Somebody should be writing this down. Oh, wait.

This afternoon we got in the car to go meet up with some friends at a local pub. As Jason pulled away from the house, Nate asked, "Dad, why do you always drive? Is that one of your talents?" Jason grinned and with a sideways glance at me, said, "Yeah, Nate, I think I'm pretty good at it." Then I nearly pulled a muscle rolling my eyes, but that's not the point of this story.

This got Nate talking about talents. He asked us what we thought he was good at. So we started telling him all sorts of good things about himself. (Ava was with the friends we were meeting at the pub, otherwise I'm sure she would've wanted in on this, too.) We told him how observant he is; how he notices things that most people don't, how he has a good heart, how he is very funny and makes us laugh. He didn't really understand what we meant by "observant", so Jason tried to explain to Nate that he often sees things differently than others, and notices what others don't. Nate wasn't so sure this was a talent--I think he was hoping we'd talk about light saber skills or how good he is on his scooter. You know, exciting stuff.

Later, as we all drove back home, the kids were telling us about who they played with at the pub. Hmmm, I should explain to my non-Aussie readers. Prior to moving here, my idea of a "pub" was that it was strictly a bar--for adults only. However, here, a lot of pubs are actually quite family-friendly. Families go there on weekend afternoons to eat and listen to live music. The one we go to a lot has a huge outdoor seating area, and on Sundays there's a petting zoo for kids and jumping castles, as well as a playground.

Anyway, the kids were telling us about some girl vs. boy drama that happened in the jumping castle. Nate said, "Some girl called me a scaredy-cat!" We asked him what he said in return, and he said he told her that no, she was the scaredy-cat. But he wasn't too pleased with that comeback. We were talking over other possible responses--we've been trying to teach the kids how to speak up for themselves. Not teaching them to be rude, but just trying to help them have the confidence to speak. Ava weighed in with her opinion--it wasn't nice to call the girl a scaredy-cat back--we gave some other possible replies.

Then, Nate said, "What I shoulda done is call her an animal name cause she called me an animal name. So, like if she called me a scaredy cat, then I could call her a deadly snake." Jason and I both cracked up laughing--at the sheer unexpectedness of it. A deadly snake?? Who does that? Nate protested when we laughed: it wasn't funny, he said, he was being serious.

Okay, Natey. And this, right here, is a perfect example of one of your talents. I would've never thought of that.