Times have changed

I admit, I train my kids to recite things for my amusement. I am sure I got this tendency from my dad, who used to make us perform for him on demand. One example of this is the following conversation that I taught my girls

Me: Oh you are cute! Who made you so cute???
Emily/Dani: YOU DID!!!!
Me: Oh yes I did!

Obviously, I have failed in continuing to pass along this tradition becuase tonight with Evan I had the following exchange as he was getting into the bathtub.

Me: What cute buns you have Evan! Who made those cute buns?
Evan: Who made my buns?
Me: Yeah, who gave you those buns, Evan?
Evan: Uh...... JESUS!

Yeah, guess he put me in my place.

It got better though, as he followed up with

Evan: Did Jesus make your cute buns too, Mom?

Someone is a slave-driver....

Me: Evan do you like the playroom?
Evan: Yeah!
Me: What do you do in there?
Evan: Clean up

Wanderlust

Dani: Mom will you take me to airplanes.com?
Me: UUUUUUHhhh... no idea what you're talking about, Dani.
Dani: You know -- airplanes...... dot com? Where you find out how much it is to on an airplane?
Me: OH! You want to look at plane ticket prices?
Dani: Yes, I want to see how much it is to go see Grandma.
Me: I just looked it up yesterday, Dani. Its $143. Too much
Dani: But I want to see it.
Me: Not now Dani.
Dani: MOM! Don't let me down. Would you let a kid down?
Me: I guess I would.

Ego-centric

I was laying on the couch reading a book and Evan walked up to me

Evan: That book, Mom?
Me: Yep
Evan: Is that book about Evan?
Me: No... its about a boy named Ender
Evan: Oh.

Now, every time he sees me reading the book he says, "That book not about Evan." You know, because its really strange that there would be a book in the world that WASN'T about Evan.

Hydrophobia

Dani is petrified of water that is higher than her waist. This is frustrating and sad to me becuase her fear keeps her within a foot radius of me at the pool and it keeps her from playing with all the other kids at the pool who AREN'T afraid of the water. On Saturday, we all went to the pool and since I had Jason there as backup, I decided to face the problem head on. I put floaties on Dani and took her out to the "deep" part of the pool (its only 3 feet) and made her stay out there with me. We started out sitting on a seat on the side of the pool with her arms clamped around my neck as she shrieked and begged to go home, to getting her to stand on the seat by herself, to clinging to me in the water, to showing her that she could put her feet on the ground and still keep her head above water, to walking around the pool while clutching my hand. She was still very nervous, but I realized that her fear was very real when she pointed to the shallow end and said, "Can we walk over that way? It makes my heart feel better." Poor kid. Maybe I'll have a little more sympathy now, but we're not going to stop -- I'm not going to let her be scared of the water her whole life. She'll miss out on way too much fun!

See Em Run

Jason signed Emily up for a cross country camp this week. He took her every day from 8:00 too 9:30 to run with about 30 kids between the ages of 7 and 12, of which Emily was the youngest. She was almost always last, but by the end of the week she could run over 1/2 a mile without stopping and at the very least, it was an hour and a half a day that she outside being active! She seemed to have fun and now Dani can't wait until next year when she can to go too!

Its a love/hate thing

It started with Evan offering Brendan a "wip," as Evan calls it, of his popsicle. Brendan wanted so many licks after that first one, that Evan went and got Bren his very own and very first popsicle. See him not loving the popsicle here and see him loving the popsicle here. My favorite was when he was holding the popsicle upside down.

Moments before it fell on the ground and he burst into tears

TEETH

I tried today to get a picture to show off Brendan's cute new teeth, but he's such a wiggleworm that the only one I got cut off most of his face. The others that don't show his teeth are pretty cute though. You can see the pictures full size by clicking on them.

He may be small, but he's tough!

Yesterday at church, Rachel Hutzley brought her son, Daniel into the cultural hall where we were having Primary and let him crawl around the back of the room. Since we were doing the same thing with Brendan, we couldn't blame her too much for "intruding" in primary. Brendan was quite happy to have a playmate. You could definitely tell who has siblings and who's an only child. Bren was ALL OVER poor little Daniel -- who is 9 months older and outweighs Brendan by a good 25 lbs. He kept trying to escape but Brendan was relentless. Everytime Daniel sat still, Brendan climbed him. If Daniel tried to crawl away, Brendan grabbed onto the back of his pants and went along for the ride. Rachel and I were in stitches. Luckily, Jason had his cell phone and we managed to get a few pictures, even if they aren't great ones.

Breakfast Conversation

Dani comes downstairs and climbs up on the stool next to me

Me: What do you want for breakfast?
Dani: No one said good morning to me.
Me: Oh, sorry. GOOD MORNING. What do you want for breakfast.
Dani: Um.. does Daddy still know how to make eggs in a nest?
Me: Neither Daddy or I have time to make eggs in a nest this morning. We have to go buy a present for Emily to take to her birthday party.
Dani: Can I have cinnamon toast?
Me: Yeah
Dani: I want 5.
Me: Uh. no. You'll explode.
Dani: People don't explode.
Me: Sure they do, if they eat too much.
Dani: No, if they eat too much they get a stummy ache.
Me: But if they eat TOO TOO much, they'll explode.
Dani: When I get a tummy ache, I go potty and then I feel better.

May There Always Be Sunshine

Dani spent at least a half hour tonight standing in front of my stereo, singing and dancing to a CD that her preschool teacher, Ms. Katie gave her on the last day of school. I'm sure she would have gone on longer but I made her stop for Family Night. She was so excited everytime a song came on. Ms. Katie told me that not too long ago, when music time came around, Dani would suddenly have to go to the bathroom and she eventually discovered that Dani was just hiding out and biding her time until music time was over! Now, she wants to listen to this CD all day and all night! Her favorites are Sticky Bubblegum and Stinky Cake. My favorite is May There Always Be Sunshine, which she also loves, and she sings here. Evan loves this one too, as you will see by his extreme enthusiasm.

Conversing

While cleaning the playroom together:

Emily: Oh! Dani, for a second there I thought you were wearing lipstick!
Dani: I hate lipstick
Emily: Well, when you're a grownup, you'll HAVE TO wear it.
Dani: What will people say to me if I don't wear it? What will my husband say to me?
Emily: He'll say, "You look ugly, I'm not marrying you!"
Dani: What will he say if I DO wear lipsick?
Emily: He'll say "You look beautiful! I HAVE TO marry you!"
Dani: I'm going to wear sunglasses. What will he say if I wear sunglasses AND lipstick?
Emily: (cracking up) He'll say, "You look like a maniac! I'm not going to marry you!!"
Dani: But Emily, I'm going to be a NICE maniac.

Why, oh why is it so fun to torture them?

We're out of baby food, so I thought we'd use our food grinder for the first time and introduce Brendan to regular food. You can see his reaction here.

Surprise

Last night, Jason had to run to the bank and to pick up a listing contract from a client and Emily begged to go with him. I said ok, figuring they'd be home around bedtime. Bedtime came and there was no sign of Jason and Emily. I called.... Jason claimed they'd been held up by the client's chit chat and they'd be home soon. An hour later, STILL no Jason or Emily, I called again and Jason sheepishly claimed that they'd stopped for ice cream and they'd be home soon. ANOTHER hour later, STILL no Jason and Emily and I began to get suspicious, so I DIDN'T call again because I figured one more time and he'd have to fess up to what he was doing and I didn't want to spoil his plans. When he got home, he hurried in and asked me to go get Emily out of the car because she'd fallen asleep. I opened the garage door and found -- A NEW CAR! "Surprise!" Emily yelled -- beside herself with glee. I am quite thrilled with the surprise. The minivan was about 10 years old and I was starting to fear the car breaking down whilst I was out and about with all 4 kids. The a/c also wasn't working. As the weather has been getting warmer, every time I felt a drop of sweat roll down my back, I called Jason and begged for a car with air conditioning. He finally heard my pleas!

Our new Ford Freestyle -- isn't it NEAT-O?

HIding Out

A big kitchen cupboard always makes the best hideout. I love having a cupboard that isn't needed for dishes... I usually keep a few large items in here, but its easy to clean out, especially if it will keep the boys out of my hair for a few mintues!

Baby Flintstone

The other day Jason was working in the yard while I was out showing houses to come clients. He put Brendan in his walker and Emily pushed him around the yard while J worked. Here is he result of that brilliant idea. Sorry for Brendan's ghost arm -- he wouldn't quit moving!