In Which I Discuss Parenthood....

There are some pretty wonderful things about being a parent. But far and away my favorite thing is hearing the things kids say. Girl recently started saying "That was totally wicked" which is a line in The Incredibles. The difference is, whenever she says it, she says "That was totally wick-el-ed!" which makes us crack-up and leads to her saying it 500 more times, but guess what, I still haven't gotten sick of it. She has also paired it with another of her favorite sayings from Finding Nemo so it comes out like "Sweet, totally wick-el-ed!" But least you think my daughter only repeats things she saw in movies I will tell you that Boy taught her what has become her favorite joke: "Your epidermis is showing!" She says it perfectly though I am not sure she has any clue what it means. Another favorite thing she does is throws her arms up and says "Yeah! Woo-hoo (insert activity here)" for instance she'll say "Yeah! Woo-hoo! Tumbling!" when it's time to go to tumbling. She also scrunches up her eyes and the effect is pretty hilarious.
Boy is also pretty funny. He's at the age where he'll do anything if you pay him, and his prices are pretty low. That's how we got him to face his horrible Lake Allegan fear this year. In previous years we couldn't get his feet off the dock, but this year we did. At first he came to the shallow end by himself, but he wouldn't go more than two feet from the ladder and forget swimming off the boat. But thanks to his fear that Big D might think he was a baby and a total bribe of $6 from various people we had him paddling around the boat in no time (he was wearing a lifejacket and had 2 noodles at all times. Come on, this is Boy we're talking about). I am sure parenting experts might question my parenting skills, but if you had battled Boy for as long as I have to get him to do things you know he would love (list of other things I had to force Boy to do-with many a "I hate you," "you're the meanest mom ever"-that he later loved: swimming lessons, sledding, swimming in the deep end, getting a dog) you'd gladly exploit his new interest in bribes to try new things. Next on my bribary list: a new Bionical if he learns to ride his bike.