You never know what it's going to be, but you know it's going to be something interesting. Here's the progression of tonight's convo:
Me: So guys, what's everyone's thankfuls?
We all proceed with our thankfuls. Then the obvious question..."Where's Dad?"
Me: He's at a late work meeting. He gets to eat Mexican food in an expensive restaurant while we get to eat pancakes for dinner.
Gavin: I hope these pancakes don't have globs in them.
Bennett: I hope they don't have pockets of baking soda.
Chloe: I hope they're cooked all the way through like Daddy's.
Me: It may come as a surprise to you that I made perfect pancakes this time. No globs or pockets of flour.
Everyone excitedly ate the fare I offered and even acknowledged that it didn't suck. I'm obviously not known for my breakfast food making. That's Chuck's department. And since he was noticeably absent today, the task fell to me. The conversation just progressed downhill rapidly from here.
Bennett: So, I have my math test tomorrow.
Gavin: What are you studying?
Bennett: Probability.
Gavin: Give me a problem.
The problem was given and he excitedly answered it. Then he turned it around on the rest of us.
Gavin: Mom, here's a probability problem for you. Say you have this bookshelf and you can only put seven books on it, right. How many different ways can you order the books?
Me: I don't like probability.
Gavin: But you do like books, right? So, how many different ways can you order the books?
I didn't have enough time to draw the problem out cuz that's just how my brain works...I have to see it - on paper. So, I threw out what I thought was a reasonable sounding answer: 49 different ways.
Gavin: Wrong. See you have 7 different slots, once you have the first book in the first slot, now you have 6 different options left and then 5 and so forth, right? So, the answer is 7 factorial which comes out to 5,040 different ways to arrange the books on a shelf. (He says this like he's talking about the weather outside - like it's obvious).
Me: hmmmm
Bennett: Mom...say you have two books, how many ways can you arrange them on a shelf?
Me: Bennett, that's the kind of problem I like!
Why must I be cursed to answer math word problems at dinner my entire life?! Why can't a mother eat in peace without math entering into the conversation just once?!
