Say What?

Between the weekend of Christmas and the weekend of New Years, I had my nieces and nephew over for a couple of days. On one of those days, our good friend Monique and her kids (who grew up with my nieces and nephew) came over for a visit. They live in Ohio but came out to Portland to visit family for the holidays, and I was lucky to get to spend some time with them.

Kids really do say the funniest things when you least expect it. And it's funny to us adults only because the things they say are so pure, innocent and just matter-of-fact. What they say is really how they understand and believe things...even though it isn't always they way it is. Usually I only get the pleasure of hearing funnies coming from my little 3 year old, but apparently, older kids say the darndest things too. Keep going for a picture show and a few short funnies (which, I promise, were really funny in person despite how not funny it might be by reading about it):

Enrique, Antonio, Anycia, Ezra, Apache, Jahlani, Esperanza, Elijah and Julian

I was cooking in the kitchen while the kids were playing amongst themselves in different areas of the house. Angelica and Esperanza were on the floor in the living room doing something and I heard this conversation:

Esperanza asks Angelica "you have a gray shirt on?" Angelica replies with a "yeah." After a short moment Esperanza asks her another question, "you have boobies?" This is where I begin paying attention to the conversation. Angelica responds threw giggle,s "ah, yeeeaaah." Then there was a long and thoughtful pause before Esperanza finally asks "you have a baby?"

Angelica and I burst into laughter and responds, "um, NOOO!". Esperanza clearly knows the purpose of boobies!

Somehow Angelica managed to escape all the pictures. She headed home the afternoon that Moniques kids came over and I hadn't busted the camera out yet so she missed the whole gang photo. Here's another attempt at it...this one, all eyes are on the camera!

The newest addition to Moniques family: Baby Jahlani. He looks just like all her other babies I think.

Apache and Anycia with Esperanza taggin' along

Apache and Enrique stayed the night to spend some time with Anycia and Antonio. While we were cleaning up after dinner we all got into the discussion of race and culture. I don't remember the specifics as to how the conversation got to this part, but here's where it gets funny...

Apache says, "I don't have any white friends." I ask her, "Why not?" She shrugs and says, "I don't know." It quickly dawns on me that she does have a very good friend who is white. So I say to Apache, "What about Anycia? She's white." In unison Apache says "oh, yeah!", while Anycia says, "I'm not white!"

We laugh a little, yet we're all a little confused and curious. So I keep it going...

As I continue to wash dishes, I respond to Anycia, "Yes you are Anycia. You're half white and half Mexican." Anycia very matter-of-factly says, "No, I'm not white!" I have to ask, "then what are you Anycia?" Her response, "I'm half Mexican and half Native American." I say, "But your mom (my full blooded sister) is white and your dad is Mexican." One of your parents would have to be full Native American for you to be half Native American." Anycia's responds "My mom is full Native American."

<>

Family history is, of course, hard for anyone to follow and figure out, especially for a 10 year old. To be mixed cultures, I imagine makes it even more difficult. Though Anycia's comments were comical to all of us, I felt the need to at least attempt to clarify how much of what we have on our side of the family: a little Irish, a little French, a little Native American (I have 1/32...maybe less), a little German, etc. (basically the usual 'white' mix, unless I'm the one who's confused?). Despite my efforts to simplify a complex topic, Anycia is still convinced her mom is full blooded Native American, but confused as to why I am not....to me that was the funniest part. Love you Anycia!

And then Antonio had a good one...

When I came home from picking up Angelica at the train station on Christmas Eve, she walked in and immediately jumped on top of her brother, Antonio, who was on the couch reading. She was messing with him, wrestling around and picking on him. That must be the teen sibling way of showing how much they love and miss one another. At one point, she must have kneed him in a sensitive area because he yelped, "watch it, I have stuff between my legs!" All us girls burst into laughter and Angelica got up off of Antonio. We laughed for awhile and Antonio just sat there and said "what, I got 'stuff' there".

Apache and Esperanza helping feed Ezra