Hey, Legs!

Bizarre title, I know. But I think this is my new pet name for Eli (I haven't decided yet). The backstory:

On Thursday, one of my students, a particularly attitudinal, attention-seeking girl, asked how long I've been married [almost seven years] and then wanted to know, "Don't you get tired of him?" I was caught a little offguard, of course, because of the randomness of the question and what it had to do with lining up to go to lunch, but the co-teacher I have during that period jumped in and explained that she had been married for over 20 years and that no, she wasn't tired of her husband. The girl looked at me and said, "How do you still have things to talk about?"

How would we not?

What questions from a 12-year-old.

I told Eli about this later and his response was, "Do you ever get tired of your legs?" I thought this an odd response, so I asked him to explain this on-the-spot analogy. So (sorry, Legs, if I don't get this exactly verbatim) this is the gist of what he had to say:

Your legs are an integral part of you. Sometimes they hurt, sometimes they're painful, sometimes they go to sleep. But when any of these things happens, do you ever just say to yourself, "Man, I wish I didn't have legs!" No. You don't, because even though sometimes they don't feel brand new, they are still very important to how you function. They are a part of you that is necessary, even when they're having a bad day.

Eli is more eloquent than I will ever be, so that sounded a lot less WOW! in the recap than it did in its live debut. Nonetheless, it is so very true.

We then went on to talk about shared experiences (volunteering, Bible studies, family events) and responsibilities (Timmy, Coco, and Elsie) that keep up growing and changing and talking. It's also our independent experiences that provide fodder for our marital stability. For instance...

I had a meeting after church today and Eli sent me a text during it that merely said, "Poosplosion!!! Bath time..." which was later followed by a text that said, "Well, I can say this: she ate more peas than she dropped on the floor." He was, of course, referring to our jaunt to the Indian restaurant after the Auburn baseball games yesterday. We were served rice with peas in it, so we squished a few of them up and fed them to Elsie. She liked them a lot, but her pincer grasp is still developing the ability to handle rounded objects so we did pick up quite a few from the floor before we left. But this still elicited questions that couldn't be answered over text.

So, yes. We've been married almost seven years and here's our secret of longevity: we've made it this long by talking about poop. First Timmy's. Now Elsie's.

Cheers.