.jpg)
Identity
We stopped at a restaurant yesterday so that the kids could have a little meal before coming with us to a party. The young woman who brought us their food remarked on how adorable Carver is, and asked me what his name is. Thinking she would be even more impressed that he can carry on an entire conversation, I thought I would redirect the question to him. He put down his beverage, gazed up at her and said, “I am two years old!” She was very impressed and asked him what is name is, to which he replied, using his fingers this time, “I’m two years old!” Avey jumped in at this point and said, “Carver, that’s how old you are. What’s your name?” Carver looked at her and enunciated a little more this time, “I am two years old!” The worker was getting a kick out of this show, but I thought I’d try one last time to communicate the question to him and said, “Yes, and who are you?” He looked up at me this time, with a slightly confused expression, and said, “I’m not six years old, I’m just two years old!”
Eventually I explained to the kind worker that his name is “Carver.” I felt tempted to throw in something about how he knows far more than the average two-year-old, but she needed to get back to work.
It’s been funny to watch as he works to understand the concept of age. We explained a few weeks ago that Hakan would eventually grow to be as big as Carver, and that Carver would grow to be as big as Avey. He was quite interested in this idea, and repeated it many times to be sure he got it. A little later, he wanted to know what I would grow into. I explained that I will grow into a grandpa in a long time. He seems to have gotten them a bit confused though, because sometimes he will say, “Daddy, Hakan will grow big like me, and I will grow big like you, and you will grow big like Hakan!” Well, two out of three is pretty good.
It’s been a good week otherwise. Kira and Carver have recovered from their colds, Avey never got it, and I started to have a slightly sore throat a couple of days ago, but it never really got any worse than that, and I can’t feel hardly anything now.
I’ve had a lot of technology trouble lately. My phone finally bit the dust a couple of weeks ago, so I ordered a new one. That turned out to be a nightmare of its own trying to get it here in any reasonable amount of time, but it came and all was well – or so I thought. To summarize, I had to arrange an exchange, and now am using a very basic loaner phone. So basic, in fact, that I charged it only once about 4 days ago, and it’s still got more than half the battery life. In a strange coincidence, my laptop batter also needed replacing about the same time, and my office computer on campus is having some serious issues logging me on.
Luckily, what has made up for all of the technology woes is that I officially launched my dissertation survey for the pilot data this week. It is finally beginning to feel real, and with any luck I’ll have all the data collected before the semester’s out.