Rain, Rain go away

Posted January 26th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

C and J were just in the bathtub. We have been shopping all day and C said that he needed to get a bath because he was dirty from touching “all that stuff.” Of course, since C wanted a bath, so did J. While they were playing in the bath, C got out to use the potty (Good, C!). J decided to experiment and turned on the water, and then turned on the shower. He started yelling, with a touch of whining, “It’s waining!, It’s waining! I don’t want it to wain!” He figured out how to turn it off and I told him to sit in the warm water to warm up since he turned on the cold shower. All is sunshiny now, and the boys are resting for nap time.

If you were in Walmart tonight with me and the kids…

Posted January 24th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Has every parent, or just me, felt mortified by their children’s words?! This evening, I took C and J to Walmart to buy groceries, etc. As I have previously mentioned, C and J are in this “crazy” word phase. My mom has told them to say “pretty” instead of “crazy.” Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.

In the refrigerator area, I was looking at the cartons of eggs when J mentioned that he “smell sometin.” I made the mistake of telling him that the smell was stinky. I thought this would end the discussion. Oh, no… The smell was from a man that was previously looking at the cartons of eggs as well. He had a distinct cigarette odor. The boys and I selected our eggs, and then proceeded to get milk with no further discussion. At the butter section, up pops little C’s loud mouth. With a pointing finger he points to the gentleman that we noticed at the eggs and says “that’s the stinky man.” I told C that we don’t talk about people and hopefully the man didn’t overhear.

Walking, walking, walking, putting items in the cart… J starts saying “crazy” among other icky phrases. C pipes up and says “pretty.” Sweet C. Unfortunately as we were meeting head-on and passing a rather large woman, J loudly says to either me or to brother C, “you not pretty.” I sincerely hope the woman didn’t think he was talking about her. I sincerely hope he was not talking about her! It was another good teaching moment to let J and C know that others listen when they talk and they should always say nice things.

Before they could unnerve me anymore (or anyone else), I quickly finished shopping and left. Not before the elderly checkout lady commented that it was a good thing that God gave children to young people and not to old people since younger people had the patience to deal with them… She said “if I had kids now, I would be in jail.” Think they were too whiny and loud in the checkout line?!

I am so glad to be home. Is having food worth so much of a challenging experience – for me and others? I think I’ll quit eating for awhile. Maybe the food I have purchased tonight will last longer so I don’t have to return to Walmart soon…

Want to play in our backyard?

Posted January 24th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

The temperature is in the 30′s here. This morning after breakfast (homemade Bisquick pancakes) C wanted to know how cold it was before he opened the back door. I told him it was really cold. He is still grasping degrees of cold, chilly, warm, hot, etc. I then looked out the window with him and showed him the ice that had formed on the water in his turtle wading pool that he and J like to float various items in. J ran over to us from where he was playing with the legos spread out on the floor and said “wanna see ice.”

The kids got dressed warm and and went to play outside in the backyard. A little while later, J came back inside yelling “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. There’s a snake out dere” (“there” for the toddler-talk challenged). C had already come back inside to get warm on the couch watching Monsters, Inc.

I thought a few minutes before I went out to look. You see, snakes are supposed to be hibernating in the winter, but I read an article recently that bears and other animals are waking up early since it has been a relatively mild winter for us. We have a fence in our back yard, but last summer we still had a 3 foot snake out back. (I have pictures of it. Quite a day…) Plus I didn’t want to have to dispose of a snake. Not my specialty as a mom. Spiders, no problem. Bugs, no problem. Snakes, where’s Daddy?

Finally, I went out to see it. Barefoot, in a t-shirt and sweatpants. Not good in 30ish degree weather. (It’s really cold out there!) C started to go with me, but turned around as J started talking about the snake again and that it was “gonna bite me.”

As it turns out, J had been digging in the dirt and found a worm, not a snake. Big relief for me, and disappointment for J, however he started talking about playing with the worm and I told him it was fine to play with the worm. Got to love having sons. I am learning so much more that I ever wanted to know about nature.

Fly Me to the Moon…

Posted January 21st, 2007 by Dad | Comments (0)

(This is Dad)

C and I were riding back from his choir tonight, and he started talking to me about Willie, the recently departed cat. He told me that Willie was playing with toys in heaven, and that he had his own bed, and a few other things.

The conversation ended like this:

C: “When are you and Mommy going to heaven?”
Me: “… um, a long time away I hope…”
C: “You will get to fly there in a rocketship!”
Me: “…”

A prayer of thanksgiving w/explanation

Posted January 17th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

I thank You, God, for indoor plumbing.

This morning, J had a dirty diaper and I cleaned him and then let him run around the house with just a t-shirt on. For whatever reason, in his mind, he will only use the potty if there is no alternative – diaper or pullup. If he is naked, he will use the potty as needed – with not a single accident in the past 3 weeks (the time that we have been attempting “potty training” for the first time since last summer).

So far in the past 45 minutes, C has had a poopy in the potty and J has had 3 in the potty. Each time J is successful with the potty, he is rewarded with 2 M&M’s for urination and 6 M&M’s – one of each color – for poopy.

(B – we are running low on M&M’s – need some more from the store.)

Thank You, God, also for J learning how to go potty. Now, please help him to understand that clothing is not optional in this society.

Daddy is a Crazy Fox

Posted January 17th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

I love listening to my toddler, J, talk. He loves to talk, talk, talk. We have read to him since he was an infant and his vocabulary is extensive. However, on occasion, he causes me to chuckle out loud and then correct his speech. These are a few examples:

1. On the way to Bible Study yesterday, I had in my car a bowl of grapes in addition to a few other items since it was my turn to be responsible for bringing refreshments. From the back seat, J said “Mommy, I starvin’ Want some gwapes.” So, I lovingly handed him a bunch of grapes (6 or 8 grapes). A little while later he said “Mommy, take the branch.” I reached back for the “branch” and with a smile told him that it was called a stem.

2. As J is growing, he is learning how letters and words sound.

“tr” often comes out as “f.”

“b” and “p” sound a lot alike.

J loves cars and trucks. Unfortunately, when he says “truck” the tr comes out as an “f” sound… Many people have given us looks as he is in the toy aisle looking at trucks. A fond phrase of his is “I love my big dump truck.”

3. J and C have been calling everything “crazy” lately. I don’t know how or where they learned this word, but they love it. We are trying desperately to get them to reduce their usage of this word or at least get them to use it correctly. On Saturday evening, Daddy B tried making a “funny” out of this word when J looked at B and called him Crazy. B responded by saying “yes, crazy like a fox.” Unfortunately, when J repeated the phrase as “you crazy fox”, the word fox came out as something else. J’s “x” sounds like “ck.” B went into a cold sweat when he realized how horribly it sounded and also realized that church would be in the morning. What a great opportunity for J to demonstrate his new phrase…

(Aside – we didn’t hear anything from J’s Sunday School teachers. And B is no longer referring to himself as “crazy like a fox.”)