The Wedding Dress

Katie and Danny were having a conversation about how one day Katie will get married.  Danny said to her, "You will have to wear a big white dress".  Katie, a bit distraught, replied, "But I don't have a big white dress".  Danny, not budging on his position, firmly stated, "Well, the girl HAS to wear a big white dress when she gets married."  Sensing that she was about to get upset, I intervened and said, " Katie, When you get married, Daddy and I will buy you the prettiest white dress ever".  Katie immediately perked up and shouted, "We can get it from Target!"  (10/17/10)

The Workout

With my days of packing only a towel and a sandwich for a day at the beach well behind me, I was dragging a cart loaded to the top with an umbrella, cooler, beach bag and a myriad of sand toys.  As we were leaving to go home, Katie and I had to walk through a football toss between two young guys playing by the ramp.  Seeing the huge load I was pulling, one of the guys commented, "That's quite a workout, huh?"  Before I could open my mouth to reply, Katie, holding only her Cinderella pail, answered, "Oh yes.  I have a LOT of shells in here." (6/9/11)

The White Man

Danny, who is quite the literal kid, watched The Simpsons movie and asked me, "Why does Mr. Burns say, 'for once, the rich white man is in control.'?"  After trying to explain the irony of the joke with a brief history lesson, he gave me a confused look and said, "But I still don't get why he said white man. Mr. Burns is yellow." (2/15/11)

The "I Love You" Responses

While driving the kids home from school I looked in my rearview mirror and was overcome with emotion.  I said, "I love you guys so much!"  In response to my outpouring of love, Danny said, "Thanks."  Katie said, "I know." And James said, "Wait.  Why are you telling us this right now?" (6/1/11)

A Bike Ride Conversation

James and I went out for a bike ride together and talked about many different things.  While riding home he asked me, "Would you be surprised if you saw me on an episode of House Hunters?"  Finding the question odd , I asked him, "Are you talking about now or when you're older?"  He replied, "I guess when I'm older."  "Well," I said, "I think I would be surprised if I didn't know you were moving out."  He then said, "Would you be upset?" 
I replied, " I know you're all going to move out one day, but I think I'll be a little sad because I love having you home and I'll miss you."  Being the sensitive kid that he is, he looked at me with such sincerity and said, "Don't worry, everyone else will move out, but I'll stay with you forever."  Then, after thinking about it for a moment, he revised his statement by saying, "Well, Danny and Katie will move out.  I'll  stay with you and so will Daddy.  Daddy HAS to stay.  He's forced to." (5/28/11)

The Macho Man

James was happily singing "Macho, macho man, I'd like to be a macho man".  With a slight giggle, I asked him, "Are you a macho man?" He replied with great seriousness, "Oh, no, that's only on Thursdays." (10/08/10)

The Naming of the Sons

Danny asked me, "Since we're Irish, do I have to give my kids Irish names?" I said, "No, you can name your child any type of name you like."  He then said, "Well, we have Irish names and all of our cousins have Irish names."  I replied, "Daddy and I liked more traditional names and your cousins do have Irish names, but you don't have to stick with tradition or your heritage when naming your child."  He said, "Good, because I want to name my son Armand, and that's a Spanish name." With a chuckle I said, "Armand is a very good name.  I like it. "  He then continued, "I am going to have four sons and name the first one Edmund (his grandfather's name), the second one Armand, my third son will be Danny the second, and the fourth will be Thomas."  I said, "Well, it's nice that you're going to name your last son after Daddy."  Danny said, with a bit of surprise, "Oh yeah.  I was actually thinking of my friend Thomas, but that'll work too." (5/24/11)