ON TORNADOES

When we are driving in the car the kids usually get antsy and bored, yelling out "how much longer?" Or "When are we going to be there, it is taking forever!" I am sure if you are a parent, you have been blessed with hearing these sorts of things too while in the car, and know how irritating it can be.

So I usually come up with something to keep them entertained when I begin to see those I-am-going-to-start-complaining looks come across their faces. My entertainment usually consists of dancing silly in my seat and singing along to the music that is playing, or making funny faces in my rear view mirror so that the kids can see, or asking about their day at school.... You know, anything to keep them occupied. Sometimes I am lucky enough to not have to come up with something to ward of the complaining, as they end up distracting themselves with a topic of conversation. Yesterday was one of these days, and Lucas was the one to come up with the topic.

"Hey, Mom? What's a tornado?"

"It's a really big funnel of wind that swirls around really, really fast in the air."

"Does it break things?"

"Yes, it does. It breaks pretty much everything in it's path."

"Can it break a tree?"

"Yes, it can rip a tree right out of the ground and suck it up into the funnel."

I could tell both Ava and Lucas found this really cool by the looks on their faces. Anthony just seemed bored with the conversation, and Liv spent her time simply looking out the window. Whatever the case, Ava and Lucas were entertained by this conversation, so I decided to keep going with it.

"Isn't that crazy how strong a tornado is?"

"Can it lift that [pointing to a water tower] right of the ground?"

"Yes."

"How about a house, can it lift a house right off of the ground?"

"Yes."

"Can it lift the roof right off too?"

"Sure can. Tornadoes are so strong they can lift cars, bikes, houses, water towers, trees, pretty much anything you can think of off of the ground."

[laughing with excitement] "Wow!"

Ava was listening intently this whole time, but really did not have much to say until now:

[very seriously] "Hey Mom? Can Daddy lift a whole house and the roof off of the ground."

"Oh, no Honey. Daddy is not that strong, no one is that strong. Only a tornado can do something like that."

[under her breath] "Darn it. That would have been so cool."