I leave you with the musings of my children. Enjoy!

Eilís - or Birdy, as she is known - is our “well” of deep thought. She comes up with some of the oddest takes on life and death and everything in between. As she always has to have the very last word you need to stand clear when she ponders her famous “Well,...” followed by a pause, and a thought that may leave you with a sense of “How’d a 5 year old think that up?”

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Birdy: “If you put one cow on the back of another, how many cows would it take to reach the moon?”

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Birdy: “Daddy? Do flies throw up?”

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Birdy: “I’m 5 now and I’m doing many kinds of new things; I’m learning to read, I do flips, and I’m eating chicken right off the bone, too.”

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Upon the realization that car signals precede turns, while not yet knowing that the turn signal is initiated by the driver,...

Birdy: “How does our car know that you are going to turn?”

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While watching the “Sound of Music” and noting the title of Julie Andrew’s character;

Birdy: “Why do they keep calling her Froghide Maria.” (that’s Fräulein)

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Birdy is already thinking about family, and she wants to have a large clan. One morning over breakfast she informed me that she would like to have about 6 kids. She also mentioned that she wanted to name her first child “Lucky”.

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After a particularly long road trip it was apparent that I needed to hunker down and clean out our van. As the mess was a communal effort I felt more than justified to press my favorite little helper into action.

Dad: “Bird, would you like to help me clean out this van?”

Skipping off and smiling.

Birdy: “No thank you, Daddy.”

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Not to be outdone, and despite the difference of 3 years in age, Brendan is still unleashing a few beauties of his own;

Brendan: “You can tell that the turkey is done cooking because the ‘buzzard’ on the oven is going off.”

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Brendan: “To keep from getting sunburned you should make sure that you put enough ‘sunscream’ on.”

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Dinosaurs no longer roam the earth. According to Brendan they became ‘distinct’ millions of years ago.

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Quizzing Brendan on the Judicial tenure at the Supreme Court.

Dad: “How long is the term of a member of the Supreme Court?”

Brendan: “You can’t be a member of the Supreme Court if you are dead.”

Ah, that this were true for congressmen!

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We knew that Brendan’s Market and Trade Project at school had really sunk in when he gleefully stated; “I can’t wait to go to school tomorrow, so that I can barter and trade for products and services with my classmates!”

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Like her brother, Eilís is also an ace in baseball, maybe not geography;

Daddy: What’s the most populace state?

Birdy: Calripken
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Brendan on history:

Brendan: “Is Lance Armstrong’s footprint still on the moon?”

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During the Advent and Christmas seasons the kids keep a plastic molded Fisher-Price nativity scene in their room. Birdy enjoys saying her prayers while holding fast to the Baby Jesus or the Angel of the Lord. One evening we pondered the gender of angels. I pointed out that angels were beings of spirit and not encumbered by a gender identity. Birdy angrily snatched up the plastic herald and turned it over to have a look under the robes, only to be disappointed; “It’s not realistical!!”

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Brendan and his buddy Josh are mad about toy weapons. As they are also in the same Sunday School class we enjoy swapping the boys out for playdates here or at Josh’s house. The boy’s relish trading their toy guns out for a week or more. One Sunday Brendan anticipated a visit from Josh by reminding us; “Can you please call Josh’s house and tell him that I need him to bring ALL his guns to church!!”

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Finally, snuggling up at the end of the day is a special time especially when you drift off together after prayers and a story; the warmth, the purring kitten, that special place that is not quite awake and not yet sleep. One night while rousing myself to go downstairs and finish some choirs I looked down at my beautiful, snoozing angel and kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “I love you, Bird.” The response sleepily came from that other side of sleep, “I love me too, Daddy.”