A Week of Laughs

Sometimes I wonder where my child comes up with the things he says.  His TV is pretty limited to 1 or 2 PBS shows and an occasional Disney movie.  He listens to church songs and Johnny Cash on his CD player.  He doesn't hang around other kids much.  Yet he constantly amazes me and makes me laugh by coming up with the funniest things.  Here are my favorites from this week:

 "Boom, kaboom crash!"  My son has been saying this phrase for the past week in his loudest voice he can find.  He said it to the lady at the haircut place, he screamed it in the grocery store, he yelled it while watching a ballgame on TV, he repeated it over and over again in the car.  He informed me that when he does this he's being "fireworks."  He also informed me that fireworks are his favorite "light source." (His words, not mine.) This newest obsession with fireworks really makes me laugh.  And as far as fireworks being a light source, I'm pretty speechless about that.

It seems I have created a monster--a shoe monster.  My son insists that we visit the shoe section when we go to stores.  He loves to try on shoes to see if I like them.  I guess he knows that I like shoes, and he wants to impress me with his selection.  I must have gushed and clapped for him at some point when he picked out a good pair, because now he finds me shoes all the time.  This week I took the boys to one of my favorites stores so that I could find a pair of shoes to match my new dress.  And as I was trying on various heels, my little helper was also trying on a variety of shoes.  At one point he walked up to me wearing this hideous pair of black clogs and asked, "what do you think Mommy?"  Naturally I replied that I didn't like that pair of shoes.  This response apparently shocked him.  And he said, "You don't?  Oh, I'm sorry Mommy."  Then he immediately took off the clogs and tried on some leopard print high heels.  We both agreed that he had struck gold.

Yesterday we decided to try something completely new.  So we took my parents and the kiddos up to the Plano hot air balloon festival.  (I wouldn't recommend this event to anyone.)  But anyway, on our hour long trip to Plano, my parents started this game where the boys had to either duck their heads every time we drove under a bridge, or they had to raise their hands in the air to hold the bridge up.  My oldest elected to "duck" under each overpass--and there are dozens of overpasses between my house and Plano.  So every time we drove under the bridge, we'd all duck and cover our heads and he would say, "quack, quack, quack."  Hey, at least he knows his animals.  

This week I was reminded that parenting can be so much fun.  There are plenty of days when I just want to wear ear plugs and hide in the closet with a bowl of ice cream.  But there are even more days when I just want to sit on the couch and laugh with my kiddos.  This past week was a good reminder that if I'm willing to listen and pay attention, my little ones will blow my mind with the cute and smart things they say.