Of a boy and his lunch

Apparently, 'tis the week to enjoy small-boyish antics! ;) I have made various sandwiches for my brother David's lunches this week, and today when I asked mom what she'd like for lunch, he piped up, "Please, not a sandwich."

"But that is yummy bread, and with garden tomatoes..." I pointed out, "You should be grateful you can eat those things!" (I'm gluten-sensitive and allergic to tomatoes)

He comes downstairs to the kitchen a bit later and asks, "Where's my food?"

"Well, I was thinking of ham and cheese..." I answer. "But now that you're down here, you can make it yourself."

"Oh!" he reasons. "I guess I better disappear for a while. Bye!" He pops out the back door, but is inside again a moment later.

"Claire, are you making my sandwich?" (insert puppy dog eyes)

"Maybe."

"Oh, thank you!" (He plants a kiss on my cheek and opens the fridge.) "Now in the meantime, I'm going to eat a snack...er, I mean, an appetizer!"

*Fast forward a few minutes*

David: (watching me prepare it) "Mmm...hot ham and cheese."

Me: "But David, you don't like sandwiches."

David: "Um, I thought I didn't."

Few bites into the sandwich: "Claire, why didn't you tell me this would be a good sandwich?"

Three-quarters done: "You can make me a sandwich like this every day!"

=)

Listen Up, World

The too-cute 4-year-old mentioned in yesterday's post is quite the character: he's blonde-haired, big-eyed, and closer to the size of a 2 year old, but will open his articulate mouth and talk like he's 22. :)

Francis prompts laughter and endearment continually, but this particular exchange from last night is too good not to document. His brother three years his elder had been doing a bit of name-calling, prompting me to pull him aside for a little talk. Francis was meanwhile standing behind me on the porch steps.

Me: "Joseph, would Jesus have talked like you did?"

J: "No. But why do we have to be like Jesus?"

Me: "Because if we do not act like Jesus, that makes our enemy happy. Do you know who that is?" (Very helpful: always capitalize on spiritual warfare when catechizing little boys) ;)

J: "The devil."

Me: "And the devil hates us. He doesn't want us to be happy. He wants us to hurt God, others, and ourselves."

Francis: (with hands expressively lifted) "And why would you want to listen to someone who doesn't even love you? That doesn't make sense!"


You go, little one. If only the rest of the world would figure that out, a lot of people would be a whole lot happier!

Davidisms :)

My 13-year-old brother had us all in stitches this morning. You kind of had to be there to "get it" fully, but I'll see if I can repaint the scene. :)

The four siblings were sitting in Church, and Sarah had David reading aloud The Universal Prayer of Pope Clement (okay, every version I can find online has a slightly different translation, so that messes up the dialogue a little bit). Anyway, the prayer book we have says, "Lord, make me...diligent in my duties". Now if you know my brother, you know that he can be a little, shall we say, hard to keep focused sometimes. So when we hit that part of the prayer, here's what transpired:

Sarah: Um, sir, repeat that line!

David: "Diligent in my duties"

Sarah: Try it again.

David: "Diligent in my duties"

(Repeat this exchange at least once more)

*Insert sibling chuckles here*

David: Well, I do a pretty good job when I'm motivated.

Me: What about the other 99% of the time?

Sarah: Well, there's this thing call SELF-motivation that you need.

Me: It's interesting, isn't it, all the words that start with "D"? David can either be a distracted, destructive dawdler or a diligent, dutiful...

(Sarah and Claire look at each other, searching for the right "D" word to finish)

David: ...DUDE!