The Nickname

Katie asked me, "Which is my real name, Katie or Katherine?"  I explained that her official name was "Katherine", but her nickname, the name that everyone calls her, is "Katie".  She thought about it and said, "What is Danny's real name?"  I told her, "It's Daniel."  Seeing where she was going, I continued, "James doesn't really have a nickname, but we do call him 'Jamsie' sometimes".  She then asked, "Why doesn't James have a nickname?" 
"Not everyone has a nickname," I replied, "Some people are just called by their given names. I don't really have a nickname either."  After hearing that, she said, in a matter of fact tone, 
"Yes you do.  Your real name is 'Mommy' but your nickname is 'Nancy'." (5/3/11)

The Mini Pants

I picked up the boys from school on one of the first warm days in months and I commented on how nice the weather was. James said, " I know, some kids even wore those, um, those, you know, mini pants...those pants that are small." Puzzled about this latest fashion, I asked, "Are they like shorts?" James shouted, "Shorts! That's what I meant! Shorts! I forgot what they were called."  It really HAS been a long winter!  (3/17/11)

The Tooth

While eating lunch, the dental inlay of my tooth came out leaving me with a sensitive spot in my mouth.  Later, Danny asked me how my tooth was feeling.  Unaware of the situation, Katie immediately asked, "What happened to your tooth?"  I told her, "A part of my tooth fell out today." Just having lost two teeth the previous day, she excitedly shouted, "Yay! Just like me!  Are you excited? Now the toothfairy is going to visit YOU tonight!" (4/20/11)

Average

Danny, my beloved child who proudly strives to do the minimum required work with any task, thought he was giving Tom and me a compliment when he said, "Mom, as far as parenting skills go, you and Dad are average."  The look on my face must've told him that I didn't receive it as a compliment so he quickly clarified his statement by saying, "Average is good, Mom, isn't it? It's good to be average."  Taking a moment to compose my thoughts, I said, "Danny, average is not bad but it is also not great.  It's squeaking by.  A person should strive to be more than just average in what they do.  You wouldn't want an average doctor, or an average teacher.  You want excellence from people. By calling someone's skills 'average', it actually means 'inferior' a lot of the time."  I could tell that he took my words to heart, understood what I was trying to say, and he simply responded, "Oh." 
Then I said, "Dan, you know that you, James and Katie are the most important people in the world to us and we would be very unhappy and would be doing you an injustice if we had only 'average' parenting skills."  He said, "Oh.  I really didn't mean it that way."
After retracting his previous  statement, he reissued it with, "Mom,  your parenting skills are definately better than average. "
I simply said, "Thank you, Dan, that means alot to me." For in his mind, that truly is high praise. (4/19/11)

The Heat

Danny, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, said to me, "Mom, you HAVE to put the heat on. I'm freezing every morning."  I immediately replied, "No, YOU need to put on warm pajamas with long sleeves...or ANY pajamas for that matter." Without missing a beat, he said, "Seriously Mom. We need the heat on. This isn't the 1970s." (10/15/10)

Hocus Pocus

Katie and I were at the library when she remembered that there was a book she wanted to take home.  She said, "I need to find the Hocus Pocus book."  Having no clue what that was, I tried to get more information from her.  I asked, "What is the Hocus Pocus book?  Is that the name of the book? Is it a book about magic?"  Getting nothing more than, "It's about Hocus Pocus", I started with a title search, then moved on to the books on magic, and then walked her through the picture book section hoping she would remember where she saw it.  After 10 minutes of an unsuccessful book search, she glanced up at a special selection of books on top of the bookcase and yelled, "THERE IT IS!"  I looked over to see "Pocahontas" sitting among the Disney book selections. (4/12/11)

The Mansion

After returning from a family outing to get Italian ices, Danny, euphoric from the treat, was telling Tom and me about his future plans.  He said, "One day when I live in a mansion, I will have a special  room just for you two and it will have a hot tub and a private bathroom" (the latter being a top priority in his mind).  "It will even have TWO queen beds for you both!" which caused Tom and I to burst out laughing.   He continued, "But if you actually like sleeping in the same bed, I can make it a king size bed." Tom and I were very touched by his thoughtfulness and told him so.   Feeling extra generous, he added, "And I won't even charge you that much for rent." (4/9/11)