Out Of The Mouth Of Ezra: His Best Quotes

In a family of 14 kids, it takes something to distinguish yourself. Each of our kids has their giftings in  various endeavors such as music, athletics, bug catching, eating, or even eyelashes (see Judah). But hands down the Sabo who has come up with the best quotes is Ezra, now 8 years old. We can sit around as a family and laugh about his humdingers, which roll off his tongue very naturally. Here's the list of our top Ezraisms, in no particular order. What's your favorite?

1) Ezra isn't a fan of thunderstorms, particularly when he was younger. He really didn't like it when someone would leave the door open while watching the show. One time he had enough and ordered the front door shut, barking: "Don't let the thunder in!"

2) The kids -- even our older ones -- all really enjoy playing the game "Town." It entails everyone having a profession and basically operating a town. There's a banker, a sheriff, a thief (it's always Ethan), a baker and a doctor and other professionals comprising Saboville. One time Ezra was apparently under the weather so he went to go see Dr. Claire. He walked into her office and announced, "I'm here to get fixed!"

3) We were at missions training at Serving In Mission when Ezra was just 4 years old. During one of his classes the teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Ezra thought about it briefly. "I don't know," he said. "A man or something."

4) Ezra and his brothers were running around the house with their shirts off. Julie wanted to know what was up with that and why they didn't have their shirts on. Ezra was incredulous. What kind of question was that? "Because boys just do dat stuff," he said.

5) There was a certain finality to the way Ezra went about things when he was 3 or 4. There wasn't much gray area, no wiggle room, nothing to be misconstrued. He explained it best this way: "That's just how it be's!"

6) Olivia was newly potty trained and happened to be taking care of business with the bathroom door open. Ezra happened to be running by and saw her in there going potty. As he zoomed by he hollered out, "Keep pushing Olivia!"

7) Ezra was very particular about how he liked his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches back in the day. It had to be just so or it got sent back to the kitchen. But the details could get a little fuzzy and something could get lost in translation if you didn't know what Ezra's instructions entailed, such as whether he liked it cut up in halves or quarters. Taylor was making him a p.b. & j sandwich and was trying to get the particulars. An exasperated Ezra finally announced, "I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no jelly, crust off and I want it in halvits and pennies."

8) Ezra and other kids were arguing over who would get the first brownie of the batch Claire was baking. Claire wasn't going to stand for it and asked what they would say if she sent them to bed with no brownies. Ezra responded, "I would call you the unhappiness maker."

9) Ezra and his brothers and sisters were outside riding bikes after a thunderstorm. Something didn't feel right to Ezra, however, and he hopped off his trike. Lo and behold the seat was wet. He ran around a bit and then suddenly scrunched up his face. "Hey," he said, "who peed my pants?"