Excuse Me While I Brag About My Children For Just A Moment

This is the dialogue M wrote about Grant Wood's American Gothic for an exercise on observation and asking questions in her ACE class:

Passerby: Matilda, why are you wearing a cameo pin?
Matilda: Well, it was my dear deceased mother's. So when Mr. Wood came by and painted the picture it felt like mother was with us.
Passerby: Harry, why are you wearing overalls?
Harry: Well, I thought overalls really portrayed America and the rural farming country.
Passerby: Matilda, why is your hair falling down?
Matilda: Well, it shows no one's perfect.
Harry: Actually, it fell down because we were standing for so long.

She is also almost done reading Jacque Pepin's autobiography.

Meanwhile, E is waxing mathematical. M was trying to figure out what half a tablespoon was, because she was making half a recipe of pancakes. I told her a tablespoon was three teaspoons. She puzzled. The listening E announced that half a tablespoon was one and a half teaspoons. M skulked back to the kitchen. E crowed, "I'm better at math than M!"

Now back to your regularly scheduled mocking deprecation of self and others.