Twin speak

I've written before how I hate it when kids stop saying things that they said so much you never thought you'd forget, but then you forget.

Here are a few that I want to remember from right now.

Luke always starts sentences that are supposed to start with "They" with "Them," but he pronounces it "Um."  Example: "Um said um coming later."  "Um never do that."

They both say "Him" instead of "he" and "her" instead of "she," but they're getting better at using the right pronoun.  My favorite thing Ally said recently was about my dad's dog.  "Him so cute.  Him so little and so cute, but him is girl, so him is a she."

When you tease them, or when they think you're teasing them, they'll check it out by asking, "In real life?"

The injustice of vomiting

Poor sweet Luke.  The kids and I have had influenza the last several days.  Early this morning, Luke shot up in bed and said, "I feel like I'm going to throw up."  I scooped him up and ran him to the toilet where he threw up.

When I got him back to bed, he feverishly told me, "I never ate another booger but I still throw up!  Isn't that so crazy?"

I wasn't sure where to start, but my first question was, "Did you eat a booger before?"

"No," he answered, "I never ate a booger."

So, I went another route, "Is eating boogers what makes you throw up?"

"Yes."

I wondered where he'd heard that, so I asked, "Does someone you know eat boogers."

"Ally."

"Did someone tell her that would make her throw up?"

"No."

I was confused, but half asleep, so I had nothing.

Luke continued, "Ally eats boogers, but her not throw up.  I don't eat boogers but I still throw up.  It's just so funny, right mom?"

Right, Buddy.  It's just so funny.

Why Ally cried

"Mama, do you know why cried?" Ally asked me, referring to when she'd gotten caught getting out of bed and harassing Luke until 9:00 the night before last.

"Why did you cry, Ally?"

"Because Daddy lelled [yelled] and me, and you don't lell at someone who's a twin!"

"Oh!" I said, "Why don't you yell at someone who's a twin?"

"Because," she explained, "I just know this in my head."

Looking awesome... or cool... or lovely

I was dressing the twins this morning, and I helped Ally into a cute shirt and a pair of leggings.  She unhappily mumbled, "I'm going to see what Claire is wearing today."

I've already had two four-year-old girls, so I knew immediately.  "Does Claire wear a lot of dresses?"

"Yeth," she affirmed.

"Would you like to put a skirt over your leggings?"

"Yeth!" she said smiling!

Then Luke started in, looking at his shirt, "Um [them] don't say I look awesome... or cool... or lovely!"

"They don't," I asked.

"No."

"They don't ever!?"

"No."

"Why do you think that is?"

He thought for a moment, and then decided, "Because I'm not a girl!"

Goodbye, Cheyanne

I had Anna's friend Joey and his sister here.  We were making a going away present for Cheyanne who is moving to Singapore on Sunday.  Cheyanne was Anna's first best friend ever since the first day of K4.  She, Anna, and Joey have been inseparable since Joey came to the school the first day of K5.

They made her a frame and we put this picture in it.

We're putting this other picture of Anna and Cheyenne on luggage tags for both Anna and Cheyanne to wear on their backpacks, an entire world apart.

It makes me cry a little.

After they finished the frame, Joey and his sister Taylor stayed for dinner.  We always do our Advent candles at dinner, so Kate and Anna asked to light them.  I said we could do it after Joey and Taylor leave, but Joey and Taylor, who are Jewish, were also interested in the candles.  I compromised and said we could light the candles, but we'd do our devotion after they left.

After we lit the candles, Joey was looking at them. "So..." he asked, relating it to his menorah, "it's the... third day of Christmas?"

He's so incredibly adorable.  I love that kid!  I explained that we do it kind of "backwards." We count down to Christmas, and we only light one candle for every six days.  He kind of thought about that, then nodded.

The kids went back to eating their mac and cheese and asking for seconds and thirds.

Then Anna exclaimed, "Joey!  You know what we should have for our wedding?"

"What?"

"Mac and cheese!" she said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah!"

Then Anna held out her fist and said, "Fist bump!"

Joey bumped her first with his, and they both wiggled their fingers back and did a little "twa la la la" noise.

Could I love them any more!?

Sweet sister

Anna was so inspired by our Advent Calendars that she made Kate this present for her birthday.  She can tear one sticker off every day for 14 days after her birthday.  There are pictures underneath each one.

Spanish

Ally showed me this and explained that she learned to write in Spanish.

Finley and the upstairs carpeting

Finley sometimes runs around like a maniac upstairs.  She was doing it today, and Luke told me she had been doing that when Oma and Opa were here the other day, but he'd told them she had to go downstairs.  "I told them," he explained, "that if Finley wrecks the carpet, we have to replace the whole thing...for ten dollars!"

"Oh, yeah?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

"That's what you said!" he spit out, obviously having detected my amusement and irritated by it.  I must have, at some point, told Dave something about Finley wrecking the carpet and about how if she wrecks one spot we'd have to replace the entire hallway and stairs.

"Oh, yes," I agreed, "and what did Oma and Opa say?"

"They made her go downstairs," he told me solemnly.

I bet they didn't even want to think about being asked to pay any percent of the ten dollars.

Candy

Luke was crying because he couldn't have candy.

"I never get candy!" He cried, stomping his foot.

Ally, looked at him, shaking her curly little head, and said, "That's because it's not healthy, Lukey.  Don't you get it?"

Heads or tails

This is how Opa does "heads or tails," but he catches it.

Manners

The kids were all eating frozen wild blueberries.  They are so healthy, but they are so messy.

The last couple times they ate them, Anna and Ally have had a little competition about whose mouth can get messier.  This involves them smearing blueberries all over until their fingers and mouths are stained dark blue. I found this very irritating, but both times it was the end of a long day and I was in too bad of mood to address it without overblowing it.  Last time I just mentioned that we wouldn't be able to eat blueberries if it's so messy.  This time, I just praised Luke for his good manners in using his spoon and getting them all in his mouth so nicely.

Luke ate up the attention and was really putting on a show of perfect manners.  I looked closer and noticed something.  That's when he explained, "I always eat with my pinky up."

Truth

Luke and Ally were having an argument.  Finally Ally ran up to me and said, "Luke says he's smarter than me."

"Oh, honey," I said picking her up, "that's not true."

"No, mom," Luke stated, "Ally's true.  I'm really smart."

He wasn't trying to upset her at all.  He was just stating facts as he saw them.

First aid kit

Luke said he needed a doctor kit.  Kate tried to give him the toy doctor kit we had in the playroom, but he said he needed real doctor supplies.  Kate offered to make him a first aid kit.  He liked the idea, so they gathered bandaids, cotton balls, gauze, tape, and a water bottle (?) and put it in a gallon size ziplock bag.  Luke carried it around and kept reminding us to get him right away if anyone was injured.

After a little while he decided his first aid kit was only temporary and he has asked for a "another daid kit"  ...because the first aid kit was just his first one.

Check in book

For years now, my kids have been obsessed with this old German-English dictionary I had from high school.  I don't remember how the obsession all started, but I know Anna used to take it off our bookshelf and play with it all the time.  Then both twins loved it, too.  They'd play with it almost every day, and there were a good many fights over it.

The last six months or so, it has been mostly Luke's. He's always called it his "check-in" book, and he'd bring it places, or give it to Dave when he'd go places, and it was to be used for directions.

The last week or so, Luke has paired it up with a homemade first aid kit Kate made for him, and he has been taking detailed notes in any white space he can find.

Last night he said to Dave, "Dad, I think you know about this check-in book."

Dave nodded.

"Is that because you grew up in the is world?  Is that why, dad?"

Conservation

The kids and I are doing another sale to raise money for charity this year.  (Yep, I got myself into it again, thanks to my compassionate hearted, over achieving oldest daughter.

We were originally just going to make crafts to sell at a craft fair, but then we ended up inadvertently taking orders, and having a lot more to do than I initially intended.  (I'd posted pictures of some of the crafts on Facebook to get opinions about how much to charge, and my kind-hearted friends wanted to help out by ordering some, too.)

Good thing I have amazing helpers!

So, last night we were making a sign about where we were going to donate the money to.  Kate is adamant about stopping poaching, so we decided to give to the World Wildlife Fund.  We found a program where the kids could each adopt their own animal.  The kids were all gathered around the computer as I scrolled through the choices.  Anna was saying, "I want to save giraffes.  No, I want to save dolphins!"  Kate was adding, "I want to save them all.  It's so hard.  I think I'll save elephants."  Ally was saying she might save elephants too, or maybe she'd save monkeys.

Luke piped up with, "I want to save trains!"

Living

Anna was so tired when she got home after Thanksgiving last night that she didn't brush her teeth. This morning I told her to brush her teeth right away, and she explained she didn't need to because she didn't brush your teeth much at all and K4 and never got cavities. I told her, first of all, that wasn't true, but, if she didn't always brush, maybe she just got lucky. I said her teeth had to last her maybe 95 more years. Anna thought about this for a while, but finally explained, "I don't need a grown-up to teach me how to live; I have my own way of living."

Fantastic

Luke asked Dave to make a paper airplane like the one my dad had made earlier in the day.  Dave said he wasn't sure how to make that kind.  Luke responded, "Yeah, Opa's sort of fantastic, isn't he?"

Lucky

The best thing about twins is certainly their interactions.  I love watching them play, and, even more, I love listening to the things they say to each other.  Last night, Dave overheard Luke say to Ally, "Ally, you know what's lucky about being a boy?  We have a penis."

First snow

This morning, I woke up to the pitter-patter of feet and then a whisper (so as not to wake me up?), "Mommy, did you look outside?" Luke asked. "There's snow, and it's amazing!"

I got up.  We ate, and then we went outside and enjoyed the weather.  Thirty six hours before, we'd had on shorts in Florida, but there's something wonderful about the first snowfall. 

Elsa.  She comes from Florida, but she's okay; the cold never bothered her anyway.

Heads or tails

Several months ago when my parents were watching the kids, my dad was evidently flipping a coin with them, probably for something to do.

A few days later when Kate and Anna were counting their allowance, Luke began to go through their change and grab about half of it.  He told me, "Opa really likes 'heads.'" He was taking all the money with heads to save for him.

I thought this was too cute to tell him that every coin had a heads and a tails.

I think my dad has since cleared it up with him, but only to a point...

After I handed Luke out his allowance last week, he went through all the coins.  He began to push some into a pile, but with most, he mumbled, "Put it back," and dropped it into his bank.

I asked him what he was doing, and he told me, "Opa likes money that has heads and tails."  The ones he was saving in a pile for Opa were ones that did, in fact, have both heads and tails.  The other ones he was putting in the bank.

It took me a minute to figure it out.  None of the pennies had a tail, because the Lincoln memorial didn't count as tails.  Neither did the nickels, because Monticello...well, it might as well be the Lincoln memorial.  Dimes didn't count either, because the torch and branches... yeah, definitely not tails.  He liked some of the quarters, but not them all.  Then I realized he only liked the ones with the eagle on the back.  The state quarters were really throwing Luke for a loop.

He finally had a good size pile and asked for a ziplock bag to put them in.  Then he told me, "Call Opa.  Tell him to come right now, because he's really going to be excited about these!"

Ewwwwwww

One of my favorite pictures of Luke and Ally hangs on the wall in the study.  I've always meant to try to edit the wrinkles out of the sheet, but haven't gotten to it.  (I took the picture before I had a 50 mm lens, so the wrinkles unfortunately look as crisp as the twins.)

Anyway, I was reading to Ally in the study when the picture caught my eye.  I pointed to baby Ally in the picture and asked her, "Who do you think that is?"

"Ewwwwwwww," she said, and she started laughing.

"What?" I asked her, "That's one of my very favorite pictures!"

She was laughing too hard to even answer.  Finally, she got out, "The bottoms!"

I laughed with her a moment, and then she calmed down enough to say, "That is the gwossest picture in the whole world!"

She shook her head a while and added, "I don't want to look at that picture ever again!"

When I was looking for the file with the above picture, I found these cute ones.

I really wish I'd had a better lens (and maybe camera) back then,
because I sure had some cute models!

Sweet Luke.  He still looks like this when he gets upset.  

Anna and Joey

I was driving Anna and Joey to orchestra this morning.  They were talking in the back, then Anna said, "Mommy, Joey and I decided how many kids we're going to have!  Six!"

"Oh, wow!" I said, laughing a little, "That's a lot of kids! Joey, what kind of job are you going to have to make enough money to have six kids?"

Joey replied, "Hmmm, I don't know."

Anna decided to help, "Maybe a doctor?"

Joey, happily replied, "Sure!"

Then Anna added, "And I'll sell my pictures in the front yard. No, actually, I'll make pictures, and you can sell them!"

Joey enthusiastically told her, "Okay!  Yeah!"

Food dye

Luke came out of his classroom after the Halloween Party today, held up his baggie of "Witches' Brew" and began pointing to the gummy worms, candy corn, and cherry sours and explaining , "These have food dye. And these have food dye. And even these have food dye." 

I asked, "Oh, how do you know that?" 

He told me that he had talked about it with Mrs. Koscielniak. I asked, "Is there someone in the class who can't have food dye?" 

"Just me and Ally," he replied. I told him it was okay to have it today, since it was a special occasion. He shook his head at me. 

Later, when we got home, he started talking about the food dye. So, again, I asked why Mrs. Koscielniak had talked about it. He said, "Me and Ally can't have food dye, because we can't die. Because you love us. Right?"

We discussed food dye a while and concluded it's okay to have if its a special treat.

After dinner, Luke and Ally were eating some of their Witches' Brew, and Ally dropped a cherry sour.  She said, "Oops, I dropped a food dye!"  Luke added, "Your food dye berry is even rolling away."

A while later, Luke said to Ally, "I like this food dye stuff!"

And Ally replied, "I lub food dye stuff.  I really, really lub it!"

Nightmares

Luke had a dream last night that there was a Jellyfish beetle in his bed.  Even this morning at breakfast, he was very insistent it was real

I think it would make a good name for a band.

Not real

Driving home from Awana Luke and Anna were talking in the backseat, when Luke told me he wanted to put some apples and peanut butter and chicken nuggets out and see if God eats them.

I told him that God doesn't need to eat, and he angrily shouted, "Then God's not real!"

Not to be a grinch, as I'm sure Dave will once again accuse me, but I have to wonder if this has to do with leaving milk and cookies for Santa, and I have to wonder again whether the whole Santa thing doesn't mess with kids' faith in God.

Ben X.

When I chaperoned the twins' field trip to the pumpkin farm, I got assigned to Luke and one of the Bens in his class, Ben X.

I got the boys onto the bus, and said, "Do you want to sit by the window, Ben?"

Luke said, "That's Ben X., Mommy!"

I said, "I know, honey, but his name is just Ben.  They call him Ben X. so he doesn't get confused with Ben M."

Luke said, "But his name is Ben X!"

"It's okay, Luke.  I know he's Ben X, but I'd bet at home they just call him Ben."

Luke looked a little exasperated, but didn't say anything more to me.  He climbed in next to his friend, took a long look at him, and said, "It's okay.   know you're Ben X."

Luke on the bus.  Ben X. was right beside him.

Costumes

Ron Weasley, best friend of Harry Potter

Pirate Luke

Super Anna

Fairy Princess Ballerina

And here are Anna's partner Super Dave and Pete the Cat!

Violin

She doesn't love to practice, but she seems to be understanding what she's learning.  

And she looks pretty darn cute playing the thing.

Ally's PT

About a year and a half ago, Ally was in physical therapy.  She adored her therapist, Kristin.  Ally, who was never comfortable when we'd leave her with, well, anyone, would have probably been fine if she had moved in with Kristin and never seen me again.  She "graduated" from PT about a year ago, but every few weeks when we drive past the building where she used to go, she'll ask, "When can I see Kristin!"

Driving home from Awana tonight, Anna was, again, talking about how she was going to marry Joey.  Tonight she wasn't concerned about holidays, she was worried that Joey didn't love Jesus.  She commented, "I'll teach him... because he's on the wrong path."  I cringed in the driver's seat and decided we'd have a talk when we got home.

Kate said she wouldn't have to deal with that and explained, "I'm going to marry a Christian."

And Ally, who'd been quiet up until then, piped in with , "I'm going to marry Kristin!"

Just a minute

I listened to Luke and Ally playing in their room as I folded laundry.  Luke had his Jake figurine say, “Elsa, come inside.  There’s going to be a bad snow storm!”  

And Elsa said, in Ally’s highest-pitched princess voice, “I can stay outside because the cold never bothered me anyway.”

I stifled a giggle at Ally’s use of Elsa’s famous song lyric in their narrative, and I continued to listen while I put their clothes away.

Elsa called for Jake to come outside and Jake told her, “Just a minute. I’m cleaning up.”

Kind of an odd storyline I thought, smiling to myself.  A little while later, Elsa told Jake to wait “just a minute.”

This time my stomach sunk as it dawned on me where they were getting the expression.  I realized how many times my kids must hear me tell them to wait “just a minute.”

And, sadly, things often come up and the minute becomes an hour or the thing I told them to wait for never even happens at all.

I've always had the philosophy that I don't want to sign my kids up for too many activities, because there is value in play that no structured activity can provide.  And I’ve always believed in the importance of my kids having downtime.

But, ironically, I haven’t applied this philosophy to my own life or to the activities I do with my kids.  I haven’t considered the value of me simply playing with them or the value of our downtime together.  So often I’m telling them to wait just a minute while I finish up something I’m doing.

Of course dinner has to be made and laundry has to be done, but there are a lot of things I busy myself with that aren’t necessary.  And many of the activities that take me away from the kids are things I think I’m doing for the kids.

Sometimes it’s a big craft project that takes me five times longer clean up than the time I actually spent doing it with them.  Or the homemade Halloween costumes that I spent days bonding with instead of my kids.  Or the hours upon hours I’ve spent distracted trying to plan the perfect birthday parties. 

These things may all seem like good things, but they’re not always what’s best for the kids, for me, or for our family.  These extra things often bring me stress, and they take me away from actually spending time with my kids.  

I’m working on prioritizing what’s most important.  I’m working on doing less so our time means more.

When it’s something that has to be done, I’m working on having the task wait “just a minute” instead of my kids.  I have been trying to put whatever I’m doing on hold for a little while, spend a few minutes doing what my kids asked me to do, and then come back to what has to get done.  The dishes won’t mind waiting a minute.  They (unfortunately) aren’t going anywhere.  And, I won’t have to feel guilty overhearing the plates having their toys tell each other  to“just a minute.”

I think so often I plan to get everything done first and then I’ll enjoy time with my kids, but “everything” will never be done.  I want my kids to learn patience, so it’s okay to make them wait sometimes, but I also want them to know how important they are to me.  I’m not sending them that message when they’re constantly being put after food preparation, house cleaning, and laundry.

My goal is to find ways to make the most of my time with my kids, because this time in our lives will be over in “just a minute.”

Where did you hear that?

"Don't do that," Ally joked to me, "or I'll shoot you in the head."

Whaaaaaaat?

I tried to be calm, so as not to give her a reaction that would encourage it.  "That's not a nice thing to say," I told her.

She said it again, later, and I told her more firmly that was not something we said.

Then, I calmly asked her, "Ally, where did you hear about shooting in the head?"

"Nowhere."

"Did you hear someone else say it? "

"No."

"Did someone at school say that?"

"No," she told me again.  And then she added, "It was my own decision."

Birds, bees, and surgeries

It's always been my philosophy to answer any of the kids questions about sex openly and honestly.

Last week Anna had asked me about how a person knows she's going to be pregnant.  "Is it when she turns a certain age?"

 So, I reminded her again that it takes a woman's egg and a man's sperm and they have to go together.

"Oh, yeah," she said, remembering, "and the boy's sperm gets to the egg when he..." scrunching up her nose, "puts his penis in her vagina."  More nose scrunching.

"Yep," I said, "So, if someone doesn't want to get pregnant, then the best way is not to do that."

"So..." she said, thinking, and then giggling, "did you and Daddy do that to get me?"

I explained that it didn't work when Daddy and I tried to have babies, so we had to have a doctor help us put the egg and the sperm together.

She wanted to know how the doctor got the egg.  I was incredibly glad she asked about the egg!

So, I told her he had to do a little surgery to take out some eggs.

She asked if it hurt, and I said it did hurt a for a while, but it was definitely worth it.

A few days later, we were driving to the store when Anna makes a declaration, "I'm just hoping that the other thing will works, the penis thing, because I don't want to have to have surgery!"

Proper pumpkin farm attire

Ally got herself dressed for their K4 fieldtrip to the pumpkin farm this morning.  She was wearing nothing but a leotard and fairy wings.  It was about 51 degrees, rainy, and inevitably going to be very muddy, but Ally knew none of that mattered.

Because, as she declared, "I will be the beauuuutifulest at the pumpkin farm!"

 After a few hours of feeling cold around the house, I talked her into slipping some jeans and a shirt over the leotard and leaving the wings behind.

My big four-year-old

Very early Sunday morning at the cottage, just after 1 am, I awoke to screaming.  I ran upstairs and grabbed Luke, bringing him down to the bathroom.  He hadn't made it in time.  So, I consoled him as I stripped him naked, and then carried him upstairs to find some new pajamas.

I searched the poorly organized drawers until I located a pair of foots.  I put them on him.  They were getting a little tight which reminded me that a friend had dropped off a bag of hand-me-down 4T footies the day before.  As I plopped him back into bed, I peeked at the tag of the ones he was wearing.  "2T," I said, giving him a hug.

He looked at me, sleepily, and asked, "Does 2T mean 'it fits you every time'?"

"It does for you, Buddy."

Kate's heart

Kate and Luke were eating breakfast and I was cleaning the kitchen.  Anna had gone up to get dressed.  She came back down and told me she couldn't find her winter dresses.  

"They're in your closet," I told her, "look again."

"I mean the one with the pink on top."

"Oh, and the black polka dots on the bottom?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Oh, that's in Ally's closet.  It doesn't fit you."

"But I wore it in K5!"

"Yes, honey, but it's a 5T.  It's too small.  Go find a different one."

She glared at me, like it was my fault the dress was too small.  Then she looked like she was going to cry, and she went upstairs.

"That's mine!" Kate exclaimed when Anna returned.

I looked, and it was definitely Kate's dress.  The sleeves were a good five inches too long.  I prepared myself for the beginning of the infamous sister fights over clothes.  I started to explain that Anna might be able to borrow Kate's dresses, but she has to ask her first, and maybe offer to do her a favor or something.

Anna said, "But, it was on my side [of the closet]!"

"I don't know where the divider went," Kate told her,  "so I put it where I thought it was on my side!"

Anna began to cry.  She threw her arms around my waste and buried her head in my belly.

"Okay, Anna, you can wear it," Kate said, "It looks really nice with your hair."

Anna smiled weakly, thanked Kate, and went to pack her backpack.

I was baffled; I am baffled.  This generosity.  I mean, if it were me, I very likely wouldn't have let my sister borrow it at all.  If I had, I'm sure I would have said something closer to a begrudging, "Fine!  Just wear it then."  

Even now, as a thirty-eight-year-old who considers herself to have evolved, if a comparable situation occurred, I probably would say a nice, "Oh, no problem; you can wear it."  But, she added on a compliment.  My goodness!  I wouldn't even have thought to add on a compliment!

Last weekend, I opened my email to discover a message from Kate's teacher.  It said, 

Kristal and Dave,
I just had to write to you and let you know how impressed I have been with Kate during the start of the school year. I'm sure you are aware -- but academically she is quiet impressive in all areas. She is doing a wonderful job grasping these difficult math concepts of variables, division and word problems etc. But Kate has also caught my eye for being a truly gentle, kind and compassionate friend. At least once a day I catch her quietly helping a friend. Just this week she ever so innocently left a little birthday note/token for a friend on the friend's desk. I just had to tell you that I'm really enjoying getting to know her as a person and a student.

She is truly a gift from God.  I don't deserve such an incredible kid.  I can tell you, she did not get this kindness from me.

My life is full of blessings.  It's overwhelming.

That's Anna

My sister recently mentioned that Anna's consistent use of the word "British" to mean Jewish made her feel better about her almost-four-year-old always calling breakfast "dinner."  And I thought, Oh, you don't know the half of it!  Anna used to use any word she thought sounded good if she couldn't think of the right word.  She didn't seem to even try for the right word.  I always thought it was amusing, if not a little weird.

The use of her own words slowly diminished the more she was in school, and she doesn't do it nearly as much as she used to.  I was trying to think of a good example, but I couldn't.  Until this morning.

I was giving her a quick bath before school, washing her hair with our shower attachment.  As I wrapped her in her towel, she commented, "I feel like I was just in a tarantula."

"A tarantula is a big spider. Do you mean a torrential downpour?"

"No"

"Do you mean a hurricane?  A monsoon?"

"No, I mean like a waterfall," and then she said it,  "Mommy, in my world, 'tarantula' means like a waterfall but faster."


"In my world..."  That seems about right.

Recent "Oh, Anna" moments

Anna had her friend Cheyanne over Tuesday.  They were making some paper pumpkins, and here's the conversation I overheard:

Anna - Do you think Joey celebrates Halloween?

Cheyanne - Yeah, I think so.

Anna - Because he's Hannukah, you know; he's British.

Cheyanne - Yeah, I know, but I think he celebrates Halloween

I have, after six months, given up explaining that it's not "British," it's "Jewish."

So, in the car last night, Anna was once again discussing how things will work in her marriage with Joey.

Anna - Mom, there was just one thing I was worried about for when Joey and I get married.  He celebrates different holidays that I do.  But, I figured it out.  The girls can celebrate my holidays and the boys can celebrate the British holidays.

Kate - No, Anna; I have another idea.  I have a friend at school whose mom and dad are different religions, and she celebrates the Jewish and the Christian holidays.

Anna - Oh, I like that.  I'll tell Joey about Jesus, and I'll tell him about Santa Claus.  He is really going to like Santa Claus.


That last statement... 

New word

"Mom," Ally said while eating lunch in her party dress before heading off to school, "I'm not hungry for my sandwich anymore because I'm eating my six 'seed grapes,' but I know a new word."

I looked at her, waiting.

"It's WE-sess.  Weee-SESS!  It means 'going outside.' WECESS!" she said with a big smile.

Why a party dress, you may be wondering...
Because every day is a good day for a party dress.

Gross butter

I was making Dave and BLT and making the twins peanut butter and jelly.

Luke said, "Oh, can I have one of those kind of breads with some of that gross butter?"

I said, "You mean toast?  You want toast with butter."

"No, I want that gross butter," he said pointing to the mayonnaise, "I like that gross butter."

That makes sense

At the beginning of the summer, the kids told me the reason that mosquito repellent doesn't work is because "The mosquitos just plug their noses."

Did you make it?

Luke and Ally went into the playroom to play, and there was a structure made out of magna tiles on the floor.  (As a side note, these things are a great toy!)

Ally said, "Luke, look at this.  Isn't it beautiful?"

"It is beautiful," Luke agreed. " Did you make that Ally?"

"No, it's too beautiful."

Luke yelled to Dave, "Daddy, did you make this?" 

"No, I didn't make it. Did you, Ally?"

"No," Ally told him, "I didn't make it.  It's too beautiful."

"Oh!" said Luke, "Ally, I know who made it.  Anna!  Him's an artist."

How things look to little kids

Luke told me, "One time I saw a little bus at school, so all the little people can go in."

When I was putting Ally's Converse shoes on, I pulled up the tongue and reminded her, "We always have to pull up the..." And she said, "Oh, yeah, got to pull up the mustache!"

Luke was examining my tupperware container at lunch.  It's a container with two vents.  If you put certain foods in it, you close both vents, other things you close one vent, and some you leave them both open.  He was looking at if for a while, and then he said, "You can put all of these things in here, but not a refrigerator, because that is x-ed."