Anyone here who has raised children probably has certain moments with their children that stick out in their minds, either because it was particularly funny (or seemed so at the time), or perhaps it wasn't funny at the time but might seem so now, or because it was a poignant moment, or for whatever reason, you find yourself thinking back on these moments. I have no children, by blood, but I adopted a young boy, had several foster children, and raised one of my nephews from the age of twelve. I'll start off with one, although I have others that I'll share later. My son was in bed asleep about 2:00 am on a Saturday morning. He was around nine years old then, I think. I was still up and bored, so I woke him telling him to get up or he was going to be late for school. He mumbled something, so I said, with more energy, "Get up! You have school!" I went back downstairs, and, a few minutes later, he came down the stairs dressed for school. "What are you doing up? It's 2:00 in the morning, and it's Saturday." "But, you said..."
So many I can't really pick out one. We had a lot of fun stuff with animals in Georgia when the older boys were little especially. Different animals in Alaska.
When my kids were little, we had a Shih-Tzu named Ming Toy. She learned to “sing” when we asked her to sing, because we discovered that if we made a high-pitched howling kind of noise , Ming Toy would howl along with us. Then, we started to say the word “sing” to her in that high pitched voice, and before long, she would happily sing when requested. Ming Toy went along with us most places, and one night we were at the county fair together, looking at all the exhibits. I noticed that all three of my kids had disappeared, and at the same time, I saw that there was a crowd of people forming a little ways away from where I was standing. Instantly concerned that it had something to do with my missing children (maybe they were watching whatever was going on ?), so I went over to see. What I discovered was a crowd of people with my 3 kids and Ming Toy in the middle, and Ming Toy was happily serenading the crowd, as my kids encouraged her on to keep singing. Another time, we had gone to church. Our pastor’s wife said that Ming Toy was not allowed to come into the sanctuary, but she was allowed to wait in their apartment, which was underneath the main part of the church . (The church was an old 3 story brick school building, and the pastor lived in the basement.) When we were all in church singing hymns, we could distinctly hear Ming Toy singing along from her place in the basement. I think that is the last time she was allowed to wait for us when we were in church, too.
It was my graduation day June 1989 and I wanted my boys to experience it with me. Before the ceremony began I wanted to take pictures of me so I handed the camera to my oldest son. It was a film camera. I was going through the pictures and I came across a lot of pictures of the men's urinals. I was like,'What the?' and called my oldest son about them. 'I didn't take those. Clayton must have I gave him the camera.' I couldn't help but laugh and still do when I come across them.
You are evil too. My kids were starting to not believe in the Easter Bunny. So in hiding eggs and candy, I had put one small chocolate egg on my white couch in the living room. When one of the kids found it, I started growing that I was going to SHOOT that darn rabbit and I angrily started going around the house growling, Where Is He?!!!! This went on for a good few minutes. But it kept my kids believing a bit longer because they knew I would never put chocolate candy on that couch!
Tonite I am reminded of the joy of having lightning bugs in the yard. I loved to catch them to put in a jar to turn loose in the morning. My kids running and jumping to catch them in the evening. My brother said he did not have them in his area any more. Spraying for mosquitoes etc probably did them in. How many of you still have lighting bugs around?
I used to see them a lot when I lived in Michigan as a child, and I have seen them in Maine, but not much anymore.
They are making a slow comeback here. I saw maybe a dozen scattered in the back yard a couple of weeks ago.
None here, but we saw them in abundance during our recent trip to Missouri. Winters are too long here. They can't make it through.
My widowed son came over yesterday to unload his discussion with his difficult 19 year old daughter and he said to her 'You don't have the sense of 3 donuts.' He must have caught my silent expression because he followed that with 'Mom, I just be making stuff up when I talk to her.' I said, 'Yes, you do.' We both laughed. I never have to wonder why I crack myself up because I have help.
There were times when my son would do something wrong, and, perhaps because I was a pretty young single parent, I had to pretend to be serious while chastizing him. Either he would pick up on that or he learned manipulation from a cat, because he would get such a look on his face that I just had to laugh, and the game was over.
Five kids so lots of "memorable moments." Here's one... My oldest son Brian was just a little guy, and wasn't too sure about having a sibling when I was expecting Kevin. When we brought Kevin home from the hospital, I was sitting in a rocking chair holding him and Brian sidled up to me. He studied Kevin carefully, then looked up and said, "Do you like him, Mama? I don't like him, Mama."