Susan's Blog

Sunday, July 22, 2007

It’s a Different, That’s [Not] Okay

When someone offers you a piece of pie, you take it.
–Ned’s friend Paul H.

A mixed day. I took a two mile walk around the Reservoir with Nat, and baked a pie with him, but in between he had a terrible screaming fit and ran outside biting his arm and screaming through the neighborhood. I think it was because someone was refusing to do something that he wanted them to do, like use chili powder or salt.

I was very shaken up by this and just cried for a little bit, got that out of my system. This was when we were supposed to go to a friend’s pool (Ben’s friend Andy). I just could not muster it. So Ned took Ben and I made the pie with Nat, which was a lot of fun. He is very dextrous and an excellent baker. He was trying so hard to do it well! That Miniman. I tried to talk to him later about how he can’t control what other people like because we are all different from each other. He kept saying, “No different! No different!” Finally I said, “Fine, Nat, think what you want.” And that was the end of that. It reminds me of when he was little and we were explaining that something was different and that that was okay. He started saying to himself, “It’s a different, that’s okay.” Which kind of got it right. But he wasn’t buying it now, as a wise old teen.

We made Dot Pie (.py), which I dreamed up after hearing about a bit of software Ned wrote of the same name, using the python programming language, of course. I know nothing about it or pythons but I do know pie and I know when a man goes on a pool outing he didn’t really want to go on, he deserves a really great pie when he comes home.

Speaking of python, snakes figure prominently — and horribly — in the very beginning of the latest Harry Potter book. How do I know? Max bought the book at midnight on Friday night (see footage here) and has already read it. So now I have a great book to read for a few days when I’m not writing mine. And by reading about the Death-eaters, I will be able to stay away from Dot pie eaters.

1 comment

I announced I was reading the book to a bunch of other mothers, and one of them asked me later to give her the spoilers, so she would know what she might have to comfort her daughter about. (Wise mom, IMO.)

I’m not dispensing any spoilers anywhere this week except in private e-mail, and only when asked to, so no one has anything to fear from me in that regard.

(The book was a fun ride, I’ll say that. That’s about what some movies are, a fun ride. And a fun ride is a good thing to go on sometimes!)

— added by Julia on Monday, July 23, 2007 at 5:23 pm

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