lost sense of humor?

I feel like I don't have anything interesting to blog about anymore, and I don't know why that is. I look back through my old posts, when Jacob and Ethan were preschoolers, both before and during the first year after Samuel was born, and it seems like life was full of funny antecdotes. Do I not see them anymore? Have I become so accustomed to how kids act that it doesn't amuse me the same way anymore? Am I too focused on myself to notice their cuteness, the humor in sometimes exasperating situations? Has my attitude toward it all changed, darkened?

Well, I don't know whether those things are true or not, but wouldn't you know that as soon as I noticed that I wasn't noticing cute or funny things my kids do, I noticed something cute Samuel did. So, despite not having many funny stories to share lately, here is one:


Samuel really wants to control the dogs, especially the new dog, Laila. I guess it is part of being the youngest in the family, wanting to have someone who is below you in the pecking order. At any rate, he tries to order them around, get them to follow him and stay with him in different rooms of the house, tries to dictate which toys they play with and when, and that sort of thing. A few days ago, I heard him scolding Laila: "Laila Reece!" (Jacob's middle name is Reece.) I asked him if that's what he said, and he agreed. I laughed, "Because she's in trouble?" He said, "Yes! Laila Reece, you in trouble! Laila Reece!" Apparently he has heard us scold Jacob using his middle name pretty often.

On a note somewhat related to the original topic of this post, I edited my post entitled "parenting our children's intelligence" to try to clarify some of what I was trying to say and to make it less obnoxious in places where it might have come off that way. So, if you're interested, or if you missed it the first time, you can check out the changes. I still need to post about the rest of the Nuture Shock book sometime, since it had so many interesting things in it. Maybe next post.