You probably had to be here, but. . .

Ever since I have started brushing Tate's teeth (and now of course Ayden too) I have always sang him a song or counted to keep him distracted and get a little learning in, even while I brush. It started out with the ABC's, and then counting, then it was a song about uppercase and lowercase letters and now it is Do Re Mi. Well, yesterday I was making dough for our beef pot-pie dinner and Tate looks at me and asks, "What is it, Mommy?" So I told him it was dough and he said "Doe?" Pause. "A Deer?" Pause. "A female deer?"

Just the way he said it, and the look on his face (because he, of course, sees deer around here all the time) was hilarious. I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

My daughter, on the other hand, is continuing her love of shoes. She dislikes the vacuum and will usually be far away from it while it is on, but today she got her courage up to save, you guessed it, her shoes. I was vacuuming and, not realizing it, was getting closer and closer to her shoe on the floor. Next thing I know she comes running in front of me, making a screeching noise and a funny face (I couldn't hear her, but I could see her mouth open) and grabs her shoe. She still is making this screeching noise while she is running away and doesn't stop until she is safely ensconsed on the couch with shoe in hand. Once on the couch she cheerfully waves her shoe at me as if to say "your evil vacuum won't take my shoe!"

It also occurred to me the other day, after Tate had run up to me and said "Mommy, I want to give you a hug!", that we only have very few years of getting a lot of voluntary hugs and kisses. Pretty soon they'll be too cool or old and then they'll be gone to college and before you know it you will only be able to get hugs and kisses on the infrequent times they visit you or you visit them. So, just a little reminder to hug and kiss your kids as much as possible to help fill in all the times you won't be able to, and to hug and kiss your parents for all the times you've missed.