Where is Art Linkletter when you need him?
Jason Crouch
For those of you who aren't familiar with Art Linkletter, he was famous for interviewing kids on "Kids Say the Darndest Things" and "House Party". I know that we also had a couple of his books with quotes from children when I was growing up. I looked up Mr. Linkletter today, and I was surprised to find that he is still alive (age 95). He even hosted the Happiest Homecoming on Earth celebration in 2005, at Disneyland's 50th anniversary bash.
At any rate, I wish that he could come to my home and interview my kids sometime. If you follow my blog at all, you know that they have a penchant for saying funny things (or the "darndest" things, if you will).
My mom was here for the last several days, so each of these quotes relates to her visit.
First of all, we have been trying to get my 18-month old daughter Abby (pictured at right) to say "Grandma" for several days. She speaks very clearly in some cases, and she will usually make an effort to repeat almost anything that you say, as evidenced by her recent parroting of something I said in anger in the car the other day. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that, but thankfully it was short-lived and not repeated more than a couple of times.
So, we have been pointing at my mom and saying, "This is Grandma. Can you say "Grandma"? Grandma." I also make my mom say, "Hi, I'm Grandma." This has gone on repeatedly for days, and the baby has not attempted to say this even once that we can tell. Bear with me - it gets better...
We went shopping Saturday and my mom promised to get the kids a 
new video game. After browsing for what felt like an hour (maybe 30 minutes or so), we settled on a game for the Nintendo Wii called "Dewey's Adventure", which is a game involving an enchanted water drop who can shift from mist to liquid to ice, depending on what the circumstances call for. Along with the game, my son Brandon got a Dewey stuffed figure for free. My mom managed to con them into giving us an extra one for Aleah, my six-year old.
Here comes the best part - Abby can say "Dewey" PERFECTLY and he has been a member of our family for two days, yet my mom comes to see us frequently, but she doesn't even rate an attempt by Abby to say her name. My mom pointed out the perfect pronunciation to me last night while we were joking around. "Doo-ey! DOOO-ey." No issue.
Brandon obviously wanted to get his name into this post (joking) because he said some pretty funny stuff himself yesterday. This exchange occurred yesterday:
MY MOM: How do you like my outfit?
BRANDON (smiling): I think it makes you look younger.
MY MOM: Thanks, Brandon.
After a pause of several seconds,
BRANDON: Don't you feel flatterred?
Talk about comedic timing. My mom said that Brandon is a bit of a ladies' man already.
Yesterday, Brandon was sitting on the couch with my mom while I was watching football, and he was playing with her hand. In a very complimentary, upbeat, and impressed tone, he said, "Wow! Your hands are really bony....AND veiny!"
If you have some stories of your own that you would like to share, please consider joining and/or reading the posts in our new Active Rain group "Family Ties" (http://activerain.com/groups/familyties). We already have 56 members after eight days.
Here are a couple of recent similar posts I wrote if you haven't already seen them:
Is My Son the Next Henny Youngman?
Three funniest things my kids have said this week
