So for many years, I have heard kids speak wisdom and wit. This Thanksgiving, I thought it would be nice to recount just a handful of quotes that make me think and remind me of how awesome my job is.

Alternative to crying it out. After weeks of hearing his sleep-deprived, exasperated parents complain about his 5 month old Baby Brother’s propensity to wake up every 2 hours, Nico said, “Mommy, can we put Baby on the sleep train tonight?”

Because this was her normal. “Daddy, when you were little and they put the needle in your back, were you brave also?” –A 3½ year old girl with leukemia, who routinely had needles in her back to deliver chemotherapy to her spinal fluid.

Getting the right answer is not always the most important goal. Sometimes I ask kids questions to see if they understand the concept of opposites. One particular 4 year old girl and I had a conversation that went like this: So if summer is hot, then winter is… “Cold!”  Good job! And if the sky is up, then the ground is… “Down!” That’s right! And if an elephant is big, then a mouse is—“Get it away from me!”

Selflessness. I overheard the following conversation standing outside a patient’s hospital room. “Gramma, they say if I get a new heart, I’m not allowed to be around smokers. So can you promise to try to quit smoking if I come home?” –16 year old boy waiting for a heart transplant, trying to convince his grandmother to quit smoking.

Love of learning. 5 year old Alex was learning about the life cycle of a pumpkin in kindergarten. Afterward, he went up to his teacher and let her know that pumpkin life cycles were kind of boring. “When are we going to learn how to shoot pumpkins into space or blow them up?”

Keeping it real. My 5 year old nephew recently was hit by a Suburban in a parking lot. Thankfully, the SUV was going slow and Campbell was absolutely fine. When he got home, his mom wanted him to explain the situation to his 3 year old sister, since a lesson coming from her older brother would be much more compelling than Mom’s nagging about safety in parking lots. My sister-in-law overheard their conversation: “Margie, I have something very important to tell you. Today, I got hit by a car. But I was very lucky—“

“Lucky?! Campbell, you got hit by a car! That’s not lucky!”

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.