Yesterday I was rushing the boys through an early dinner at 4:30ish as they both had basketball practice at 5 p.m. Edward has his religious ed class at 6:30, so I try to have him eat his dinner at after-school snack time and then have a snack between bball and class.

They were not in the mood. Leftovers are never the most popular and we'd only had a one-day buffer from the original meal (homemade minnestrone soup from Monday.) Even though they said they were hungry, they were just being pokey and goofy. I finally said, "You have to eat your dinner. That's the fuel your body needs for basketball."

Daniel responded, "You mean we are putting gas in our bodies?"

"No," I said. "Gas goes in the car. Food goes in the boys."

He did not miss a beat: "And gas comes out of the boys!"

Even I could not keep a straight face. We had a good laugh, but after about a dozen repetitions of the punch line, I had to explain the concept of diminishing returns. The more you tell a joke the less funny it is. This lesson was not absorbed. I finally had to spoon-feed Edward's soup and then declare car silence for the 5-minute drive to the gym. The second they were out of the car the giggles returned as they repeated the gas line all the way inside.

Thank goodness they are on separate teams!