You know your kids are smarter than you when...

I have two phones in the house -- well three but the portables are linked to each other -- and somehow, a little girl I know has managed to outsmart us all by making minor adjustments to them.

Both portable phones now have a fixed date and time on them, thanks to Alex. No matter how many times you go to the menu and change the date and time to the correct one -- every single person who ever calls this house (according to our phones) calls at 9:20 p.m. on March 16. Every. Single. One.

Although amusing at first, it is rather frustrating when you're too lazy to check your voicemail and just want to take a quick peak through the call display log to see if anyone called while you were out.

Our other phone is a fancy-shmancy video phone. And it used to sound like an old fashioned rotary phone (I think) when it rang. Under the menu, this was listed as bell1. Then suddenly one day, the phone sounded funny while ringing -- and later, after a little research, it was discovered that bell2 is now the ringtone. Fine, no problem.

Oh yeah, wait. Bell1 no longer exists on the menu.

And the final reason my kids are smarter than me is actually all Austin. At almost 4, he has learned how to work the system.

On Christmas Day, he wasn't overly interested in eating his dinner (which is not unusual for him). He picked at it, and since it was Christmas, I didn't feel like fighting with it. So he left the table having barely eaten a single bite.

Then dessert came around and he rushed back to his seat. Now, the rule in our house is no dessert unless you eat your dinner (or at least eat a reasonable amount of it -- and the definition of reasonable is determined by mommy and/or daddy only). So, when he started asking for desserts, I said "I don't know Austin, you didn't eat your dinner tonight".

And he said...

"But mommy, if I ate all my dinner, then I wouldn't have any room left in my tummy for treats."

I was left without a good comeback and needless to say, he got a plate full of treats.