Six Years Old

The other day I was sitting in my office with Mr. Busypants. We were both "working." I've been working a lot lately. My husband is in the construction biz, so it's been necessary for me to accept as many teaching opportunities as I can, which has me stretched pretty thin. Ice cream has helped me cope, which is so not stretching me thin. So if you've noticed my absence this past month, now you know why.

Whenever I work, Mr. Busypants wants to work. We have a "cubicle" of sorts set up in my office for the little man. It's outlined with a bright, colorful carpet we bought at Ikea. He has his own table, a plastic cart with drawers, and a little orange garbage can that he takes out himself. There's even an "all done" basket for completed projects.

In the middle of grading papers, I decided that Mr. Busypants and I needed a cookie break, so I said: "Alex, do you want to eat some Oreos in the office with me?"

"Yes mommy." He ran out of the office and came back with an individual package of six cookies--it's part of his lunch stash. Typically, he's only allowed four cookies, so he asked "Can I have six? Because I'm six." It reminded me of when I was six and thought because of my age I was entitled to six spoonfuls of sugar in my Cherrios.

I've always liked my sugar highs and they go well with the looming lows of the economy.