Spring Ahead!

Dave sez,

So, once again, I am trying to explain to the kids how we Spring Ahead. Coming up next weekend, March 7th and 8th, we set the clocks ahead one hour. We lose an hour of sleep. In return we get more daylight. This is what is known as Daylight Saving(s) Time. Everything is new to Bella. New things can be kind of scary. Her first year home is winding down and she has managed to survive a lot of new things. First time on an airplane. New home, new environment. Rules. New food. New school. New friends. Rules. She's taking it all in very well. Patiently. A sort of blank expression on her face. Ethan and Justin are looking at me like I'm trying to add Purple and Banana to equal Twelve. And, by the way, I still love the way Justin pronounces the word "twelve"! He's kind of grown out of it, now, but when he first came home he would enunciate the word as "tweh-lev". Justin, what's ten plus two? Justin, what's thirteen minus one? Justin, how old are you? For me, that joke never got old. It did real quick for him, though. My son tried to summon all the midichlorians he was born with to Force-choke me to stop. Trying to explain the time change to Ethan and his brother just makes the two of them look at me cross-eyed. Ethan screws up his face and says, "Heh?"

Sunday, March 8th, 2015

This is an ideal example of customs that we have, however you want to classify "us" - Americans, Midwesterners, Parents - that our kids have to adapt to. I've shared how Justin's first breakfast at home was biscuits and gravy - my favorite. It was our first weekend home with Justin, Cathy asked what I wanted. I told her. She made it. Our son didn't say that he did not like biscuits and gravy. He said that biscuits and gravy was bad. We didn't have biscuits and gravy again until Ethan came home the following December. Friends told us that instead of not making biscuits and gravy because Justin didn't like it, Cathy should have made biscuits and gravy until Justin became more accustomed to it and learned to enjoy it as much as I did. What we are learning as parents is that all three kids need time to adjust and become accustomed to new things.

It's funny how confusing the time change still is to Justin. He's been home the longest. It's like explaining time travel.

It's like I'm explaining a trip around the sun or how to walk through the Guardian of Forever.

 

Justin keeps asking, "Wait a minute...will we be getting up later?" No, you'll be getting up for school at the same time. It will just seem later. Six in the morning will seem like seven in the morning. It will be six in the morning. But it will feel like seven. Kinda like the wind chill factor, where nine below actually feels like thirty below because of the driving, howling, biting wind.

"But won't we be getting up later?"

Justin gets confused because I actually try to explain how six o'clock will actually be more like seven o'clock. My Mom used to help me with math using blocks. She would have ten blocks; and then, take away five blocks and put them behind her back. She would ask me how many blocks she had after putting the five blocks behind her back. I would tell her she still had ten, five on the table in front of us and five behind her back. Which is why I have always considered Math my Lex Luthor. Or, Ultron (The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron in theaters May 1! I am so excited!!!) Stupid Math. Stupid building block of EVERYthing - including how we will eventually communicate with aliens!

So, I understand Justin's, Ethan's and Bella's confusion. I try to be as patient with them as I hope my Mom - and most every one else around me - is with me.

It's funny; because at some point, Justin is going to come and sit beside me and ask me what time it really is.