I Once Knew A Boy

I think Mike is the king of object lessons. Any time a situation comes up where he wants to steer Emily in a certain direction, he always has a story that starts with "I once knew a boy."

Tonight, the lesson was about doing what the teacher tells you at school. And he started with his "I once knew a boy" and I automatically smile and roll my eyes. I just cannot get into the stories like he does. But he has Emily totally going with these stories.

So tonight .. "I once knew a boy who got kicked out of school." It took him a while to explain that the kid was not literally kicked by anyone. But just that they wouldn't let him come back to the school. Emily gets SO into these stories and asks a few dozen questions about the story and what happened in it.

"I once knew a boy who sneaked food out of the kitchen and had to go to the hospital."

"I once knew a boy who didn't get anything from Santa Claus ..."

"I once knew a kid who didn't chew his food good and choked on a chicken bone."

"I once knew a kid who opened up the truck door while it was moving and fell out on his head."

"I once knew a boy who told lies and then nobody believed him any more."

Some of them are so funny that it's hard to keep a straight face. Most of the kids in his story ended up in the hospital I think. Mike probably can't remember all the details of the story, but Emily sure remembers! She'll sometimes bring up things that happened in Mike's stories and want to know more about them.

Mike is really good with kids. He always has been. Even before we had kids when we only had a niece, he was always telling her stories.

My kids are lucky to have him as their dad! He is so fun!