A Green Egg Moment

Spicy corn quesadillas were on the menu. Usually, when we have them, Isabelle opts for a cheesy-cheesy quesadilla, which contains, of course, only cheese. The spicy corn recipe contains her most reviled food: onions. Carrie was out, so I asked Isabelle, "Would you like some corn in your quesadilla, too?" Yes she would.

I concocted a new quesadilla, much like the spicy corn recipe, but without onions or cayenne. Just as I was about to serve them, "No! I want a cheesy quesadilla!" Nothing for it, I fried up one more with just cheese.

She gobbled up her cheesy-cheesy, and was thinking about more, when I cut of a big piece of cheesy-corny and said, "Just taste this and tell me if it's too yucky to eat."

Chew. "It is! It's yucky!" Frown.

"Okay. Thank you for trying it. Just chew it up."

Chew-chew. Suddenly her eyes snap wide open in surprise. "I do! I like this!"

"You want more?"

"Yes."

On the meaning of science

Isabelle and I were talking about pine cones, and the difference between green pine cones and brown pine cones. I told her that pine cones held the seeds of pine trees, and that “scientists calls them ‘cone-bearing trees.’”

“Dad,” she told me. “A scientist, science is telling things with your hands, and not your mouth.”

Maybe a surprise to Aristotle, but I thought it had some merit. Don’t just say it’s true, show that it’s true. I told her I would tell her Uncle Bruce, because he is a scientist.

“Really?” she asked. Then she told me how to say “tie your shoe” in sign language. I didn’t quite get the segue, but that’s not too rare with a 4 year-old.

I repeated her marvelous quote. “Science is telling things with your hands, and not your mouth.”

“Shh, Dad,” she said. “Use your hands.”

That was when I realized she had not, after all, defined a scientist, but rather a “silent-ist.”