I call Maia, "Mark"

Mark, my brother, was always a mischievous kid.

Today, we caught Maia in something, and it made me think of Mark.

We had been struggling with her to get her to do her reading log. She has to read 20 minutes a night, note the reading in a log, and then one of us has to initial it, or she gets a pink slip. Kind of like a misdemeanor. If you get so many pink slips, then there's a consequence of some sort.

The crux of the conflict was that Maia wanted to get to school by 7am (school doesn't start until 8:05) because of something going on with Megumi (the Queen of 4th grade) and her friends, and so she wanted to do 15 minutes of her reading in the car. I refused, because I knew she wasn't going to get any decent reading done in the car (not that she would, anyway, with all the arguing that we were doing). So I insisted that she put in at least 15 minutes of reading at home before we got into the car.

She did that (with a ton of grousing and whining), and we finally got into the car at about 6:50.

I reminded her that she hadn't finished her reading and still needed to do 5 minutes on our 12 plus minute drive to school.

"But I didn't bring my book," she said.

"Well, too bad," I said. "You're going to have to deal with the consequence of that. We're not signing anything until you finish."

"And if you get a pink slip, I want to see it," Kristina said.

This, as it turned out, posed a problem for Maia.

"Can I sign it for you?" she asked. She was talking about the log.

"No, of course not," I said.

"But, puhleeeze, I promise to do the reading."

"Maia, that's not the point. We have to sign it, and when we put our initials on your log, we're saying we know you did the reading."

"But, puhleeze, I'll borrow Megumi's book, and I'll do the reading before school."

"Maia, that's not the point."

And so on. It went on like this pretty much all the way to school.

Finally, just as we made the turn into school, I relented and told her I would sign the log. I figured that I could get her to do the reading after school today, and I didn't want her to get another pink slip.

"Give me your log," I said. "I'll sign it."

Slowly, she pulled the log out of her bag and in almost slow motion handed it up to me.

I looked at it.

"Where do I sign?" I asked.

"I already signed it," she confessed. And there, on the page, I could see "KI" just exactly how Kristina puts her initials on things.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Mark...Maia...," I said, starting to reprimand her, but I couldn't contain the laughter. "Go to school," I finally said, with my face turned away from her so she couldn't see me laughing.

She got out, but then she worked her way around to the right front of the car to confirm that I had been laughing.

KI, however, was not amused.

John, Tuesday, September 20, 2011