The man in the tree

Today on my walk with the kids we saw a man in a tree.  He had a purpose to be in that tree…. he wasn’t just hanging out eating bananas or spying on his neighbor or anything.  Apparently there was a rogue branch that needed to be taken out.  This man was up HIGH in a tree.  If only I was good with being able to look at something and tell you exactly how high something was, like in feet, you would be impressed.  Since I am NOT good at being able to guess how many feet high something is, don’t make me figure out the math, just be impressed when I tell you this man was in the tree DANG high.  Like, you could die if you fell from that kind of height , high.  Like, only birds and squirrels are hanging up there, kind of high.  Okay, so he was up high.  I was impressed (as you should now be, too).   This isn’t an everyday occurrence (at least not in my neighborhood… I guess it could be an everyday occurrence in some neighborhoods, like, where do those cirque de soleil folks live?) so I stopped the stroller and told all the kids to look at the man in the tree.  When you tell a 6, 4, and 1 year old, “look at the man in the tree” they don’t really have any reference point in their brain for that particular request.  They look at the man in the yard standing NEXT to the tree… they look at the man in the yard standing next to the big stump that USED to be a tree…. But they don’t really look UP in the tree for the man.  They know that only monkeys live way up in trees.  We had to stand there for a good 3 minutes while I tried to explain exactly where this strange “tree man” was.  It was hilarious.  I love the ignorance (or should I say innocence…. that would sound sweeter) of a kid.  There is just so much stuff they don’t know yet.  Parents are supposed to teach them all this stuff… but we can get a little enjoyment out of the fact that they just don’t get it, too…. and so I did.  I had myself a little giggle and then kept giving them reference points until they really did get their little eyeballs all the way up that tree to see this mysterious man standing there.  In a tree. Wow.  The rest of the walk was asking questions about why, how, what was he doing, etc.  That is a good, fun, time for a mom.  Teaching your kids why men stand in trees.  I don’t always enjoy the questions but sometimes I really, really do…….. it’s a process.