Sweet and funny words from the kids

Spencer has been cracking me up lately with his awareness of girls. This is the son who immediately noticed the cheerleaders last year when Clay played his first Upwards basketball game at church... and then focused on them most of the rest of the game.

Evidently, Spencer has taken a liking to one particular little girl at church named Kristin. A couple weeks ago, after Awanas, on the way home in the van, he said, "Mom, I like Kristin. She's pretty. She's my friend." The next day, more talk about Kristin. "Mom, I was a gentleman to Kristin." I asked what he meant, and he said, "I put her crayons up for her."

Kristin's grandmother is one of the organizers for their group of Awanas kids, and the next Wednesday, I mentioned that Spencer had his eye on her granddaughter. She laughed and said, "Oh, I think we figured that out last week." I asked her later what she meant, and she said he always wants to sit beside Kristin and he puts his arm around her shoulders.

Earlier this week, Kristin's name came up again. He's a very devoted little boy. He said, "Mom, Kristin is the prettiest one at Awanas. Every one else is stupid."

This morning, he's evidently thinking of all the other fish in the sea. He's wearing all hand-me-downs, but it's the first time he's wearing a jacket vest that has Spiderman on it. He came downstairs after getting dressed in his jeans, white turtleneck and that vest and said, "Mom, the girls are going to be all over me."

This is all so funny to me because it's not at all the way Clay is.

I've mentioned one little girl, Skyler, from his school before. She has been attending Awanas at our church this year, too. During the school day, Clay plays with her at recess, but come Awanas time, he won't acknowledge her. Bruce asked him about it, and Clay's response was, "I don't want Tyler and Nick to know that I'm friends with a girl. They might make fun of me."

Now, not to leave our little girl out.

This morning we lost another fish. Another one had just gotten flushed on Monday. When Allison woke up today and I told her another fish had died, she said, "Now we only have four fish. I think I'm going to name only one of them." If that's not the death knell for more fish, I don't know what is.

She said something precious this week, too. I tell the kids often throughout the day that I love them. So often, they pretty much know I'm going to say it before I get it out of my mouth. I'll say, "Guess what?" and where they used to ask "what?" they now say, "We know, we know. You love us."

I started that with Allison and thought I needed to mix it up a bit to keep her on her toes. I said, "Hey girl. I love you." And she said in her best sing-songy voice, "I love you, too." And then I said, "I love you more." And she said, "No, Jesus does."