How Can You Say "No" to That?

Last night, after the kids had gotten into jammies, brushed their teeth, and been hugged soundly, we sent them all down to bed. Ty, Mom, and I settled in to watch a rousing episode of Criminal Minds. Soon, however, a little blond head poked around the bar in the dining room and then sheepishly crept into the room. My sweetest Zachary walked up to Ty, looking up through his long, blond eyelashes and said, "Daddy, when I tuck myself in, it just doesn't feel good, but when you do it, it feels good, so will you please do it for me?" Mom and I nudged each other and hid our smiles as Ty looked at his beautiful son in shock. Then, Ty looked at us with a wry smile on his face. How could anybody say "no" to logic like that. I felt such a rush of love as I watched my husband, with our small son's hand tucked into his, walking to the stairs to take Zachary back to bed.
It's the little things that help to remind us how wonderful it is to be a parent! I love all my babies so much and hope that none of them ever grow too old to want to be tucked in every once in a while.

The Dirty Joke

It's horrible, but my first blog is one of mortification!
This weekend, we went up to Utah to visit my brother's family and see his beautiful baby boy be blessed. It was a quick trip, but worth it. We went to Brazos Grill, played cards, Ty got his Mushroom Bounty Cheese and all was well. Not to mention, my adorable nephews, my brother, and my SIL are closer than 5 days away, so we can visit!!!
Back to the story, as we were driving back to sin city after our whirlwind mini-vaca, my husband says to me quietly. "I guess Samantha made Sandi blush this weekend." My tongue went a little numb as I imagined the cause. "What," I whined. "She told her a joke." Oh crap. So I turned in my seat and made Samantha take off her headphones. "What joke did you tell Aunt Sandi this weekend?" She claimed she couldn't remember how it went, so I tried a different approach. "Where did you hear this joke?" I asked. Tristan heard it from a boy who's name will not be mentioned here. Tristan's turn to remove the phones. "What's this joke I'm hearing about?" Tristan starts sputtering and begging me not to make him tell. Uh-oh, this is gonna be bad. After asking repeatedly and then yelling at the boy, I pointed out that the very fact that he didn't want to share it with me tells me that it's not a joke he should be telling. "Samantha, you are not in trouble, but I need to know what this joke is." She paused and then began, "There was this kid and a dad and sometimes the kid has to take a shower with the dad..." Are you kidding me!!! -The joke was really bad and I am NOT going to repeat it, so don't ask!- I could see Sandy's shocked face in my mind and I was mortified! My skin got too tight for my body and my breath caught in my chest. Samantha didn't even know what the joke meant. Tristan did and would have loved to be "beamed" to Outer Mongolia at that moment. So we got to have the talk about what is and isn't okay to repeat, what to say if someone starts talking about something like that, that it's okay to come to us if you hear something you don't understand and so on. Tomorrow, I get to call Sandi and apologize profusely and since the family of the boy who told the joke to Tristan is in St George for the week, I get to ruminate on how to broach the subject with his mother when they get back. Yeah!
After the "talk", just when my heartbeat had almost returned to normal, I heard Samantha's voice form the backseat, "Dad, what does the joke mean?" Oh joy. Ty stammered, "It's not something you need to know about right now."
Parenting is not for the faint of heart!