Today was a nice day for our family as we went to a reunion for the babies from the NICU where Maddie spent the first sixty-eight days of her life. It was great – a picnic with catered food, farm animals, and children’s performers. The best part was being able to show off Maddie now that she is healthy and smiling as opposed to fighting for her life as she was in those early dark days (which can be read more about here). I won’t say too much though because Heather is going to do a post on her site complete with photos!

In other news my sister and her family will be visiting this week which is great, and got me thinking about my nearly four-year-old nephew, Spencer, who often says incredibly charming and funny things. He is a big reason why I can’t wait for Maddie to start talking. There is no doubt in my mind that she will say crazy and wonderful things because the following anecdotes all sprung from the mouths of her then child-aged relatives.

Let’s start with Spencer…just last week my parents took him to see Kung Fu Panda. He was way into it when all of a sudden the film broke. The theater was plunged into darkness for a few moments until a theater employee came down and announced the film could not be screened, and that everyone would be given free passes to a future show. Slowly but surely, as parents explained to their kids what was up, the theater was filled with screams and tears and whimpering. My Dad winced, then did what he dreaded doing, which was to turn to Spencer in order to explain that the movie he was loving would not be finished. When my Dad did finally turn to Spencer, however, instead of looking concerned, Spencer was sliding off his seat and waving for my Dad (his Grandpa) to follow.

“Come on, Grandpa,” he said all matter of fact. “We have to leave now.”

My Dad nodded and followed Spencer up the aisle past the legions of weeping children.

The other story about Spencer I can remember right now is when, at a party, he tugged on the sleeve of some woman he didn’t know, then gestured across the room at my Dad and said, “‘Scuse me, ma’am. Have you met my friend, Grandpa?”

Maddie’s old man was known to say some wacky things himself back in the day. One example is when we were in London and riding on a bus. A policeman was on the bus with us and a Londoner, seeing me stare at the policeman, said, “In England we call our police Bobbies.” I wrinkled up my forehead, confused, then pointed to my mother’s chest and said, “In America we call those Bobbies.” This, as you can imagine, lead to much laughter at my expense.

Another time, my Dad hydro-planed his car during a storm and went off an embankment into a field of wheat. My Dad – who was okay – later called my Mom to come and pick him up from the mechanic’s shop. When we got there my Dad told me he broke his car. I looked at his car, which had tons of wheat sticking out of its grill, then nodded sagely.

“I can see that,” I said. “It’s stuffing is coming out.”

Maddie’s uncle Kyle also made a few humorous quotes as a little one. One example is when he was a first grader his Mom picked him up from school to see that someone had spray-painted “Fuck (the name of the Principal)” on the wall. Heather and Kyle’s Mom shook her head and said to Kyle, “That’s terrible.” Kyle nodded, solemn, and replied, “I know. They mispelled the principal’s name.”

Yup. Maddie is gonna say some crazy things. I’m sure of it!