A Couple of Reasons I Enjoy Being a Dad

15 years ago

I have written a good number of posts about my kids and their sense of humor and unique wisdom. Over the past couple of weeks, each of them has had a memorable quote or two that I wanted to share with you.

We were watching the 1982 musical "Annie" with the kids the other night. We have this new device that Netflix sells that allows us to select movies online and stream them directly to the TV in our media room. I was browsing for something that we could all watch, and my wife spotted it and thought the kids would enjoy the movie. It probably wouldn't have been my very first choice, but it's a cute story.

About halfway through the show, Brandon turned to us and said, "I think this is a rags to riches to 'right-in-between' story. You know - the three R's." Needless to say, I lost it. Leave it to him to come up with the unexpected twist.

He is one of the most naturally funny kids that I have ever met.

I took Aleah (7) to the grocery store with me the other night to pick up a few things. She wanted to test-drive her new purse, complete with pen and notepad. "Do you have anything that you need me to write down, daddy?" I had to manufacture a couple of items as "reminders" while we were at the store.

On the way home, she suddenly said, "I have a great idea. I think they should make solar-powered cars. That way, we wouldn't have to pay for gas." I told her that I think they are working on that, and that it was a brilliant idea.

"I knew you would be pleased," she replied. What else could I say? Aleah speaks like she is 25 sometimes. Lest you think she heard of this somewhere else, I can virtually guarantee that she came up with this one on her own - she really is brilliant. In fact, I think she is probably far smarter than I am.

Abby, who is almost two and a half now, still pronounces "F" as "S" most of the time. When we were in Houston recently, we were eating lunch at the aquarium restaurant, and I was focused on the giant fishtank in front of us.

"Daddy, I has a nice. I has a nice, dad."

"What, honey? Ohhhhh....a knife." Nice, knife, same thing, right? Here, honey, have a spoon instead.

For some reason, she is very interested in geography lately - "Daddy, I want Samoa." Samoa? Why would she want to travel to the South Pacific? I mean, I know that they have a lot of natural beauty, white sand beaches, and tropical drinks, but...ohhhh....you want "some more". Okay, sweetie.

Abby seems to be able to carry a tune very well, and she can sing along with the ever-popular "ABC" song, or the theme song from "Caillou", or pretty much any tune that she enjoys. What I like, though, is that she pulls an Ella Fitzgerald on the lyrics sometimes, just sort of inserting and removing words at will, or singing complete nonsense lyrics rather than the actual words. I think it shows immense creativity.

Many of her song creations would be hard to write down, but one stands out from her bath the other night. We have a kitten that, for whatever reason, LIKES getting wet sometimes. She is always jumping around near the bathtub when the kids are trying to bathe. Abby took care of it herself the other night, with this terrific song:

NO KITTY by Abby Crouch

To the tune of "London Bridges":

No nono no no no no

No no no

No nono no no no no

No no

Kitty.

I couldn't really add much to this one either.

Thanks for reading!