“I see.”

I really do depend on my minivan, especially the powers bequeathed upon the brilliant entity, the spirit of the minivan, known as Dr. Minivan.  The in-car therapist, listener, and sometimes victim, Dr. Minivan, is always there, waiting to bring out our darkest, silliest, and most embarrassing moments.  A crazy turn, a red light, a lunatic driver, or sometimes just an afternoon drive to church, is all that is needed for the Dr. to get to work on pulling out and reawakening our dormant and most entertaining thoughts. 

This afternoon, it was Reed’s turn to share, while sitting in the back center seat of the van-office which was moving at about 45 miles an hour.  It began with the doctor’s some-time assistant, the younger brother Isaac, who has such effective techniques of persuasion that one could almost call them torture.  This same Isaac was sitting on Reed’s right and giving him unwanted kisses on his ear.  Reed freaked out from the grossness of such a thing and yelled at his brother.  With Dr. Minivan’s coaxing, we the parents, advised Isaac, and all others in the session listening, that we should never give people kisses unless they ask for them.  This bit of advice awoke what had been a dormant memory of Reed’s from his previous year of school, which he, on a whim, unwisely blurted out for his fellow patients and Dr. to hear:

“I kissed a girl  on the cheek at school and got in trouble.  It was during math.  I had to pull a card.”  (similar to getting your name written on the chalk board).

I couldn’t help but let out a small giggle, and not in an unkind I’m-laughing-at-you way, but in a my-boy-is-so-stinkin’-adorable way.  Reed gets so easily embarrassed about the smallest things that sometimes he even gets a little teary eyed.  In this situation, however, all he did was say, “see, this is why I don’t tell people anything.”  Yes, the Dr. certainly has amazing wheedling skills. 

Here are a few photos of our own, sans Dr. Minivan.  Chris pulled up a weed barrier in a planter area and discovered a creepy-crawly fun house operating at full power.  Bugs, bugs, bugs, and none of them could say “what’s up doc?”