Kids say and do the darndest things, and so do parents

A story in the news this week talks about a couple down in Georgia who are in trouble with the law for tattooing their six children with a homemade tattoo machine. It used an electric motor and a sharpened guitar string. They cannot understand why this would be considered "child endangerment". The kids didn't mind said the mother. The youngest child was six. Helloooooo, what six year old is going to say, Noooo Mommmmy don't do that when Mommy makes it seem so cool. Now these children are marked for life without consciously making the choice to be so. I don't have anything against tattoos, just wouldn't choose to do so to myself (except for my eyeliner Brandon) and think it isn't fair that a parent make that choice for a minor child.

But I digress. What started the thought for this blog was hanging some pictures in my office.cum.sewing room. I received a picture from my son for Christmas that says "I love you to the moon and back...infinity...and beyond..forever and ever." What makes this wall hanging so precious to me is the fact that with my children when they were young, we would play this game. I would say "I love you". They would say "I love you too". I would then say "I love you the most". The response to that was "I love you to infinity and beyond, I win". Finally as adults, it got shortened to ILU2IAB, I win. I have threatened for years to have that made into a vanity plate for my car, but being the cheapskate (frugal person) that I am, I haven't wanted to part with the cash. Still, it's fun that at their advanced ages, my boys are not too grown up to say it.

I was looking at some pictures of the kids when I was creating a DVD for my husband's 50th birthday. I found one of my youngest son, making this goofy face. When he was crying or fussing, which seemed like all the time, I would say "Show me your big eyes" and it was a miracle, no screaming for a few minutes and this doofy face that made me remember why as a Mom, you try to love your kids no matter what. I have a picture of him(as a baby) sitting right next to his graduation picture so I can remember him when he was cute. Not that he's not cute now, he does clean up well.

The funny thing about my youngest son Dave, all he ever wanted when he was little was to do what his big brother was doing. The funny thing now, even though he towers over his big brother by about 7 inches or so, all he wants to do is what his big brother is doing. And they still manage to fight like 2 year olds sometimes. The thing about siblings is no one seems to know how to cut as deep (in an argument), or protect as much about 2 seconds later. Dave was always the one to cut it, break it, or take most of the skin off of his body parts. And his big brother was always the one who would doctor him up. I came home from work one day and with the amount of gauze that was wrapped around Dave's appendage, you would think he had amputated something. I asked him about it and he said, it's okay, Brandon fixed it for me.

So anyway, ILU2IAB, I WIN and I will always love you guys.