Boys Say the Darndest Things

All the boys in my family are pretty darn funny. They say funny things, sometimes on purpose, and sometimes not on purpose. For example, once when Big Tuna was riding in the car with Mom and me, and Mom was blissfully unaware that there was a pedestrian strolling into the space that was soon to be occupied by our car, Big Tuna shouted in panic, "Dude behind you!!" Very elegant wording, indeed. Here are a few more illustrations of how funny these boys are.

A couple of weeks ago, my brother and his son, Big J, were featured in a collection of photographs taken at a football game and then published on the university's website. Their picture was the cutest, since most of the other pictures were of scantily-clad football "fans" who seemed just as interested in drinking as they were in watching football. I made a similar remark to my brother about the pictures, and he responded, "Yeah, but we quickly became their friends. [Big J] commands attention of everyone, including hoochie mamas."

Another time, while I was home for the summer, Becca and Big Tuna spent the night at my parents' house with me. As I got ready for bed, I saw something disturbing and therefore marched out to the living room and said to Big Tuna, "There's a gecko in the bathroom." After several moments, he correctly inferred that he needed to go remove the gecko from the bathroom, but he didn't seem very enthusiastic about this responsibility. When he saw that the gecko was all the way in the back corner of the room, he tried to talk me into going about my business and not worrying about the gecko. I said, "What if it runs into my foot???" He said, "I guarantee you that it absolutely will not run into your foot." I refused to believe him. A few seconds later, the gecko ran out from its hiding place, straight into Big Tuna's foot.

My last examples occurred after my mom and I spent the day with two of my nephews at the children's museum. It was a fun day, but those of us under the age of 3 were very tired and soon transitioned into "melt-down" stage. I had to basically drag him through the museum while he screamed and kicked until I found my mom and Big J and made her take over. We managed to get Little J into his car seat, still screaming and kicking, and Big J peacefully climbed into the car seat beside him. As we drove away amidst the crying and punching, Big J calmly remarked, "This is what happens when you don't eat a good breakfast."

Mom and I laughed uproariously at this mature comment from my 5-year-old nephew and couldn't wait to report it to Dad. He also got a kick out of the story, and as we talked about it, I mentioned how throughout Little J's tantrum, Big J seemed non-chalant, almost to the point of being unaware of his brother's behavior. My dad then aptly said, "Just like the plains antelope when one of their herd is being eaten by lions."

HAHA!!!!