Kids say the darndest things...

I apologize that five out of the last ten of my posts have been "Kids say the darndest things...". I think I've been to busy to write anything more substantial. We left for vacation last Thursday and stopped in Atlanta to spend a couple nights with some dear friends, the Knoltes. We were friends with them for probably 4 years before we discovered their last name did not start with a K and by that point we had already started to fondly refer to them as the ka-noltes so the K remains on Christmas Cards and blog posts.

On the way to Atlanta, we try to ease the pain of the "are we there, yet?" question by giving D'arcy a map with the route highlighted and asked her to read the road signs to follow our progress. She seemed to do fairly well and announced to us as we entered Atlanta that Exit could be broken into two words, egg and zit. Huh?

Anyway, I shared this next story with my mother-in-law and she asked if I was going to share this one on the blog. It was embarrassing enough to begin with... but here goes. The Knoltes took us to the Martin Luther King Jr museum which was profound and inspiring and thought provoking. We were in the room with pictures and memorabilia from MLK's death and funeral. There was a floral cross which also contained some vines, you know, a very large arrangement that would stand beside a casket. Schroeder came into the room and immediately said "He's gone." when he saw the cross. I'm guessing he was referring to Jesus. Then he said something horrifying but in reference to the vines on the cross. He said, "it's a monkey. hoo hoo ha ha." Um...what? Everyone in the room is appropriately somber and thoughtful about this very sensitive topic and, I'm sorry, what did you say?

Kids say the darndest things...

D'arcy: "Mom, one of my friends at school's dad lost his job so I gave my friend one of your business cards to give to her dad."

Me: "Ummmm...why? So I could give him a job?"

D'arcy: "Yeah."

Kids say the darndest things...

I've been taking the babies to The Indianapolis Children's Museum a morning or two a week. It's a great opportunity just to focus on them at this sweet age while the older kids are busy being schooled. Normally we just hang in the playscape, but this morning I took them to the frog exhibit. I guess Schroeder needs some schooling of his own because he struggled to tell me what animal we were looking at. At first he called them bugs. Then he really focused and noticed the quality that really defines them, their webbed feet. Then he shouts out, "It's Spiderman!"

Kids say the darndest things...

I asked D'arcy yesterday if she would prefer to have a female or a male teacher. Last year she had a male. She told me she would prefer a female. I asked why and she said, "Women are just more confident."

Kids say the darndest things...

My mother-in-law, Dianne, firmly announced that this little story should make it on the blog so here goes...
We take eating seriously in our family. Kids must eat everything being served at the dinner table. They are given an appropriate portion and they are expected to eat it all. Tonight, we had hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob, cucumber and tomato salad, and potato salad. My kids are not big fans of potato salad, but they have long since learned that it doesn't matter, they are still having some.
There is also something called "Daddy tax" in our household. Daddy (or on occasion, Mommy) has the right to take a portion of our child's food. Can you see where this is headed? Daddy tax is something our children normally dislike as they don't typically like the idea of sharing their dessert.
Tonight, though, our clever son wanted more corn on the cob but was told he must finish his potato salad. He looked at his father very innocently and said, "Daddy, don't you need to take a Daddy tax."

Kids say the darndest things

D'arcy was trying to get Julian to do something this morning. As a bargaining tool, she said, "Julian you can call me silly for three days." Keep in mind that calling D'arcy does not consider herself silly and does not like to be called this for any reason. To my surprise, Julian actually bought into this deal.

D'arcy has lso been trying to come to grips with her daddy's uniqueness. "Mom, why doesn't daddy where a tie to work like every other daddy?" I wanted to tell her that the bigger question is why doesn't daddy wear socks to work. She also asked, "Mom, why doesn't daddy read the paper in the morning at the table?" I explained that daddy is "high tech" and that unless lifehacker.com starts putting their articles exclusively in a daily newspaper this wasn't going to change anytime soon.

Kids say the darndest things...

"I wrote a sad song today because Benjamin said he wouldn't play with me." --Dramatic little D'arcy Edith

Kids say the darndest things...

D'arcy brought her pram stroller over to Grammy's house after receiving it from Grandma Clark on Christmas Eve. She showed it to Grammy and preceeded to tell Grammy that this was "one of her dreams come true!"

Tonight, the kids were in their room playing dress up. Julian was adamantly searching for his Woody costume. I told him it was in the dirty clothes, but both D'arcy and Julian said they couldn't find it. I told them they needed to look harder. D'arcy finally found it to Julian's great joy, and she says, "Julian, isn't it wonderful to have a big sister around who can help you find things and teach you things." Julian eagerly agrees as he pulls on his costume.

Kids say the darndest things...

Julian says, "My foot won't walk!" He was suggesting that his foot was asleep.

Julian said, "Mom, I hurt my finger." I say, "On what?" Julian says, "On my hand!"