So You Want to do the Chicken Dance?

I caught
myself once, telling my kids, “No doing the chicken dance in the middle of
dinner.”  
Yes, life can get crazy here.

So You Want to Do the Chicken Dance?

When the
kids were babies I dutifully recorded their first words and sentences. I
documented every milestone. 

Once we were out of interesting milestones, I decided
to start jotting down funny things I’ve found myself saying to them. And so I
started keeping a little note card on the side of the fridge. I wrote down all
kinds of absurd things that have come out of my mouth over the last several
years.
“Peanut butter is not a fruit.”

“Goldfish are not a fruit.”


“Why is there a toy screwdriver inside my
shoe?”
“Are you really going to eat dinner with an
Easter basket on your head?”
You get the
idea. Especially if you’re a parent.
Now that my
crazies are 6, 6, and 9, they enjoy reviewing this list with me
occasionally. I pull it down off the fridge and read it to them, and we all
laugh over it together.
So last
month, when I was “shopping” on Blogging for Books  looking for a book to
review, I was excited to see that graphic designer and father-of-five Nathan
Ripperger has created an actual book called Things I’ve Said to My Children. I thought I’d write a quick book review and give the book
to my husband as a small Christmas gift.
Unfortunately,
when it arrived, I couldn’t keep it to myself. It was too hilarious not to
share! Who could resist sharing quips like:
“Stop riding that penguin, we’re leaving”
“I am NOT talking to you until you are wearing
underwear.”
And my
favorite,
“No chickens on the trampoline.”
There
are some gross quotes as well, such as
“Please don’t eat the goldfish crackers you’ve
put in your butt.”
I feel
reassured reading all the outrageous quotes in this book. Even if we’re crazy
here, we’re not the only ones. 

I think all families of small children deal with
the hilarious results of undeveloped impulse control coupled with excess
imagination. . . with the mix of scientific curiosity and innocence. Not wanting to
miss a single one of these moments is partly why I chose to be a stay-at-home mom

All parents, though, enjoy hearing about what little kids say and do.
And I guess what we say to them in reaction is really just commentary on what
they are doing. Still, if this book were instead Things My Children Did, it wouldn’t have the same punch.
Things I’ve Said to My Children makes a fitting, light-hearted gift for someone with
whom you want to share “the solidarity of parenthood.” It would be fun for a co-ed
baby shower or a holiday gift for a friend in the trenches with you. Or just for yourself.
I’ve made a
free, simple little printable sized to fit inside the book (or the side of your fridge) for recording your
own family’s most outrageous quotes. To get the pdf version, click here.

My kids will
soon outgrow the “chicken dance at dinner” stage, at least I sort of hope they
will. But we’ll always treasure our little notes about the crazy days when
they were small.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. All opinions are my own.

3 Comments

  1. Sounds like a really funny book! I am so bad at recording stuff. My middle child says some crazy things and I have a scrap piece of paper floating around that I jot them down on when he says them.

  2. I need to start writing these things down, too!! What a great idea, and that book sounds hilarious! Thanks for the free printable! Now that I have something to record my sayings on, I'll be more likely do to it! #madeforkids

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