A New Record

Being a parent sometimes means having to not laugh when our child says or does something really funny, but also really wrong. I have been getting really good at squashing a laugh, or any trace of a smile when Nathan says or does pretty much anything, because pretty much everything he does is hilarious. This evening, I outdid myself when Nathan came to me with the following problem. He had been assigned the task of putting his books back on their shelves, and had been doing plenty of whining about it. In order to entice him to work a little quicker (or at all) I promised to let him help me make dinner when he was done. After a few minutes of scrambling around, he came to where I was reading my book and told me he was finished. I hopped up and said, "Ok, let me check it out, then we'll go make dinner."

Nathan looked at me in horror and said, "Check my room? Just a minute!" Then ran away to actually clean it. A few minutes later he came back to me and said, "I just really need your help." 

I looked at him in confusion. "Nathan, if your books aren't picked up, why did you come in here a minute ago and tell me they were. Were you lying?" 

Nathan looked at me a moment, the realization that he was caught was clear in his eyes. Then he brightened up and said, "The sun makes circles on my face," he gestured in a circle around his face, "and those circles, they just tell me to lie all the time" The sentence sort of trailed off, and he looked as though even he knew that this was far fetched. 

I stared for one moment, feigning disbelief, but really trying to get control over the sudden need to giggle. Finally I asked, "Are you telling me your freckles made you lie?"    

Nathan looked relieved and said, "Yeah!" As though it was the most obvious thing in the world that someone's freckles would compel them to lie. 

I held my breath a moment and by sheer will power managed to tell him to go see about finishing his books and I'd be there in a minute. I feel like I just won the parent Olympics. Shouldn't there be some kind of prize for this?

Comments

[Amma]

And being Amma, and way far away, I was free to just crack up!!!!

[Melissa Almeida]

You are simply fabulous and I am so happy to get to read about your brilliantly funny and just plain brilliant family life.