My Favorite Child

I read a blog tonight that reminded me of something that I need to write down. She was saying that she was scared that when she was pregnant with her second daughter, she wasn't going to love another one as much as the first. Then when the baby arrived, she just made room in her heart. Then she told about her being offered some kind of blogger trip and that they asked her to bring her "favorite child". She was saying that people don't have a favorite child and that the trip planner probably didn't have children of their own. I started laughing reading this! I was thinking, yes, she is right. But then I got even more tickled about something that goes on at our house.........

Kyle works such long hours in the summer and the kids just pounce on him when he gets home at night. It's actually one of my favorite moments of the day because I love to watch all of them drop what they are doing and run out in the yard to meet him if they spot his truck. Gunnar's little legs run as fast as they can. Slade tells Finley and Finley tells Gunnar. Then they all run out like they haven't seen him in a month. Anyways, some days, I get flustered with my precious children and I feel like snapping. I always report who was nice and who did something crazy/bad/rude/weird. I guess this past spring, Kyle just started one day asking me who was my favorite of the day. I was like, what??? He said "who acted the best, who's number #1?" And so I named the child that had the best day that day. For instance, Slade might have watched Gunnar for me and didn't gripe about it. Or Finley didn't have a bad attitude breakdown. Or Gunnar walked around and gave everyone kisses all day. Sometimes it's everyone. Sometimes it's nobody.

And that one time of asking who is #1 turned into every single night. Kyle gets home and asks every single night-"Who won favorite today?" If someone really pulled a good one, they cringe and usually hide there face. They know dad will know they weren't the favorite. Sometimes I have to think about it because they all were all good. But the funniest thing about the whole story is that the older two know exactly who won. Most days before I can answer, one shouts out "Not me" or "Slade is" or "I won". And we never discuss it till Kyle gets home. They just know. They totally know. How funny is that?

So when I read that bloggers story, you can imagine why I found this pretty funny. Yep, in the Smart house, we seem to have a favorite child! The good thing is that the favorite is spread pretty evenly across the board. Statistically speaking, if you aren't favorite today, you have a 33.3333% chance to win the next day. Well, that, and depending on if you woke up on the right side of the bed.

                   And just so you know, today was a tie.