Not exactly what I expected my 8-year old daughter to say, but I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and it probably could have been a lot worse.  She hears me talk while I’m driving!

I guess that’s how it is with siblings; they hate each other on a moment to moment basis, but if you try to hate one of them, the other jumps right in.  Ben was complaining about one of the kids in his class not being nice to him and Ela chimes in with that jewel of a statement.  What made it extra funny, was that she was working on her homework, had her head down and seemed to be completely disengaged from the conversation, then, BAM!  It’s amazing.  Kids really do hear everything unless you’re looking directly at them, using their name and giving them advice or discipline.  So the takeaway from this, I guess is: when you think your children are not listening, they are, when you think they are listening, they’re not.  If you want your child to listen to you, direct your comments to someone else.  You got that?  There’ll be a test later.

Aye, it just happened!  Ben was doing something “stupid” and I asked him to stop…3 times: Loud, Louder, and ME.  He didn’t hear me either time, then I said, “Ice cream, Ben?” in a regular voice and he immediately said, “Huh?”  Where’s the knitting needle?