Irish Pride

The Irish are well known, as a people, to be especially proud of their heritage.  Tom, being the son of 2 Irish parents, and I, being the daughter of an Irish mother who would dress herself in head to toe green every St. Patrick's Day with a rather large "Kiss Me I'm Irish" pin adorning her sweater and a funny looking hat to match, are quite familiar with this pride.  Danny, James and Katie would often have lengthy discussions about being Irish.  Whenever they would ask me about my heritage , I would tell them that my mother's parents emigrated from Ireland and my father's parents emigrated from Austria.  They would almost always refer to me as  Australian, and  Tom would explain to them that Austria is a country with Germanic people, and although my grandparents came from Austria, they were German.  One of the kids would then inevitably say, "I didn't know Australians were German" or "Why didn't you just say you were German?" .   They would occasionally bring up this topic and the same question would be asked and answered repeatedly.
     One day I overheard the tail end of one of their "being Irish" discussions.  Danny was in mid sentence when I heard him say, "...but Mom is only half  Irish."  James then asked, "What else is she, again?"  Danny replied, "German or something...I just know that she isn't as Irish as the rest of us."  I'm not sure what was said in the first part of the conversation, but I am pretty sure I should feel insulted.   

The Christmas List

To quash my pre Christmas shopping anxiety, I asked the kids to start their Christmas wish lists.   I looked over Katie's list and saw that the first item listed was a Toys R Us gift card.  (11/10/13

The Vocabulary Lesson

James has always been very studious and takes his homework seriously.  During one of his 5th grade vocabulary lessons, his teacher told the class that they should try to start incorporating their vocabulary words into everyday conversation.   Taking a bite of his dinner,  James reported, "This doesn't taste like the regular chicken burger".  I replied, "It's  homemade with the lean chicken.  Do you like it?"  James hesitated and said, "I like the other one better."  To quickly spare my feelings he added, "It's not that this one is bad, it's just insipid."   That's the problem with having a smart kid.  He can insult my cooking with intelligence.  (9/24/13)

The Radio Commercial

I was driving James and Katie home from school when the infamous "Cars for Kids" commercial came on the radio.  "1-877 cars for kids; K-A-R-S, CARS FOR KIIIIDS!" After singing the chorus several times, Katie and James began discussing the merits of the commercial.  While they both praised the song, James said, "If you really think about it, it's  kind of a dumb commercial.  Who is going to donate their car to a kid?  Kids can't even drive!" (9/3/2013)

The Raisin Bran Request

One morning, while perusing through the vast number of cereal boxes in the cabinet, Danny said to me, "Mom, can you buy Raisin Bran?"  I turned around to see a brand new box sitting right in his view.  Pointing it out, I said, "It's right there in the cabinet".   He said, "No, I mean the good kind." 
"That is the good kind!"
"No.  The other one has less raisins in it."
"You mean you want less raisins?"
"Yes," he replied, " I don't really like raisins" (9/4/13)

The Truth

 James told me that he was working on a special  card for Tom's birthday.  He said, "I'm making an acrostic poem on the front."  I said, "Wow, that's a great idea.  Dad will love that. Are you using the word 'Dad' for the poem?"  He said, "No, I'm using 'Father' because it's longer and has lots of different letters."  He paused and said, "For the 'A'  I wrote 'Awesome.'  And for the 'E' I wrote 'Expert on Everything'.  Oh! and for the 'H' I wrote 'Helpful in Every Way'.  I can't remember what I wrote for the other letters. "   I commented on how nice that was, and jokingly asked, "For the 'F' did you write 'Farts A Lot'?"
Taking me seriously, and clearly offended, James chastised me and said, "Moooooom!!! No! Of course not!  That's not nice! I'm  writing things that are going to make him feel good!  I'm not going to write the truth!!"  (5/11/13)

Days of Yore

Katie was writing her name and the date on her homework when I heard her sigh and say, "I miss the old days."  I asked her, "What do you consider the old days?"  She replied, "2012."  (2/21/13)

Would You Rather...

After James spent the afternoon asking his sister "would you rather" questions, Katie eventually fell asleep on the couch and James then directed his odd questions to me.
"Mom, would you rather have a disco room, own a Dunkin' Donuts, or have a talking golf ball?"           
 I said, "I guess I'd pick the Dunkin' Donuts".  
"Would you rather own Disney World, own Hershey Park, or own a hat that says 'Foxy Grandpa'?" 
 "I'll pick Hershey Park"  
 "Would you rather own a private jet, a rocket ship, or a 1000 bottles of milk?"
 "Private jet".
"Would you rather own a new hot rod, a monster truck, or an exploding pineapple?"   
"I"ll take the exploding pineapple"
He abruptly stopped and sternly said, "Mom! Really?!  You can pick a hot rod or a monster truck,  and you're saying you'd REALLY pick the exploding pineapple?!  I'm not going to do this anymore if you're not going to take it seriously!"
(2/1/13)

Casual Conversation

Our family recently went upstate to enjoy some winter fun in the snow.  While Tom and Danny went skiing, James, Katie and I decided to stay behind and wait to go snow tubing later. Katie and James were happily playing together in the other room when I heard an excerpt of their conversation:
James: "What last name would you rather have: Butt, Butt face, or Pooing Butt-face?"
Katie: "Butt."
James: "What last name would you want the least out of those names?"
Katie: "Pooing Butt-face "
James: "Good choices. That's what I'd pick too."
(2/1/13)

Diplomacy

     On the ride home from school, Danny asked me, "Mom, you know how countries can be hostile, neutral or pacifists?" I said, "Yes."  He continued, "And you know how a hostile nation is one that attacks other countries first, and a neutral nation doesn't attack, but will defend themselves if they're attacked, and pacifist nations only want peace?"  I said with a laugh, "I guess you paid attention in school today."  He said, "Well, I was thinking.  James, Katie and I are like countries.  James is a pacifist country, because if you hit him or do something to him, he never hits back.  He just runs and tells you about it.  Katie is the neutral country because she doesn't really hit you first, but if you hit her, even  by accident, she'll go crazy on you and attack you really bad.  And I'm definitely a hostile nation, because I  always attack James and Katie."  After one Social Studies lesson, Danny was able to give me the abridged version of 10 years of sibling diplomacy. (2/14/13)