Our church meets in a movie theater. A couple of Sundays ago Bradley approached me with something important to say. He looked me in the eye and said, "Mom, look at that poster. See how it says stuff under each thing? See what it says under PG-13? It says 'See it with your kids'." Then he looked at me earnestly waiting for my response. He figured the poster was telling all parents to see PG-13 movies with their kids. Finally someone was telling me to let him see all these movies I kept saying "no" to. I had to laugh. I explained to him that the PG stood for Parental Guidance and that I was the Parental and I was Guiding him away from these movies. I informed him that the "See it with your kids" meant that your kids shouldn't see it alone, if they saw it at all. Too cute.
When Dan was deployed last year I spent a lot of time with my friend Jessica. It was really great to have someone there to go through a deployment with. It was also great to have her witness first hand some of Bradley's Bradley-isms. One of my favorites and I think hers too was the toothbrush incident. Both of my kids had one of those automatic toothbrushes that you put batteries in and the brush spins. I was sitting on the couch with Jessica, having just sent my kids to "get ready for bed." Bradley came out into the living room and informed me that his toothbrush was out of batteries and therefore he couldn't brush his teeth. I smiled and replied that while the brush was no longer spinning it was still capable of cleaning his teeth and that he would have to brush the old fashioned way--moving the brush himself.
My last story is more recent. We rented a movie called Pan's Labyrinth. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film. It was very imaginative and had great costumes. So, Bradley wanted to see it. Because of it's rating I said "no". I also explained that he really wouldn't enjoy watching the movie because, "you can't understand anything that anyone is saying and you have to read all of the words at the bottom of the screen." Bradley just shook his head and said, "Why would anyone make a movie like that?"
