From the Backseat #2

Last Friday, we were on our way out to dinner as a family. Jeff had returned home from being gone a few days and, needless to say, everyone was MORE than ready to escape the confines of the house “happy as a family” as Brighton likes to say it. Dinner or no dinner, I was thrilled just to have someone else to respond to the children’s questions and comments. Jeff has always been better at this since he has a higher tolerance for silliness and words in general. (Quantity of words, I should say.) Unfortunately, “irritated” became the buzz word in the car. Julia and I were re-hashing an embarrassing moment from earlier in the day when she referred to one of my dear friend’s 19 month old as an “irritating little girl”- with my dear friend present. Yes. Awful. (And, friend, I still just cringe thinking about it.) Julia did not mean it as horribly as it sounded. Really. She had been a huge help entertaining our sweet little friend and I think Julia was getting weary of picking up a toy she kept dropping. I think she also wanted to try out a word that, sadly, she hears her mother use a lot. (I am working on that.) So after that discourse, explaining one more time why that wasn’t appropriate to say about our friend, Brighton decides to try out “irritated” on his own tongue. So he says, “Mom, I get irritated when those big kids talk bossy to me.” Fair enough. Doesn’t bossy always result in irritation? I asked him which big kids. He answers, “ALL of them.” To him, “big kids” are anyone taller than he is. So, that’s just about everyone at this stage of the game. He goes on, “It hurts my ‘fellings’.” He pauses, then says, “Actually, it hurts my whole body.” Well said, I thought. I knew exactly what he meant.