There are so many reasons to thank God for children, but today I want to thank Him for the little ones, because they give us parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers sooooooo many cute, funny and heart touching stories that we can share. I will give you a few of mine, but I would also like to invite anyone who has a story they want to share to send it to me at lisa.talton@yahoo.com.
The first one I want to share was when I was talking to my first grade class a couple years ago about safety and strangers. I was giving them different scenarios and the first one I gave was this: You are outside playing and a older man comes up to you and tells you that he lost his dog and is trying to find it. He then asks if you will help him find it. He even tells you he will give you $5 for helping him. Would you go with him? Then my son, who was also one of my students raises his hand and starts saying, “No, No, No” as he is shaking his head. I am thinking, “Good!” He knows better than to go with a stranger but then he said this: “Oh no! I would help him go find his dog but I would tell him he didn’t have to pay me any money.” I then had to explain to him that even though it was nice that he wanted to help the man without being paid, it was never a good idea to go anywhere with someone you do not know.
Okay, this next one is one of those times when I just did not understand the logic, but I guess, as we get older sometimes we forget how the brain of a little child works. Also, it was the reasoning of a little boy, and I definitely do not know how the brain of a little or even a big boy works. We were at my oldest son’s basketball game when I started passing out mints to my children. First, let me tell you the order in which we were sitting so you get a good picture. It was me, then my daughter and then my twin sons. I passed three mints to my daughter so she could take one and then give one to each of her two brothers. She popped one in her mouth and then gave one to her brother next to her who also popped his in his mouth-simple enough, right? But then she went to pass the mint to her other brother who refused to take it. So she gave it back to me but then her brother got upset and said he wants one. I gave it back to my daughter once again to pass it to him. He then said again that he did not want it but this time he gave an explanation. He went on to say that he did not want his sister to touch the mint but instead wanted her to give it back to me and then I gave it to him. I was like, “Are you kidding me? You want a mint but won’t take it from your sister but will take it if I give it to you?” He shook his head yes, so you know what I did? I took that mint right back and said, “Forget it. You must not really want a mint.”
I couldn’t believe a little task of handing out mints was getting this complicated. I also couldn’t believe he was being so silly. He was sulking in his seat looking at me. I waited a couple of minutes and then decided to try it again. I passed the mint to his sister who then attempted to pass it to her brother but to no avail. Again he turned it down but this time, he even tried to get an attitude with her. She then passed it back to me. You might be asking, “Why didn’t I just hand it to him myself?” I know it would have been easier but I did not like the fact that he was being rude to his sister so I chose to be a little immature myself. You know what I did when that mint came back to me again? I popped it in my mouth and enjoyed it!
And last but definitely not least. My children know how much I like the WII Fit so they decided to save up the money to buy it for me for my birthday that is coming up. They got a money jar and put it on the bookshelf. Every time they got some money whether it is from a tooth they lost, money from their PaPa or some they found they put it into the jar. And if it isn’t sweet enough what they are doing my son took it even farther one night last week. He was sitting on my lap and we were watching T.V. together and he said this: “Mommy, after we save up enough money to buy the WII Fit for you, I want to save up more money and buy you some clothes.” I told him that was sweet but he didn’t have to and he said: “I want to mommy because I love you.”