Last weekend I was in a minor three-car accident - the third car wasn't paying attention and failed to stop at the light like the rest of us had done. Thankfully, no one was hurt but my back bumper did get a little damaged. The next day H.G. and the kids were bent down behind the car looking at the bumper when to their surprise I popped the truck from the inside. H.G. then proceeded to tell the kids that they must have tickled the car to make it pop open. Of course, Ethan and Naomi had to try it for themselves and each time H.G. used the key remote to pop open the trunk. Since, my car is not clean very often he decided after a few too many times of that to tell the kids to try just saying, "open up trunk!" instead of tickling the car. They did and the trunk did open! Well, let me tell you that they have been absolutely awe struck with the power to open the trunk on their command. I can't go anywhere without them trying to open the trunk!
I gave H.G. a hard time about starting something like this with my car - knowing that I would be the one dealing with it. But...I must admit I have done the same kind of thing with the kids. I can remember as a kid my mother telling me that she had eyes in the back of her head and one day I also told my kids that. Well, it has been a while since I told the kids that but the other day Naomi came into the kitchen as I cooked and asked me to close the eyes in the back of my head because she wanted to leave a surprise for me. Ethan has searched my head for my extra eyes and Naomi has asked if she'll have them too when she is a mommy. We haven't tried to keep these things going - we do feel like there is a fine line on this kind of stuff. So...we'll wait and when they ask we'll tell them that we were just pulling their leg, but until then H.G. and I will chuckle softly to ourselves and thank God for the joy our children bring us!
