Friday, October 17, 2008

Frost invents co-housing and a new brother

On the car-ride home from school today, Frost confided that he and Alex suspect they are really brothers and "we would like to have a DNA test. Could we do that?" I said that they could but it would be expensive and may need to wait until they are older.

After a discrete pause I asked how they thought they could be brothers. Frost explained that they were good friends and lived nearby each other and perhaps they were brothers in the same way that Eve and Oliver discovered they were cousins. I should give a little background here and explain that Eve and Oliver are two kids in our school carpool. They have been told that they are related - although the link is somewhat tenuous, something like a grandmother's second marriage to a great uncle of the other side.

This has given Frost the idea that he may have a secret brotherhood with Alex.

When I asked Frost what he thought a brother actually was, he said that it was another boy who was not born at exactly the same time as you. Hang on, what? I tried to explain that brothers had the same parents. He then suggested that they were step-brothers. Uh oh. Another definition required.

Eventually he had it figured out that (in his words) "So brothers are two boys who live together who were born by the same Mom?" I shall just leave it there for now.

Alex and Frost were particularly excited about being brothers because they felt that if their DNA confirmed it, they should live together. By the way, according to Frost he has heard about DNA "all over" and "DNA tells you if someone is in the same family or not."

Frost explained that if we sold our house and built another house on top of Alex's house we would be a rich family and have 4 cars and we could sell one of our TV's and just join them together and have a double-super-size flatscreen TV and an attic with a trapdoor and many things and it would be cool.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Frost is such a smart little fellow. I love reading stories about him. How old is he, again? Six, right? He is so fortunate to have a smart mom, as well. You have some clever ways of explaining things to him. Nathan, my 3 year old, asks some difficult questions, too. Most recently, while looking through our wedding pictures, asked where he was. Also, he asked if boys have wee wees, what do girls have. Yikes. I wasn't quite prepared for this convo yet. But, I tried. Do you have any literature you might recommend for raising boys?

Shannon said...

Hi Jennifer
I have not read much literature on child rearing. The only book that I have read on that topic is Raising Cain which is interesting.

I have also been recommended "The War Play Dilemma" which is a short book and seems to apply more to boys play interest.

I don't think we are ever really prepared for the questions children ask or the way they ask him. Nathan's question is too funny.

Raines said...

I love it: stacked cohousing! Sign me up.