Little Puns & Growing Punchlines

Savoring the little goofy moments with my quickly growing boys

“Dad, I can’t believe your mom is so slow.”

I looked back at Isaac and squinted, trying to figure out where the conversation was going. My mom has had some poor health, so I was preparing for one of those talks when you have to explain the tough parts of life to your kid.

“Yeah, it took her 9 months to make a joke.” Isaac could hardly contain himself as he delivered the punchline perfectly. We both cackled.

I’m sure he lifted the joke straight from YouTube. It didn’t matter. Hearing your kid deliver a perfect dad joke is still a top proud parent moment.

One of our favorite pastimes is trying to catch each other off guard with a pun. And Ian likes to join in with knock knock jokes. He hasn’t quite caught on that he’s supposed to actually interrupt BEFORE I finish saying “interrupting cow who?” for the joke to work!

I’ve been trying to savor these goofy moments because, honestly, parenting has been hard the last little bit. The boys bicker nonstop. Ian may be five, but we’re still waiting for him to grow out of those terrible twos. Isaac is hurtling toward the teen years. His attitude is proof.

Truth is: I’ve been a little tired lately. And I’ve been a little too quick to snap at them when they haven’t gotten dressed after I’ve asked for the 47th time. And I’ve gotten a little short with my responses when the whining crashes in like a tsunami. And I’ve maybe allowed my eyes to roll and my head to shake in disappointment a little too quickly because of it all.

But I’m trying to remember that I only have a little more time left with my little boys while they’re little. They’re growing up, like little boys do.

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The other day Isaac was away with some friends. Meg was driving and a literal chicken crossed the road right in front of us. “Oh man!” I said immediately. “I wish Ike was here. He would have thought that was hilarious.” And he did when I told him about it the next day.

I know my little dudes will be around less as they get older. I know I'll wish for far more of these little moments than I'll actually get. In the meantime, I want to catch all the little jokes and cherish my little guys for who they are now and for the men they’re growing into, little by little.

Maybe they’ll be dads one day, I don’t know.
But I do know they’ll be armed with plenty of dad jokes.