Party of Five
Rose: “Mom, how do you spell Latin?”
Jane, looking up from Sunflower Houses
Beanie: “Did you know O has a brother?”
Rose: “How do you spell Japanese?”
Beanie: “The brother of O is Q!”
Jane: ” ‘A state in the South and a one-year-old child…’ Virginia creeper!”
Rose: “How do you spell Gaelic?”
Wonderboy: “Mommy help!” (points at stacking cup under table)
Rose: “How do you spell Chinese?”
Jane: “Do you say PEEanee or peOHnee?”
Beanie: “Peony peony peony! I like that name.”
Rose: “How do you spell German?”
Wonderboy: “Mommy help!” (different cup, now under couch)
Baby: “Meep.”
Jane: ” ‘The child of a suffragette known in our land…’ I know about the suffragettes but I don’t know their children’s names.”
Beanie: (sings) “Oh we were sufferin’…until suff-er-age…not a woman here could vote no matter what age…”
Rose: “How do you spell Irish?”
Beanie: “Until the nineteenth a-somethin’ struck down that ra-structive rule….oh yeah!”
Jane: “Amendment.”
Wonderboy: “Mommy count!” (All stacking cups are now lined up in a row.)
Jane: ” ‘A pleasant expression, and one sharp-edged tool…’ The only thing left is smilax, which fits, but what is it?”
Wonderboy: “Ee! Oh! Eye!” (This is how one counts sans consonants.)
Beanie: “Peony. Penny. Penny Knocknutter. When I have a child I’m going to name her Penny Knocknutter.”
Baby: (noisily fills diaper)
Rose: “How do you spell…oh, no, wait, I know that one. G—R—E—E—K.”
Wonderboy: “Boom!”
(Intersperse responses from slightly dizzy mother as appropriate.)