Sparks!

For Isaac, who was shocked at a story about his early flashes of brilliance. Here are a few early memories of your shining mind.

First I wanted to mention two very early things.

In the first you were about 18 to maybe 20 months old, that’s a toddler. You had started walking a few months before. Your favorite form of travel was me picking you up and carrying you around. You started to talk a couple of months before this. We were in the backyard at your Mom’s old house, I was carrying you. It was a beautiful evening with a royal blue sky and a big, nearly full moon. You pointed your tiny hand and said “Moon climbing up the sky…” In case you don’t get it that’s amazing. One night not long afterwards,  your mom was driving you home from day care and you were of course strapped in the back seat and said “The night is dark and lovely” You have your quirks my boy, but you have serious gifts too.

I suppose these range (randomly) from around age 4 to 9.

• You were a tiny thing in a car seat a you said “Dad why do some drivers have their lights on in day time” I said “Because tests show that that is safer with fewer accidents” without a beat you said “Then why are some people driving with them off?”
• The other day I said “Sometimes I wish life could be more interesting and surprising.” Isaac said “If you mean you’re tired of the same old thing all the time, I’m with you.”
• Streaming a very funny anime (Sgt. Frog.) on Netflix with Isaac. Isaac says: “Have you noticed that every anime has hot teenage girls in it?” me: “Um. yes.”
• The other day I was reading to Isaac and he looked up at me and said: “And the winner of the longest nose hair award is…my Dad.”
• Isaac: “Dad, where did crows eat before there were burger joints?”
• It was a beautiful warm spring-like day. Isaac and I went out to the beach, turning over rocks in the low tide zone, finding hundreds of little crabs. We picked up a few on our shovel and they tried to fight us. As we were leaving he said: “I guess we gave them some great stories to tell their grandchildren.”
• Isaac put refrigerator magnets together that said: “So I pounded an elaborate bitter goddess”. The apple doesn’t fall far from the goddamn tree.
• The other night Isaac started painting a big piece of Styrofoam all sorts of weird colors, with glitter here and there. He said he was making decorations for April Fools Day.
• I was reading to Isaac and he starting doing something annoying. I told him he was being annoying and he started whacking himself in the head. I said, “Hey, stop that!” He asked why and I said, “Because you are precious to me.” He said (as God is my witness) “I’m not precious, I’m just a grain of sand on an infinite beach.”
• Got a link to a video via email. All the kids in Isaac’s class are saying happy valentine’s day to a kid who just changed schools… 21 kids one after another saying “Happy valentines day Owen ” No sign of Isaac for a long time – suddenly annoying hands in front of the lens. And again. And again. Surprise, it’s Isaac. Finally Isaac’s face. He sings a little dramatic theme music. Isaac: (loudly) ” How many cows does it take to feed a fish?” Teacher: “Um…how many” Isaac: (with great satisfaction) “Zero!” The camera moves on.
• My quirky kiddo has always had more than his share of tics and verbal oddities…yesterday out of a clear blue sky he started rolling his Rs like a comic opera Spaniard.
• We’ve been watching a lot of old Warner Bros. cartoons and Isaac just came up to me and said in a perfect Bugs Bunny voice: ” I guess I shoulda toined left at Albuquoikie”
• Isaac at bedtime last night: “Would it be worse if nothing means anything or if everything means something?” Me: Go to sleep.
• As I was putting Isaac in the car to take him to school I said “Oh yeah, I forgot it was garbage day!” and Isaac said, “Yes, the day when we celebrate garbage!”
• Isaac: “I think that’s virtually impossible. But I might not say that if I knew what virtually meant.”

Isaac Poems (from around age 8)

Inside my heart –Isaac Miller:

Inside my heart, there are a thousand playful kittens,
27 ice cream trucks, and a play date with all my best friends.
I read all my favorite books.
I shake cherries from trees and everything is happy for me there.

Haiku Isaac Miller

The cats in the tree
like to watch the world go by.
Mice should watch their step.

Once I was –by Isaac Miller

Once I was a cow, Now I am ice cream.

Once I was a lake, Now I am a stream.

Once I was a metal, Now I am a sword.

Once I was a tree, Now I am a board.

Once I was an egg, Now I am a bird.

Once I was a letter, Now I am a word.