Why would I want to teach my kids to tell time?

It's been one of those afternoons. You know, when it's only 5:30, and it's becoming a struggle not to simply plop your kids in front of the TV so you could get a little peace? One of those.

I can't really complain, because they DID both take good naps, and I got some teaching and some paperwork in during that time. But for some reason, the post-nap hours degenerate quickly into whining on some days, usually having to do with dinnertime, but sometimes I wonder if my own lack of patience just exacerbates the problem.

So we start dinner a little early, and since Evil Mommy only allows them 35 minutes to eat their simple bowls of red beans and rice, neither child manages to finish in the allotted time. Too bad, no dessert tonight. We head upstairs, don pajamas, and I decide to move bedtime forward a little. And I am struck with gratitude that my kids don't know how to read an analog clock yet.

Why is that a skill we want to teach early? Yes, Miles can read a digital clock, though I think his grasp of time is pretty vague when it comes to real life. But we don't have a single clock upstairs aside from my phone (safely in my pocket) and my watch (analog, HA!)

I put Eleanor down a few minutes before her bedtime, at around 6:50. Then Miles wants to play Old Maid (actually, his first choice was Guitar Hero, but I couldn't summon the energy tonight; him "playing" guitar means I have to do the real playing and just let him pretend to play along on the second guitar; he can't hit enough notes to keep it from failing in the first few seconds, and he gets bored with that really quickly).

Well, and I get bored with Old Maid really quickly myself, particularly the two-player variety. The game, anyway; Miles playing it is fairly entertaining. He ALWAYS will choose my left-most card when he draws - every single time, tonight. And then when he draws the Old Maid (hysterical giggling) I tell him to mix it up in his hand "so I don't know where it is!" He then waves his cards back and forth (not rearranging them in the least, but wiggling his legs frantically in the process; I've no idea why they're related but apparently they are). Often the Old Maid will end up facing backward (that is, facing ME) while all his other cards are in the proper position. That reminds me of a scene in...some movie...hmm, bad memory...but I choose the Old Maid card anyway, and am rewarded by sheer glee and giggles. It's payment enough.

Miles' hair is getting kind of long now - long enough to start clumping in little circular ringlets again. So tonight I told him I wanted to comb it out, since we haven't done that in ages. He protested that it would hurt too much (his baby sister's bad influence; on HER hair it probably does hurt), but I told him I'd be gentle, and he'd look very handsome with his hair fluffed up.

So I work on his hair for a while (it's not long enough to tangle yet, so it's pretty simple to do), before hearing a gentle murmur, "Oh, it doesn't hurt..."

I finish and tell him to look at himself.

A pause to reflect and assess, and then, "Mommy, can you do the front a little bit? And over there?"

The vanity of him! Mommy complies.

He preens in the mirror for a moment. "There! Now I'm all poofy!"