I drove my two boys to preschool this morning and I just happened to use a different route to get there. My 5 year old son, Q, said, “Papi, are we going to school?” “Yes,” I said. “How come we’re going there another way?” he asked but before I could respond he went on, “Papi, let’s play colored cars.”

 

“I thought you wanted to know why we’re going to school another way.” I said. “No.” he responded. “I want to play colored cars.”

 

“Ok, let’s look for a red car.” I said.

 

 JT, my 2 year old, jumped into the conversation, “Papi, look” 

 

I gave him a quick look over my shoulder. He had a plastic coat hanger around his head. Looking back at the road I said, “JT, please take that off your head. It’s not safe”

 

I tried to start the game again, “Ok, colored cars. Boys, look for a red car.” 

 

“No, Papi, Q said, “I want to play questions instead.” 

 

“I thought you wanted to play colored cars,” I said.

 

“Yea,” Q responded, “but no, I want to play questions.”

 

Trying to pull it all together, I said, “Ok, let’s play questions.  I’m going to think about something and you ask me questions so you can guess what it is.  But ask good questions like, ‘is it an animal’ or ‘is it something big’. And you can’t just keep guessing, ‘…is it a dog, a cat, is it the sky, a cloud, a chicken, is it Mami? Ok?”

 

“Ok.” Q said. 

 

“Ok,” JT said, and then added, “Papi, I see a red car.”

 

“A red car…? Oh…that’s good son but now we’re going to play the question game.  And son, take the hanger off your head.” 

 

JT was in a very good mood this morning and was apparently in his own world.

 

“Ok boys,” I said. “I’m thinking about something, so ask me questions about it.” I was holding the image of a Zebra in mind. (Why did I need to actually imagine a Zebra?  I don’t know);

 

“Papi,” Q said, “better let’s play a game where I ask you a question and you answer it. Let’s talk about holidays. What is the next holiday?”

 

At this point I pretty much new how things would go for the rest of the trip. I said, “The next holiday? Well, 4^th of July is coming up.”

 

“Ok, Papi. Let’s play.

 

(Silence) At this point I was completely confused.

 

Q said, “Well Papi, tell me why they call them fireworks?”

 

I heard myself respond with,  “…um…”  as JT took the hanger off his head.