Beautiful weather. Lots of soccer, Frisbee, walks, etc. The kids claim lots of clean-up too, but I don’t see a lot of evidence of this.
Brothers! (Conor always says Eeee for Elliott and has recently started saying “brober”
Rolling with the homies…. (Conor loves his bike but hasn’t quite figured out that its different from a stroller and you need to use core strength to stay up)
Look at my sister’s ball skillz!
Screw these bowls… my mom is finally paying attention to me!
We’ve reluctantly had to rely more on technology since the COVID crisis. Elliott has an Alexa in his room, and its interesting to hear about his interactions with Alexa.
In the beginning…
Elliott: “Alexa, make fart noises.”
Elliott: “Alexa, how much wood can a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?” (Turns out 25 lbs.)
Last week…. “Mom, did you know that our basketballs arrived?”
Me: “No, I didn’t. Did you open them up with Dad?”
Elliott: “No, Alexa told me.”
Me: “What, how did Alexa tell you?”
Elliott: “Well, she has this blue light that’s like a (struggles to say the word) notification. I ask her what it’s about, and she will tell me that a package arrived with blah blah blah in it.”
This morning… “Alexa, what time is it?” (He asked before 7 a.m. in a groggy state because he had a new lego set he was building and wanted to continue on it.)
This afternoon, Jordan walks in. “What are you listening to?”
Elliott: “Fox News”
Jordan: “How about you try kids trivia instead?”
(At dinner, we asked him how he made his way to Fox News… he said he asked Alexa for the news and then she offered options. He chose Fox. My guess is that was the most memorable, easy-to-pronounce news source. We’ll need to find a kid option; I don’t want him turning into a Trump supporter!)
On a walk this afternoon…
Elliott: “You know Mom, how like you have an allowance… I’m not sure if that’s the right word.” (Nat and I figure out he means account.)
Elliott: “I donated $10 to help fight COVID.”
Me: “Wow, you did! That’s great buddy!” (I ask a few questions… I’m thinking that Jordan asked the kids if they wanted to use some of their own “charity” envelopes – we just started having them set aside 10% this year – to help COVID. I soon learn this is not the case.)
Elliott: “Alexa asked me if I would like to donate money to COVID, so I said yes. It had to be at least $5 so I did $10 of your and Dad’s money. Is that okay?”
Me: “Yeah bud, that’s really great. Let’s think about you giving some of your money too, okay?”
(Natalie, meanwhile, indignantly protests because she feels like he should have to give all from his own charity money.)
It’s all too funny not to laugh. It’s always based in innocence and curiosity, never sneakiness or malfeasance. It’s scary how much Alexa knows.