Five Times My Kids Made Me Smile

I have three kids. They are:
The Girl, age 7, just started second grade.
The Boy, age 5, just started kindergarten.
The Baby, age 9 months, just started eating everything she can find on the carpet. (Give me a minute while I pick her up and vacuum the floor.)

(Okay, I'm back.) I love my kids very much. Heck, I even like them most of the time, too. I like being around them and seeing the things they do.

I especially like it when my kids surprise me. And when they make me smile. Here are some of the times they have surprised me into smiling over the past few weeks:

1. Just this morning I had an interesting conversation with The Girl about Aquaman and soup. We debated about whether or not Aquaman likes soup. And, if he does, is he able to eat it while underwater? We decided that it's not logistically possible for him to eat soup while underwater, so if he does like soup he'd have to bob up to the surface and make sure he kept his soup bowl above the water line.

These are the kind of conversations that The Girl and I have. And they make me smile.

2. After his first day of kindergarten, The Boy came home excitedly telling us about how there had been a gingerbread man in his class, but the gingerbread man ran away, and they were going to spend the next couple of days looking for the gingerbread man. (The teacher was going to use the search for the gingerbread man as a way for the kids to get to know the school and where things are in it.)

A couple of days later, after they found the gingerbread man, he brought home his first craft project from kindergarten. He made his very own gingerbread man. It looked like this, and it made me smile:

The greatest gingerbread man in the history of gingerbread men!

I asked him why it only had one eye. He said it was because he only wanted one eye. I asked him what the feathers were for. He sad the feathers were his hands. Because I was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to line all those noodles up in a straight line, I asked him if his teacher helped him make it. He insisted that he did it all himself. (I still have my doubts.)

But, it doesn't really matter, because I'll always remember the time my son brought home a gingerbread man that looked like a cross between the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Mr. Bill, and Cyclops. And it'll make me smile.

C. The Baby is great! She has a wonderful smile that she uses often. She has a giggle that is contagious. But, she has her moments when she is not happy. And when she's not happy, she will certainly let you know it. 

But, even when she is screaming her head off, there is one place I can take her that will always make her smile. In our house we have the wall along the stairs lined with family pictures.

The wall of pictures.

No matter what her mood, whether happy, sad, or mad, if I take her to the wall of pictures on the stairs she will stop, look, and smile. She loves those pictures! (One of these days I'll actually get around to updating the wall of pictures to include some of her.)

She sees those pictures and she always smiles. And when she smile, I have to smile, too.

4. A few weeks ago we went to the Orchard Days parade in our small hometown. It was a typical small town parade, with lots of small businesses throwing lots of candy at the parade-watchers. My kids, of course, loved this. Free candy!!!

They thought this was the best thing ever! There weren't many other kids near our spot on the parade route, so my kids didn't have much competition for the candy that was thrown their way. They gathered and gathered the candy, until, suddenly, The Boy stopped and froze in his tracks.

What could make The Boy ignore the candy to stop and stare, dumbfounded? Pretty girls, of course. A float went by in the parade full of the Orchard Days queen and all of her attendants. It was a bunch of pretty girls in dresses, and they were waving to the crowd. I think The Boy thought they were waving directly at him.

The Boy likes it when pretty girls wave at him. (Don't we all?)

For a few moments, he didn't care at all about the candy. And the thing is, there were several floats with pretty girls waving on them, because every nearby small town had their own queen and royalty floating through the parade. And every time The Boy would stop what he was doing, look at the girls in awe, and wave.

And then, when the girls would get out of view, The Boy would return to gathering up the candy. I had to smile.

5. The other day The Girl excitedly came in to the living room and said, "Dad! Dad! Dad! I made you a word search!" I had no idea what she was talking about. She often says things that make little or no sense. (We did, after all, have a conversation about if Aquaman likes soup.)

She then said, "I made a word search. See if you can find Utah." I still had no idea what she was talking about. 

A while later I finally mozied my way into the kitchen, searching for a healthy snack with no calories that tasted like chocolate. I didn't find it, but I did see this on the refrigerator:

There is a word search on my refrigerator!

The Girl had used the magnetic letters we had on our fridge and made her very own word search! It was incredibly cute. She's a smart, nerdy girl. I had to smile.

(In case you are interested, you can print the picture, then circle the following words as you find them:

ad, add, ale, ax, box, eel, fun, hat, ire, kid, sun, Utah.)(If you can find more than that, let me know.)

So there you have it, five times my kids have made me smile! And, I have this weird feeling that they just might make me smile a few more times than that.