It might not seem like it, with the amount of time I spend doing work and computer stuff these days, but for what time I do get to spend with the kids I try to make it quality.
Last Saturday, Abby and I say to watch some TV. I forget even what it was. Probably something she’s not supposed to watch. We’ve probably been doing way to much of that. In fact, we were watching The Sixth Sense on network TV the other night, and it was about to get to a gory part so we paused it (Yay, PVR!) and sent her to bed. We actually could have let her watch it since, being on network TV, they cut out all the gory stuff. But I digress.
Before we sat down to watch TV, I asked her “What’s happening?” And she didn’t know how to respond. So I started the training, and that’s when it seems that a new family in-joke began.
Everyone knows that the correct answer to the question “What’s happening?” or “What’s up?” is “Nothing.” No, really, it doesn’t matter if your hair is on fire or you’ve just won the Miss America contest, the answer to the question is “Nothing.” You might then proceed to say what else in addition to nothing is really happening, but the “nothing” is required protocol.
I was explaining this concept to Abby, and she didn’t quite catch on at first. Eventually she warmed up to the idea that a specific question can always have a fixed answer, and started giving her reply.
So I prompted her, “What’s happening?”
And she said, “Muffin.”
“No, Abby, not ‘Muffin’, it’s ’nothing’.”
“Muffin!”
“Gah.”
And so a family inside joke was born.
Yesterday when I picked her up from her 2nd-floor schoolroom, she was in a kind of melancholy mood as we headed down the side stairs. I asked her, “What’s up?” and she replied, “Muffin!” and ran off giddily.
