I will begin by inviting you to read my other Kid Funnies blog entries.  But for Flashback Friday I have some from my childhood and early early in my son's childhood.

My middle brother (I am the oldest and only girl) -

1. On vacation one year when we were in a sit-down restaurant for dinner where the food didn't arrive 2 minutes after we ordered - "They must have a slow cooker".  From there we got "fast cooker" and used these terms often as a family.
2. Trying to describe a memory without enough words and  told us it happened on "that great big long day".  None of us ever knew what he was referring to, but again, it became part of our family vernacular.

My youngest brother -

One Mother's Day we (my Dad) bought my mother a pair of tennis shoes from all the kids.  My youngest brother was maybe 3 or 4, not a good age for keeping secrets.  Even though my Dad wrapped it in the shoe box so it was obvious what it was, Mom asked in that Mom voice "I wonder what it could be" as she opened it.  Youngest bro answered, "It might be shoes..." but at the stern look from me and middle bro, quickly added, "...or it might be a candy bar."  Now, whenever there is a shoe box shaped present we joke that "it might be a candy bar."

Of course, since I am the oldest and it was really us kids who kept these funnies alive, there are none for me....so sad.

Now, here is one I remember periodically from my son just after he had learned some letters and gotten the idea that when you put letters together they make words.  We are fortunate to have two wonderful Christian music radio stations in our city.  One of them has the call letters in their tag line, "WJIE, Where Jesus is Exalted".  One day in the car after hearing this, S said "WJIE...that spells music".  The reason this was so funny to me is that I didn't even realize he knew that letters formed words....up to this point we had just played alphabet games.  He was probably around 3.

Samuel (4.5) was playing with eating supper tonight and making letters out of his garlic toast (this is something he started doing the first time we went to Arby's and got him curly fries - they make great j's and u's).  The conversation went something like this:

S - What does this look like?

Me - A piece of garlic toast?

S - No.

Me - A smile.

S - Nooooo.  It's a letter of the alphabet that starts with a "y".

Me - Oh, it's a "u" (which makes perfect sense because he knows that "you" starts with a "y")

S - Ok, (takes another bite), what is it now?

Me - I don't know

S - It's a letter of the alphabet that starts with an "e".

Me - (now I'm really laughing) It's an "L".

I don't know if this translates well on paper, but it was hilarious when it was happening and I'm laughing as I type this.

Samuel went carolling at a local senior "village" tonight with a small (maybe 7 or 8) other kids, ages 3-5.  They sang 3 songs:  Jesus Bells (sung to Jingle Bells), Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star (sung to...you guessed it! Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), and the most popular kid's Christmas "awww" song - Happy Birthday Jesus.  It was so cute.  Most of the kids kind of just stood there looking cute, a couple kids danced, and only two really sang loud enough to hear...Samuel and a little girl.  When I say Samuel "sang" loud though, what I meant is that he shouted the songs...you know what I'm talking about.  But what was so great was his facial expressions and body language when he shouted sang.  He was so serious about his singing.  I wish I had a camcorder, but I didn't even remember my camera.

Here's the funny part - later he told me that the Choir leader told him it was going to snow tomorrow and then I realized why he sang so loud.  What the leader actually said was "if you sing really loud MAYBE it will snow tomorrow."  Samuel was just doing his part to ensure a snow day!  Sad thing is, there's no snow in the forecast for tomorrow.

Edited on 12/15 - it's snowing today and Samuel is sure it's because he sang loud three days ago! 

Hubby took care of Samuel while I worked today.  I told him he probably needed a nap based on his sleep the last couple of days.  Hubby asked Samuel if he wanted a nap and of course, he said no.  That's the difference between our parenting styles.  I would have known Samuel needed a nap by the way he was acting and made him take one, no asking.  Oh, well, Hubby did do all the dishes today, so I guess he's forgiven!

So, around 6:15, Samuel just starts bawling and says he's so tired and he should have listened to Daddy.  He cries for about 25 minutes while I quick give him his bath and get him ready for bed.  Then we call Daddy and Samuel stops crying to tell him that he should have listened to him (I think those are words all parents need to hear some times).  I read about half of The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter and he is OUT.  Normally bedtime is 8:00.  I really hope this doesn't mess up sleep time tomorrow.

Even though this was kind of on the verge of a temper tantrum, I just couldn't help feeling sorry for him.  And I think he's learned his lesson, for a couple days at least

I woke up this morning at 6:00 am and the rest of the house sleeping peacefully.  Of course, as a woman, I immediately start thinking of everything I have to do today.  Even though the dinner is at my aunt's house, I am making the corn pudding and a dessert (a Layered Pumpkin Loaf recipe I found on another blog and modified to make my own...I almost always modify recipes to suit my family's needs and tastes).  So I start thinking that I have to take the cream cheese (for the dessert) out of the fridge to soften, and should I leave the corn pudding partially unbaked so it won't dry out when it's reheated at their house.  Then I start thinking of how yesterday, Little Guy said he wanted to stay home for Thanksgiving and eventually I got the reason from him....that he is scared of my aunt's new puppy, and I'm wondering if I can call her and ask her to keep the puppy up so I don't have a scared kids attached to my leg the whole day, but is that really fair to the puppy because we all know puppies think they are human and are part of the family.

(And for those who are worried #1 about my run on sentences and/or #2 that I haven't mentioned anything funny yet, please be patient...I am getting there)

Finally I start thinking of Thanksgiving past, which gave me this great memory to calm all those voices in my head.  Two years ago, I had Samuel in a two morning a week preschool class.  Sure they sent home a calendar of the color of the week or whatever, but I really didn't know what they were teaching him.  When we began gathering to the "grace circle" before eating, I told Samuel that we were going to say grace.  He started singing the ABC song.  We all thought this was hilarious, but then at the class Christmas party, the teacher led grace over the snack and sure enough it was sung to the the tune of the alphabet song (otherwise known as Twinkle Twinkle)!  It went like this, "ABCDEFG, Thank you God for feeding me." 

So, if you even have time to read this blog on Thanksgiving day and are finding yourself somewhat frazzled (or even saddened by a recent loss), try to remember something good in Thanksgiving past and let that ease your mind like it did mine.

One of the Charlotte Mason things I am working to implement is learning Folk Songs.  But I'm not real regular about it and I actually have expanded it to include exposure to other genres of music including bluegrass, jazz, and rock n'roll, as well as the classical she also recommends.

Anyway, probably a couple month ago, I checked out a book of folk poems from the library and flipped through and sang him the ones I knew tunes for.  He loved the Ants Go Marching and had me sing it all the way through probably 4 or 5 times before the book went back to the library.  Then I never heard about it again...until this morning.

He starts marching around singing it.  I asked him if he heard it somewhere else or just remembered it from when I sang it to him. he said just from me.  This has got to be at least 6 weeks ago!  Amazing.

So, here's the funny part - he gets to three and can't remember what is the rhyming line.  I have a horrible memory, so I don't remember either and we've been working on rhymes, so I tell him to just make up a line that rhymes with three.  I figure it'll be bump my knee or something like that.  Noooo...it's "the last one stops to go pee!"  I can't stop laughing even though I know I should.

So I (try to) calmly say, "why don't we try to find the real words on the computer?".  I googled "lyrics ants go marching" and found the words (climb a tree). 

Aren't kids funny and isn't the internet amazing?

My parents are always telling me they are amazed by how big Samuel's vocabulary is.  I say, I just read a lot to him.  He is always stopping me to ask what a particular word means and it really makes me have to think hard about how to explain a word in terms he will understand.  Anyway, I think it's funny some of the words he makes up so I thought I'd share a couple:

Combining klutz and clumsy - "Mommy, I'm being a clumz today" when he kept bumping into things.

"It's eighty-one o'clock, time for bed" - It was 8:05, but I haven't taught him how to read the minute hand, only the hour hand.

Pronunciation issue - "worm" for "warm", as in "it's worm outside today, I don't need a coat"

Mostly I love the fact that when I start fussing at him and he realizes he was wrong, he immediately says, "Mommy, I love you so much" and starts hugging and kissing me.  How can you stay mad at a child like that?

Samuel has been working on his calendar and has developed his own way to say yesterday, today and tomorrow - the last day, this day, and the next day.

Samuel usually spends Monday afternoons with my mother.  Today when I walked in the door, he started crying and threw himself in his Mommie Anne's arms; of course my feelings weren't hurt at all that he cried at seeing me! 

Later, he performed a magic trick, making a leaf disappear by throwing it behind his back with a flourish and an "abracadabra" and "tada!"

I have a friend at work who has grandchildren out of state she doesn't see often, so she likes to hear about my son and loves it when I bring him into work.  Often, I'll tell her a funny story Samuel said or did and she'll tell me to make sure I write it down in his book.  I don't know what book she thinks I have, but I always think I'll remember it and write it down later and of course I never do. 

Well, the same thing happened today, but this time I have a blog, so I think to myself "I'll write these funny things in my blog."  Of course, I am now at home with a free moment to write it down, but I don't remember what story I told!

I don't think anyone reads my blog, so I don't think I'm disappointing anyone but myself, but just in case, I write something that happened on the way to church tonight, that is not hilarious, but kind of cute.  I was complaining about it being hot in the car and Samuel said that I should have driven Daddy's car because he has cracks in his windows.  I said, "How did Daddy get cracks in his windows?" thinking maybe a rock had hit his window and getting mad he hadn't told me.  Then Samuel said he opened the windows a little bit....ahh, he "cracked" his windows open. 

I learn a lot from Samuel.