Things I Wish I'd Done #2

I wish I had taken the time to write down all the funny (or sometimes wise-beyond-their-years) things my kids said. I thought I’d remember them forever, but with only a few exceptions, those precious words are all gone.

Here are a few that I do remember:

Our oldest son, Travis, stood in the bathroom, watching while his Dad shaved and then applied cologne. “Dad,” he said, “can I wear some of your smell-good?” (Of course, after this, “smell-good” became our word for cologne. There were other word adaptations, too. A billfold was a “bo-field,” and an elbow was a “bo-wain.”)

One day our daughter had gotten into a little trouble, and her Dad, going in at bedtime to kiss her good night, decided to lecture a little to reinforce the lesson he’d “instilled” earlier. “I’ve already prayed about this,” she solemnly informed him, “so I don’t think we need to talk about it anymore.”

Early one Monday morning I was in the kitchen getting ready to pack school lunches. Opening my youngest son’s lunchbox, I found a sheet of paper with one sentence repeated over and over in a childish scrawl: “I will not say cuss words.”

Of course, I immediately got him out of bed to discuss my early-morning discovery. “What word did you say?” I asked, expecting a “TV word,” but out of his innocent young mouth came a word that caused my knees to buckle. “Where did you hear that word?” I asked, as calmly as I could.

“Nowhere,” he said. “It was written on the bathroom wall, and I just sounded it out.”