My son has his annual appointment with his cardiologist this afternoon. Yesterday, when I told him we would be seeing his heart doctor he got a little nervous.

I reassured him, “There won’t be any needles. They’re just going to put some stickers on your belly (an EKG) and then they’ll put some goo on your chest and use a wand to take some pictures (an echocardiogram). It won’t hurt at all.”

Of course, because he’s a boy he then asked, “What kind of goo?”

“Well, it’s kind of like clear jelly, but it’s not sticky. You’ll be able to see your heart on TV and sometimes they add color and you can see your red and blue blood mixing because of the hole in your heart. It’s pretty cool, buddy.”

He asked, “My red blood mixes with my blue blood?”

“Yes, it does.”

He scrunched up his face and said, “Maybe that makes my blood purple.”

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My six year old son has been known to say things without thinking them through first. He gets that from me. Poor kid. I can just hear him talking about me when I’m long gone…”My Mother? Well, she gave me the knack for sticking my foot in my mouth. Oh, and my unibrow comes from her too.”

The two of us really do mean well. In his case, the blunders stem from his pure innocence, whereas mine come from my desire to be quick-witted. I may think fast, but I don’t think smart. I want to be funny, but am still learning how to do that quickly and without offending people.

I am a typical parent. I want my kids to be better, more intelligent (my nine year old daughter already has this one covered), kinder, and funnier than I am. I know my son makes me laugh, but most of the time it’s because he has unknowingly hurled an insult at someone. I have always assumed that as he got older and realized what he was saying, I would laugh at him a whole lot less.

But today I sat in on a meeting at his school and listened as his speech therapist told the group how funny he is.

Then his teacher said, “Oh yes, he has a great sense of humor.”

And words like “unbelievable” were thrown around as they all nodded in agreement about his hilarious skills.

Apparently my kid has been making the folks at school laugh without being mean-spirited, and that made me swell with pride.

And, because I frequently have the taste of foot on my tongue, I was also just a little bit jealous.

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