Art Linkletter would have liked my kids

While riding in the car today, the 7-year old said, "Mom, when Daddy drives us places, he teaches us all about how cars work.  We've learned about acceleration verses speed, gear shafts, odometers, and tachometers."

Then the 4-year old said to his sister, "While driving to school to pick you up the other day while Mommy was at the dentist, he told me how the engine operates."

Then I reminded them that today they will learn their memory work for the week so they need to pipe down in order to hear the memory work songs that were playing in the vehicle's CD player.

Next, I overheard the kids whispering to one another.  Joey said,  "Maybe Mom just doesn't know anything about cars that she can teach us."

At this point, I was trying to decide which embarrassing photo of him

to post on my blog as payback.  Let's see, how about this one?

Toothless grin @ 9 months old

His sister came to my defense by saying, "No, surely she knows something about cars because she was once an engineer, remember?  Besides, I think she had to take a driving class in school."

Thanks for the attempt at giving props, honorable Lucy, Queen of Narnia.

Costume by Grandma

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Having your kids repeat words you've said in the past can bring either shame or blessing. This week it brought a blessing. After receiving the world's best good night hug from my 4-year old, he said, "I'll always love you Mom...but never forget that God loves you even more."

For that sweet comment, I think I'll post a more dignified photo of the boy.

11 months old

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Joey's father gave him a much needed haircut this week right before our scheduled Mother/Son "Date Knight" at Chick-Fil-A.  When I told Joey about our evening plans, he asked, "What's a date?"  So, my goal for the evening was to demonstrate for him an example of a respectable, Christ honoring date.

My date for the "knight" before his haircut

After our medieval themed date (accessories compliments of CFA)

After our date, this sweet knight ran up to me and give me a great big hug.  While he was still in my arms, I muttered, "How could someone like me end up with such a sweet, lovable, cute little boy?"  

He replied, "Because Daddy gives me really nice haircuts, that's why."

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Art Linkletter loved children for both their honesty and their innocent mistakes.  So since this post is dedicated to him, I'm afraid I must include one more snippet that that will end this blog post on less dignified note.  Our right-brained daughter loves to write imaginative tales.  She is always writing and illustrating creative stories and poems, but she usually chooses to ignore all the grammar and spelling rules I have been trying to drill into her brain over the past few years.  At times, I have read her stories aloud using the punctuation and spelling she used rather than than what I know she intended to convey so that she can understand that proper spelling and grammar are required to effectively communicate through writing.

This week, she created a small book about horses. However, she misspelled the title.  Thankfully, she did not misspell the word "horses" to the point that it correctly spelled a different word, but the error did resemble a less respectable word enough for me to require her to make a new cover with correct spelling before giving the assignment to her teacher.  I did not tell her why the misspelling bothered me so much this time, however.

The reason I often post blog entries about the amusing things my kids say and do is because these types of posts make me smile.  The health benefits of smiling are numerous (read more here), and I really need those benefits, so expect these types of posts to continue.