Chats with Children

BEN

The other night Ben got into it with his mom over a 33 cent "sticky-hand" that was inadvertently given away to a child who does not reside in our home. After a while of stewing in his room I went in to see if I could stoke the flames a little bit. He got around to the point of accusing me of ALWAYS yelling at him. I told him that I have never yelled at him and that he has never heard me yell as I have never yelled at his mother, sister, or brother either. He did not believe me. So I yelled at him. He immediately crawled under his covers and Dandy bolted for the back door. "Fine!" he finally said, "Then you always talk to me in your dark voice!" Unfortunately, I can never use the argument that I have never yelled at him anymore. As for the sticky-hand... there is still one sitting on the floor of his bedroom that he has never noticed.

KALLIE

I was talking to Kallie in bed as she went to sleep one night and I asked her what her favorite part of the day was. "Playing with G" she replied.

"What was your least favorite part of the day?" I asked.

"I told you! Playing with G," she replied.

"No Kallie, 'least favorite' means 'worst'," I explained.

Once we got through that clarification I talked to her about what she learned in Sunday School. She told me it was about Joseph Smith. I asked her to expound.

"Oh, that they didn't have TV or computers, and he couldn't go to the store to buy all their food so they ate their animals and things from their garden." She went on to clearly explain that she understood how life was like in the 1800's. Then she finally added, "and he read the bible!"

"Oh, what did he read in the bible?"
"Everything."
"What did the bible tell him to do?"
"To be righteous."
"Did it tell him to pray?"
"No."
"Hmmmm. What happened after he read the bible?"
"He got older."

Well, at least she's listening to the first half of the lessons...

ANDREW

I was talking to Katie on the phone at work one day when I hear Andrew in the background suddenly beggin his mommy to let him talk to me.

"Daddy, Daddy!"
"Hi Andrew, how's your day?"
"Good, um, are you at work?"
"Yes."
"Where's your keys?! At work?!"
"Yes, there at work with me."
"In your pocket?"
"Yep."
"You bring them home to me?!"

And the key fetish continues. He actually got a hold of my keys the other day. I finally had to ask him where they were.... hidden in his sister's pajama drawer where they would obviously be 'safe' of course! Andrew still doesn't know that safe is code for 'not where Andrew can find them'....