Where do they get this stuff??

When do funny kids become boring adults?? Clearly, this DOES happen. There are many more funny kids than there are funny adults. So, where do you think the great little person personality goes when it turns into a boring, uninteresting big person?

The stuff that comes out of my kids' mouths astonishes me. I suppose I should count myself fortunate that through either sheer luck, coincidence, or maybe some decent parenting, my kids' humor is still pretty clean.

Still, their sense of humor amazes me. I don't even think they know they are funny, which, in turn, makes them twice as funny. Half the time, it isn't so much what they are saying as much as it is that they are saying it at all which makes it so funny. Allow me to explain...

One of my favorite "Aidan stories" happened a few months ago...it was 5:30 am on a Monday morning. Anyone who knows me, knows I can't tie my shoes at that hour, let alone be an effective parent. Yet, I persist to try - even at that hour. We had had a typical "birthday party from hell weekend" - 4 in one weekend. This weekend yielded hundreds of miles on my car (which just kills me these days as I watch my gas gauge go down!), and FOUR GOODIE BAGS filled with pounds of sugar - quite literally. So, picture it - there I am - 5:30 am - attempting to find my face enough to put makeup on. Down the stairs runs my beautiful little boy who DID NOT inherit my love of sleeping. I try not to punish him for my inability to be awake at this hour. He prods me about having candy. "Can I have this?", "How about this?", "This would be yummy." I muster all the patience within me and continue to tell him, "Maybe after dinner." He finally looks at me and dejectedly says, "Ya know Mom, I don't think you're funny and no one else thinks you're funny either!" I find myself kneeling next to him saying, "Aidan, everyone thinks I'm funny!!!" As if I am having an out of body experience, I suddenly have a birds-eye view of this scene and am consumed with the overwhelming feeling that I should "get a grip!!"

Last week, CJ and I were talking on the cell phone. Aidan was with CJ. We lost reception and CJ was saying, "hello? hello? (can you hear me now??)" to which my precocious son replied, "maybe she hung up. Maybe she just didn't want to hear it anymore!" I'm starting to think my son knows things that I don't....

Kayleigh is a delight unto herself and is embodying the pre-pre-teen movement! I keep saying, "She's 5!!!!! WHAT are we doing talking about this??? A few days ago, she brought me a spiral-bound notebook the other day to show me a picture she had drawn. I started to gently flip through the pages in the book. She screams, "NNNoooooooooooo!" and snatches the book from my hands. "That's MY DIARY mom and it is PRIVATE!" WHAT? I think. WHAT? How did we get here so fast? Don't I have at least 7 more years before things are PRIVATE? I crack a smile and hand the book to her - ever so curious about what a 5 year old considers "private", but determined to model my respect for her so-called "privacy". Minutes later, she has clearly forgotten this exchange, because she is eager to whisper her secret diary entry to me. She flips to the now famous page and I read about a boy. This is the boy that she has been close to for a year - and the feelings are mutual, on and off. She writes, "_____ and I are best friends. We used to be in love. I don't know if we still are. Do you?" WHAT??? WHAT??? Who is this old soul in my 5 year old's body and why do I feel like I am having an asthma attack?? HEE HEE
This is not the first note about this boy. I have an entire legal pad of love letters she wrote to him - most said, "I don't want to lose you"...the week before she shared with me that he used to love her, but now he loved _____. She told me that this girl was "younger". YOUNGER?? THAN WHAT?? You're 5. You're FIVE!!!!! Where does she get this and how did we get here? I don't know whether to laugh or cry, so I laugh. It is moments like these that I am smacked with the fact that it doesn't just seem like time flies, it TRULY does fly. Soon, the boy from the legal pad notes will be the boy standing on my doorstep, asking to see my dear daughter. Laugh or cry?? Maybe both... I am convinced it won't be long before she says something that causes CJ to fall to the floor and not get up for awhile...

In the meantime, we breath, and laugh, and breath some more and savor the 5 year-old "romance" that is a manifestation of my daughter's beautiful heart . It is funny, though. I have come to the realization that my kids are funnier than most boring adults - thank God for laughter....