Cherished Memories #26, #27 and #28 Kids say the darndest things!
Cherished memory #26 - Amanda and the Trees:
I have three amazing kids (adults now!) and each one of them is a cherished memory on so many levels. Today I am going to share three things they have said that just made Bill and I LOL many times over, starting with Amanda, the oldest.
She was about 4 or 5 I think, not in kindergarten yet and the Wizard of Oz was making it's annual appearance on TV. I hesitated to introduce her to it because I was afraid that it might scare her, but it is a classic so I decided that we would watch it together and if she started to show signs that it was bothering her, I'd change the channel.
From the moment the movie started, she was glued to the screen. Not a bit of it bothered her at all, not even the wicked witch! When it was over, I asked her if she liked it and she said "Yes!" I asked who her favorite character was and she said, "Cowardly Lion" in her cute little girl voice. Then I asked her what she remembered most about it and her eyes got big and she said, "The trees were WINDY!" I couldn't help but laugh at the wonder in her voice. Fortunately I have it on video, unfortunately I haven't transferred it yet so you can't get the full effect. At any rate, that has now become a staple saying in our family whenever it is really blowing outside, "The trees were WINDY!"
Cherished Memory #27 - Jeff and the Chocolate Factory
Similarly, when Jeff was about the same age, we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I wasn't worried about him being afraid of anything in that movie and we watched the whole thing together. We talked about the movie but there was no stand-out moment for him, or so I thought.
A couple of days went by and we were sitting in the living room watching TV again. I don't remember what we were talking about but all of a sudden Jeff came up next to his father and slammed his hand down on the side table and said, "You lose, good day sir!" Bill and I looked at each other and started cracking up. Jeff was so serious about the whole thing. That's another one that gets used in the family from time to time, "You lose, good day sir!" (Wish I could have said that to someone recently if you know what I mean).
Cherished Memory #28 - Rachel and the Rocking Horse
Rachel has always had a very good vocabulary. I attribute that in part to my mom who took care of her while I worked and who was always talking and reading to her. She would frequently use big words and mostly in the right context. She was (and still is) big on following the rules (she used to watch the speedometer on the car and made sure to tell me if I was going over the speed limit).
On this day she and I were walking through Tanforan and as usual I was in a hurry. In the middle of the mall they had a kids play area with mechanical animals and cars for the kids to ride. You know the kind you put your money in and it rocks for a few minutes like these.
Anyway, as I said, I was in a hurry and Rachel wanted to ride the horsie. Of course I said "No, we don't have time." She pleaded, as kids do, and I said "Not today, come on." I started to walk away from her and she said in a loud voice, "MOM, don't you know you're not supposed to leave your child UNATTENDANCE?" Of course I had not really gone that far away from her but instantly I looked around to see if anyone had heard her. I could just imagine Child Protective Services coming up to me...
I still didn't let her ride the horse (we really didn't have time that day), and I went back and got her and held her hand and tried not to laugh too hard. In retrospect, what would have happened if I had spent the extra minute or two to let her ride that horse? She is away at college now and our times together are becoming less and less. Every memory counts!
So, three memories in one post! Maybe I will make my 30 memories after all!
How about you? Kids say anything that still makes you chuckle?
First, under fascinating and exciting, our local mall had a shooting yesterday and while I was not inside the mall at the time, my husband was in the parking lot at a booth selling fireworks for our local Pony Baseball team. I happened to be on my way to bring him a sandwich when I saw traffic backing up and police car lights both in front of me and coming up behind me, sirens blaring. All in all there must have been 100 different emergency vehicles from all over the county. The story is that there were two shooters inside the mall and two people were shot. It was not a random attack, rather a deliberate thing between these four people. We are not sure yet exactly why. Unfortunately, the local mass transit, BART, station is on the same property as the mall and at least one of the suspects was able to get on the train and go across the Bay to Oakland. We have not been told the identity of either the victims or the shooters as the police are waiting to see surveillance camera videos but the boys that were shot were about 14 and 16. Way too young. They were taken to the ER in San Francisco, one in critical condition and one in serious condition. 
