The joke is on you!

Mom-mom (my mom) and Sam talk on the phone frequently.  Apparently, Mom-mom likes to tell Sam she is "going to bite her cheeks" when she sees her.  To everyone else, we know this is just a saying and in no way is Mom-mom really going to bite Sam's cheeks.

However, when we went on our recent trip to see the family, Sam remembered Mom-mom's intentions and had no desire to get close for fear of her cheeks getting huge bites out of them.  Not being able to give Sam kisses didn't sit well with my mom.  It wasn't until we were 36 hours into our 4 day trip, that we both figured out what Sam's hesitation was.  As Sam put her hands to cover her cheeks, she moved closer to Mom-mom for a long-awaited kiss.   We all got a good laugh out of how literal Sam took Mom-mom's words and quickly explained Sam could keep her cheeks.

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Ian's been having issues during his school's recess. Apparently the kids in the older grades are not allowing him to play kickball.  Like ever.  This makes Ian feel very left-out, especially when the rest of the boys in his class are able to play the game. We've come to find out that Ian can not play kickball to save his life.  All the boys tell him he can't kick and running to the base only results in him tripping and falling on the way there. I am sure it is not a pretty sight.  Jeff has offered to practice with Ian, but Ian has turned down his offer.  How can you help someone when they don't want to help themselves?

Each evening at dinner I ask Ian how that day's recess went for him and what he ended up doing to pass the time.  Most nights we all feel bad for Ian and try to come up with ways for him to either do other things or tactics he can try to get in the game.

One evening Sam looks at me and says that none of the kids would play with her on the playground.  I ask her to tell me what's going on and she says she needs to talk to me up in her room.  We go upstairs and she closes the door to her room.  We both take a seat on her bed and I say, "Sam, tell me why the kids don't want to play with you."  She gets very quiet, takes the smile off her face and begins to give me a very sad tale of how no one will play with her.  I ask her what happened when she told her teacher and Sam says with much enthusiasm, "I'm just kidding!!!  EVERYONE wants to play with me!  They all love me!   They all want to be with me." 

Oy!  Thank G-d she didn't say this in front of Ian.  It would've only made him feel worse.