January 23rd, 2012 by deb
Keith and Owen were playing with Legos just before bed, as Owen was munching on trail mix. Not an unusual evening. As were we transitioning to getting ready for bed, Owen began sneezing a bit. While I went to get his room ready, Keith accompanied him to do teeth and potty. I could hear the sneezing continue, assuming he encountered an allergen or was coming down with a cold.
Then Keith came in and told me he thought it was way too dry in the house and that we needed to turn up the humidifiers or something, because Owen had just sneezed a bunch of brown gook out of his nose. Yuck.
All during bedtime reading, sneezing. (“Owen, is your nose itchy?” “Oh, yes, so itchy!”) During prayers, sneezing. Lights out, more sneezing. I finally asked Owen if there was something I could do to help and he said no. So I asked him if he knew what was going on with his nose:
“Yeah, when I was eating my trail mix I laughed and snarfed a carob chip up my nose and now it’s making me sneeze.”
When I told Keith, he said, “Oh. Now it makes sense why Owen said, ‘Yum!’ when he sneezed the brown gook.”
Ewwwww. ….
Tags: carob chips, snarf, sneeze
Posted in General, age 7 | No Comments »
January 13th, 2012 by deb
Honestly, there are times I’m not quite sure where I get this kid. After the hugest dinner a 50-lb child could possibly ingest, Owen proceeded to sit on the kitchen island, and in a loud, deep voice, issue the following proclamation:
“In the name of George Lucas, stop shaking your head.”
There is not even a glimmer in my feeble brain as to where he would have gotten this from. All I know is it was worth the intense round of giggles that burst forth from the cutest 7-year-old in the land … every time he repeated this. Because he said it several times, once he saw the reaction he got — he knows a good thing when he sees it.
Tags: george lucas
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 7 | No Comments »
December 26th, 2011 by deb
Amidst a flurry of conversation that included the MacKenzie brothers, Bryan Adams and “eh,” came talk of Canadians in general. Owen, who ever since he turned seven is more interested in being a part of the adult conversations, added his two cents (and more; much, much more) with, “Isn’t Jay Black a Canadian?”
Keith and were like, um, no, and wherever did you get that idea?
It was like watching the light dawn in those sparkling (with the dickens!) blue eyes when Owen said, “Oh, not a Canadian, a Comedian!”
But wait — there’s more! “What does a Comedian do?”
Keith told Owen that comedians tell jokes for a living. Without missing a beat, the little cherub exclaimed, “Wow! That’s got to be the easiest job in the world!”
Probably I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t properly parent that one, so Keith jumped in and explained that Jay had to travel a lot, perform shows late at night and not get to see his family very much. Owen insisted that all Jay would have to do was go to www.cleanjokes.com and tell them to the audience — easy as pie. Keith continued to patiently detail the fact that comedians have to make up their own jokes, and usually they tell their jokes in the form of a story.
So does Owen still want to be Jay Black when he grows up, or did Keith kill the dream?
Tags: canadian, comedian
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 7 | 2 Comments »
January 20th, 2011 by deb
Owen had a homework sheet this week that had four sets of three words, each with a letter missing. There was a box with four letters to choose from, and each set of words would have the same letter missing. His letter choices were P, O, T, M.
So you just knew that one of the sets would look something like this:
FAR ___
___Y
JU __ P
You gotta give him props for inevitably sounding out the word “fart,” and for bringing himself back from his hysterical round of giggles to realize that he could also make the word “farm.”
Soon after that, he deemed homework as not fun and refused to do the rest. Is it because he wasn’t allowed to write down the word “fart”? We’ll never know.
Tags: farm, fart, homework, sounding out
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 6 | No Comments »
January 20th, 2011 by deb
Last night, when Owen and I were laying out his clothes for school today, he came across an old black sweater vest from last Christmas and wanted to wear it with a long-sleeved black shirt underneath it. Not one to discourage individuality, I said nothing negative about his choice of garments and continued to get them ready.
Owen then started telling me about his friend who said that fancy clothes aren’t cool, but that he didn’t agree. I told him that I didn’t agree either. And since Owen had been listening to ZZ Topp’s “Sharp-Dressed Man” all day long, I explained to him that “every girl’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man.” He dug that!
This morning, he decided to wear something different, because he “didn’t want the girls to be all over me at school.” He’s just not ready to be adored for more than his dimples, I guess!
Tags: sharp dressed man, sweater vest, zz topp
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 6 | No Comments »
January 8th, 2011 by deb
Owen and I were reading a riddle book tonight (Riddle Me This). We’ve read riddles from this book several times before and I’m always impressed with how well Owen does with the guessing. The we got to this riddle:
What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
The answer, of course, is your name (but I’d argue that it could also be your phone number), but Owen was a bit stumped. So I started to repeat the riddle using his name a lot, and when Keith came into the room, I was sure to add in a loud, “Daddy,” after I read him the riddle.
It didn’t take Owen long before he came up with the perfect answer: “Your Bed.”
Now it probably won’t take you long to guess that Owen is having trouble sleeping (what else is new?) and he’s been sleeping in bed with me while Keith has taken over sleeping in Owen’s bed. A queen-sized bed just doesn’t work with a 6-year-old.
Will the cleverness never cease? I hope not.
Tags: bad sleep, funny, owen, riddles, sleepless
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 6 | 1 Comment »
December 18th, 2010 by deb
After a dinner playdate with a friend who lives in Millis, Owen and I went to enjoy the lights at Millis Wonderland. It’s amazing, by the way. Owen must have heard my friend telling me about the wealthy family who lives in the house there, and all the buildings on the property, etc.
As we were driving through, admiring all of the elaborate displays of lights and scenes, Owen exclaimed, “I don’t think this guy is rich anymore!”
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 6 | No Comments »
December 18th, 2010 by deb
Owen got off the school bus the other day and was very excited to tell me what he learned in kindergarten that day … the “f” word. In his teacher’s defense, he learned it on the bus, but still. Is this really what I send him to school for:
“Mommy, I know what the “f” word is: fart.”
Not what you were expecting? He is only six!
Posted in General, age 6 | No Comments »
July 29th, 2010 by deb
Owen was having an angry morning today. He didn’t want to do anything to cooperate (of course we had to get out the door and off to camp) and he had every excuse in the book not to brush his teeth, from “I hate toothpaste” to “I hate bristles.” Don’t even get me started on the fact that we don’t say the word “hate” in our house (or apparently one of us does).
At least he didn’t say he hated me, because he pretty much said everything else, including, “I don’t like you and I wish you were never my mother.” Ah, music to the ears.
Finally went to brush his teeth with those hated bristles, and when he came back, the first thing he said was, “I love you, Mommy.” I thanked him, reciprocated and couldn’t keep myself from mentioning the sudden change of tune. Owen, who has an answer for everything, explained: “I think it was love toothpaste.”
If that’s all it takes to have a great day, I should definitely market that stuff….
Tags: love toothpaste, owen, toothpaste
Posted in General, age 5 | No Comments »
July 28th, 2010 by keith.mcduffee
A few weeks ago, Owen and I were riding bikes down to the end of our short street. A car was coming, so we pulled over to the side. Owen said, “I wonder if that’s Molly’s dad.”
As the car went by, we could see it was some older, gray and balding guy in a collared, button-down shirt.
“Nope,” Owen said. “It’s just some business guy.”
“Oh yeah, what makes you say it was a business guy?”
“Because. He was wearing clothes like Pa and Grampa wear.”
Posted in General, Owen views the world, age 5 | No Comments »