I love my kids. I know you all know this, but I just can't say it enough, because my kids are incredibly awesome. And I say that in a completely unbiased way.
Driving home from work today, with the three kids in the car, my oldest wanted to play what he calls an "Everything Game," in which we ask each other questions and any topic is on the playing field as fair game. For example, describe an ichthyosaurus. (He asked me that one, and yes, he knew the answer without looking it up.) If there are three roads, and each has 20 cars on it, how many cars are there? What is a baby ______ called? This last one gave us quite a laugh. First, the blank was dog, then cat, then goat, then person (to which I answered, "Kid, or sometimes monster, depending on the day" and my son laughed), the list continued with pig, goose, owl ("An owlet," I said. "An owlet?" my son repeated. "Yes," I said, "an outlet!" to which he laughed again), elephant, sheep, cow, horse... and on and on until my son asked me "What is a baby giraffe called?" and I couldn't answer. I didn't know. So, I started running through some of the more popular choices- giraffe cub, kid, pup... giraffe-let? "Oh, I know!" I said jokingly, "A giraffe calf!!" and my son laughed so hard he almost cried. My daughter thought it sounded funny too, and she laughed. Both let out a good, all-out belly laugh, which made the youngest laugh his forced laugh - which is just always funny - even though he had no clue why the rest of us were laughing!
From there, we got even goofier, and started making up animal baby names that consisted of the grown animal name, followed by either -ling or -let. Then my son decided it would be even better if the baby animals were named by the sounds they make, proceeded by either -ling or -let. For example, in his world, a baby owl would be a hootlet. A baby cow would be a mooling. A baby elephant could be either a trumpetlet or a trumpetling. A baby tiger would be a grrrrling. Yeah, it got goofy. And we all just kept laughing.
Hearing my kids laugh, and knowing that I made them laugh, is a HUGE moment of AHA. Sometimes I know that I can let the stress of life get to me, and too often I have heard myself saying "No" to whatever request they happen to make. I give myself all sorts of reasons why they shouldn't watch TV, play video games, go outside, play with the toys, etc. Then I finally ask myself, "So then, Kathleen, what exactly DO you expect them to do?"
My kids are usually super well behaved. But I can't expect my 9-year-old to take on the responsibilities of a parent. In fact, I often have to remind him of this! My 4-year-old still wants to just do what she wants to do, and getting her to compromise is sometimes difficult. And the ugly head of the Terrible Two Temper Tantrum Monster has peeked out from my youngest more than a few times already. I have to accept that they are kids, and just because I happen to be stressed out doesn't mean they need to be, too. They love doing "kid stuff": making up stories and imagining (remind me to sometime tell you the story about them going through a dinosaur's digestive tract, it's one of my favorites), jumping down from the last 3 or 4 steps, riding their trikes through the living room, getting out all the Legos at once, and so on. Sometimes these things annoy me, mostly because I know I'll be doing the majority of the picking up, or I'm afraid they might get hurt. But when I hear my kids laugh, all is right in my world. And when they laugh at something I do, then say to me, "You're funny! You're the best Mommy in the world!" nothing else matters.
For the record, an ichthyosaurus (the name means "fish lizard" in Ancient Greek) is defined as "marine reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era." And a baby giraffe really is called a Giraffe Calf. Can't wait to tell my son!
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