TTT - Z's, Bless-You Boxes, and Milk Supply - Oh, My!

It's been a long time--too long--since I did a Tiny Talk Tuesday post. That, however, hasn't stopped my boys from saying the sometimes silly, sometimes wise, sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious things that are prone to come forth from the mouths of little ones. I wish I had been more faithful during the past weeks to jot down the things they say, things like...

...David asking for pecans one evening while we were eating supper. There were no pecans on the table and none in any food we were eating, so I was a little confused about his reason for asking for them. He knows that we don't treat our kitchen like a restaurant, with everyone free to order whatever they want to eat. We did have some pecans downstairs in the freezer in the garage, but I didn't plan to rush right down there and get some for him--at least, not until he ate everything on his plate. My confusion disappeared when he said, "Pecans! Like in the salad!" and gestured to the salad bowl in the center of the table. Aha! You mean CROUTONS, David Dear! And yes, you may have some. :)

...David saying a little wistfully one evening over supper as he was anticipating his soon-coming bath, "I wish Grandma and Grandpa could have a bath." The thought of my parents crowded into the bathtub with all of my boys made me giggle, but I laughed even harder when I saw the picture David drew of Grandma and Grandpa in the bathtub. He only put the two of them in it, and they were facing each other and had big smiles on their faces. I wish I could have taken a picture of it to post here, but his stick figures were much too anatomically correct to be shown here. That boy loves to crack us all up, and he certainly succeeded that night!

...David declaring with determination, "I'll never write 'Z's' all over everything again!" If you remember the infamous Zorro incident, you'll know why this was such a relief to me. :) Whew, at least he's learned that particular lesson well!

...Josiah telling me about a piece he had been playing on the piano. That day, he had been practicing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb," so I guess it was no surprise that when he opened his mouth to announce the song, he jumbled it and it came out, "Jesus Had a Little Lamb"!

...Josiah discussing what we should do when we sneeze. I was reminding the boys that they should aim into their elbow to catch the germs, rather than letting their sneeze spray out into the room or even sneezing into their hands. Josiah piped up and said, "What we need is a Bless-You Box!"

...Josiah announcing earnestly one evening, "When I grow up, I don't want to have too many electric things." Earlier that day, he had been playing outside with "the girls" (our next-door neighbors who happen to be Old Order Mennonites), so I knew his statement was motivated by his admiration for them and desire to fit into their culture. I decided to just go with it though, so I said, "I'd like to live a simpler life, too! What do you think we could get rid of? What would you like to live without?" He hemmed and hawed and came up with TV (we don't have one) and video games (don't have them either...not an X-Box, a Wii, a PlayStation, or even an old Atari). I could tell he was really searching his brain to find something to say. He quickly looked around the kitchen, saw my trusty ol' crockpot on the counter, and said, "The crockpot! We could get rid of that!" :)

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Since I'm on the subject of humorous conversation, I have to write down something that happened tonight during supper because in years to come, I know I'll need to read this and laugh all over again, even though it's slightly humiliating. This particular conversation didn't involve any of my sons, just my dad and I.

Out of the blue, I heard Dad ask me, "How's your milk supply?" I was a little surprised and puzzled, but I didn't hesitate long before saying, "Uh, it's fine. I haven't been pumping recently, but..." And then it dawned on me. Dad was NOT inquiring about how many ounces of breast milk I've been producing recently. No, not at all. Instead, he was simply wondering if we had enough milk--cow's milk--to last through this next snowstorm; and if not, should we go get milk tonight? My answer caught him as off-guard as his question caught me! The worst part of it was that we had a guest here for supper. Kevin, the painter, was sharing our meal of Santa Fe Chicken Soup, so he got to hear this nice little exchange. I was SO embarrassed! I immediately threw my apron up over my face, not only to hide my flamin' beet-red color, but also because I was laughing so hard I was crying. I definitely should have been "slower to speak" in response to that particular question, at least until I understood what my dad was actually asking me!! :)

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Check out Mary at Not Before 7 for more Tiny Talk Tuesday.