Foster Funnies

It was cold and windy in the Dry Tortugas over the Christmas holidays, but we still had fun. The boys' friend, Ben, even joined us to celebrate Gunnar's 13th birthday on the 29th of December.

Our little guy from Haiti was pretty funny on this trip. We took him out sailing a lot when he first arrived 14 months ago, but then didn’t move from the dock for about 7 months ‘cuz Dave’s school schedule went crazy. Anyhow, Chris (3 years old) was really bewildered by the whole experience this time.

When we were under way he kept shouting, “I’m falling! I’m falling!” from the motion of the boat.

We anchored out the first night and on the second day he took in his new surroundings of empty seas and said, “Mommy, where is our spot?” I said, “What?” “Where is our spot?” he insisted. I said, “You mean by RB Lady?” (That’s the name of a boat next to us at dock.) “YES!” He only looked more confused when I said, “Back in Key West where it always was.”

Even better, on our approach to our destination, which included a massive 1800’s brick ruin, three stories in height on it’s own island, I said, “Look, Chris, it’s Fort Jefferson!” He looked and said, unimpressed, “K-mart.” I laughed and insisted, “Ft. Jefferson.” At which point he asked for the binoculars. Holding them up to his face he said, “I look at K-Mart.”

Poor guy – we rocked his world.

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Gunnar was talking to us one day and tossed the word "controversity" into the conversation.

"Controversity?" I laughed. "What's that?"

"It's a college where you learn to argue," Dave quipped.

"I want to go there!" Trey exclaimed.

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Chris is keeping me on my toes these days.

On January 4th I expressed my regret for telling him to "suck it up" when he was whining. A couple days later when I asked him what he was doing he cheerfully replied, "Sucking it up."

Then on Wednesday of this week Chris spilled milk on he and Trey at the dinner table so Dave had them strip down right there. Trey got a bit obnoxious in his birthday suit so Dave admonished him not to "flaunt his nudity". Chris immediately started chanting "flaunting nudity, flaunting nudity". Sigh.

And then, on Friday, as I made the BIG step off Odysea with my arms over full of stuff I muttered to myself, "I'm going to kill myself!" Chris immediately said, "You kill yourself, Mommy?" I must confess I felt compelled to mention the context of my original statement to his preschool teacher . . . just in case he decided to repeat this last one to her!

Gonna have to really watch my words!