Gears

Shelly came running in and complained that Elijah wouldn’t run more slowly. I have no idea what the game was supposed to be, but she told him to run slow. He ran in after her and said he couldn’t run that way.

I changed the subject and started talking about my car. “You know, when I’m shifting gears in my car, I start out slowly in gear one, then go a little faster in gear two, and keep going faster and shifting until I’m in gear five and that’s the FASTEST. Right?” She seemed to understand and nodded. “Well, Elijah only has one gear. Five. My car can’t go slowly in gear five, it would just quit. Elijah is the same, he only has one gear, and its FAST.” She claimed that she had like a thousand gears, and why wouldn’t he? I told her she’s more mature and has learned how to control her muscles, but he hasn’t learned that yet, he can’t help it. All this time, Elijah is running in and out of the room, he’s now picked up on the numbers and starts shouting, “I’m gear fourty-five!” All the while still running circles around us, out to another room and back again, never stopping once.

We followed that with a discussion of Shelly’s gears (she’s got ten), the number you’re in when you’re sleeping (zero), walking was classified as one. So guess what they’re doing right now? Running laps around the house, announcing numbers, trying to out-run each other and running off some energy before supper. Of course, once they fuel up, they’ll be off again at top speed, nothing can stop them!

Gear Ninety against Gear Eighty, GO!