over to give me a hug and they were all swarming around me and it was all crazy so I said ‘Whoa, give me a high five or one of these’ [she proceeded to pantomime bumping knuckles and then pulling her hand back to explode it] and most of the kids didn’t know what that was so they gave me high fives, but one kid knew and he helped me show the others how to do it.”

So I’m picturing my five-year-old surrounded by a bunch of friends giving her high fives and bumping knuckles (and exploding it — here’s a more detailed explanation, Dad, since you have no idea what I’m talking about right now) to welcome her back to school after missing a week, and it is pretty much the best mental image I’ve had in quite some time.

In summary: kids are awesome, and obviously my work as a parent speaks for itself if a fist bump is her preferred method of greeting her classmates.

…..

[Full disclosure: I can’t actually take credit for teaching her to pound it and explode it. I clearly recall some of my younger cousins instructing her in the technique at a family reunion a couple of years ago. But I will go ahead and take some credit for the heightened sense of ROCKSTAR that compels her to still use it two years later, and with such aplomb.]