Kids are GREAT for the Ego... (or Not...)

Kids are soooo great for the ego.  I remember one morning when Booger Bear was watching me get ready for work.  He was staring up at me with questioning wide eyes as I straightened my hair.  "This makes Mimi look pretty!" I say.  Booger smiled and sighed "Oh, yeah...  Pretty!  Yeah..."  He watched as I put on my makeup, and again said, "Oh, yeah...  Pretty!"  Just as I was about to declare to the world that I had the sweetest child on the planet, he proceeded to rub my leg and shouted, "PUPPY!!!"  F'real, kid?


You know, now that I think about it, I can probably name ten "F'real, kid?" moments for every one ego-boosting compliment that the children in my life have given me.  Even Little Miss who was pretty much non-verbal had her own unique way of tormenting me.  She would sit in my lap and play Connect the Dots with my freckles.  She also must have taken lessons from her predecessor as she was known to rub my in-need-of-a-shave legs and burst into hysterical laughter.

I began judging my hair coloring appointments by toddlers' reactions to my hair.  Monkey has a tendency to reach up and pluck individual gray hairs from my head.  I also recall one particular conversation with Buddy when he was about 2 years old.  I was sitting on the couch, holding his hands, and lifting him up as he tried to see how high he could jump.  Suddenly, he became very serious and exclaimed, "Uh-ohhhh..." every time he soared over my head.  I stood him on the ground in front of me, where this time, he pointed to my head and again says, "Uh-ohhhh..."  "What's an 'uh-oh?'  Are you pointing to my gray hairs?"  Buddy simply grins and whispers, "yesssss."  F'real, kid?!?

Just last week, Butterfly sat in my lap for an hour trying to remove the small mole that I have on my neck with her fingers.  She eventually stopped when Pooper became enthralled with my double chin, and practically pushed her off my lap so he could climb up and grab hold.  I think I still have his fingernail marks indented into my neck.  And all of this grief is just from the toddlers!!!

It gets even worse when they actually start conversing!!!  Now that Buddy and Ka-Diva have hit the oh-so-grown-up age of 7-years-old, there is no limit to the wonderful ego-boosting (or not) comments that come out of their mouths.  Christy told a story a little while back about a dinner conversation that she had with the big twins.  "I cooked dinner last night and told the kids it was something I used to eat all the time as a kid.   One of the ingredients is corn.   Ka-Diva asked me if I had to grow our own corn 'way back then.'  No dear, believe it or not, we did have grocery stores..." 

I'm fairly certain Buddy and Ka-Diva think that we celebrated the First Thansgiving with the Pilgrims and Native Americans.  We did, after all, regularly use "those funny telephones that spin."  Buddy seemed shocked that I used a typewriter in high school.  "Aren't typewriters in museums?!?"  F'real, kid?!?

Yep...  Kids are just great for the ego!  It's a good thing they're cute!  :-)