A few years ago, when Sam was visiting me for the week, I didn't have any plans for his visit. I, unfortunately, didn't take any time off from work either, and ended up plunking the kid down in front of the television for far more time than I was comfortable with, though Sam didn't really mind.

When we went back to Mom's place for the big drop-off, Sam declared to everyone, "And she let me watch TV ALL WEEK." I was so embarrassed as to be mortified, not only had I done this, but that Sam had told everyone. Eric turned to me and said, "Well, that sounds like a real world example of parenting to me."

We went to Starbucks for breakfast this morning, my place having a dearth of cereal or other food at the moment.

"Let me know what you want for breakfast."

He looks.

"Can I have the brownie?" he asks.

"This will either make me the best or the worst aunt ever."

"Yep."

He had the brownie for breakfast.

So, the first lesson Jackson has learned about what this week could hold, and it might just become the most frustrating for him.

While I'm a big fan of learning and teaching,, I'm not a big fan of just answering questions if I can lead someone to the answer or if someone could figure out the answer with a little effort. That whole being resourceful thing that Kris espouses so much.

I know that I was always frustrated when Dad said, "Look it up!" after I asked him a question, but, yeah, I learned better because of his approach (though, in retrospect, he may have said that because he didn't know the answer).

So, when he asked, "Are those live fish?" when we were still at the airport, I said, "Let's look."

On the way home from TXJS, I stopped on the way through Phoenix. I do that a lot, but this time wasn't to visit Mom, it was to pick up Jackson!

Some time between last year and about three months ago, Jackson asked why Sam keeps heading out to visit me each summer and he doesn't visit me. It's interesting that was how it worked out, though. I didn't know that Jackson wanted to come out, and was just sorta going along with the flow and planning for Sam. It's kinda fun that Jackson wanted to come out, I haven't really spent time with him, don't really know him except as Sam's little brother.

After lunch today, as Mom and I were walking back to the Museum, she asked if I would mind a detour, she wanted to show me something. No, I didn't mind; sure, let's see what it is.

We walked to a house that was converted to a restaurant, walked up the porch and to a large ficus on the far side of the building. Mom commented, "Yeah, last time I was here, a hummingbird kept dive bombing me. I didn't understand why until a mom came up and asked if we would mind if she let her son take pictures. We looked up and saw the nest. At that point, you couldn't even see their beaks over the edge of the nest."

The baby birds were about 3 cm long, and just sat there as I shoved the camera up their beaks.