These Funny Kids

Here are some funny sayings from the kids that I've collected of late . . . I love that all three of them feature in the funnies now! 

Skyping with Grandma in Dubai--she reads them books and they take turns holding the phone

1. Play

Abby to Lydia: "You 'posed to obey me, little monkey!"
Lydia: "Baaa! Baaaa!"
Abby: "No! You a little monkey!"
(Lydia dearly likes to be a "little lamb" these days.)

 Lydia

Abby: "Baa! Baa! I'm a doat! Let's butt horns todether, Li-ya!" Oh yes, that sounds like a great idea that will turn out beautifully!

 Abby

Lydia, playing outside with the coupe car: "I'm a daddy. I take my key. I'm goin' to work. Bye!"

Lydia

Jeremy tried to teach Josiah to play War when we were on vacation. Josiah loved winning each round of cards and enjoyed looking at the cards themselves. He commented to me during one of their games, "Mom, I think maybe you should be a queen when you grow up."

Josiah came in one morning from playing outside.
Me: "What were you doing outside?"
Josiah: "I was fighting a dragon. I was being bery brave."

Abby and Josiah

Abby, on the brink of angry tears and in a demanding voice: "Li-ya! You my SISTER! I wanna hold yours HAND!"

Lydia on left, Abby on right

2. Poop

Sorry, toilet humor (whether or intentional or otherwise) seems to come with the toddler/preschooler territory!

One day while changing Lydia, I must have expressed my distaste for her diaper contents through my facial expression, because she exclaimed (animatedly), "Wow! What's THAT face?!"

Lydia's crazy face

Abby on the toilet: "You have a bum, Mama? I have a bum."

Abby trying to imitate Lydia

Josiah, thinking his observation of anatomical differences is a great joke: "Hahahaha! Abby and Li-ya pee out of their BUMS!"

This is what Josiah calls his "happy-mad" face

I was changing Abby's diaper during nap time and said something about the smell.
Lydia, from her bed: "Abby has da nastiest poop in whole world?"

 Lydia

Josiah, commenting on his poop: "Wow! That shot out like a bullet!"

3. Piety

Josiah: "Why do robbers steal money and food and stuff? They want to serve idols?"

Josiah at dinner: "Why don't we listen to the Holy Spirit?"

Jeremy's 30th Birthday

Here are some pictures from our vacation commemorating the momentous event of Jeremy's entrance into his thirties! Despite cream that wouldn't whip, I managed to make a mint chocolate chip/oreo ice cream cake for him, which was a hit with everyone.

My aunt Janelle and cousin Ellen also have July birthdays, and Aunt Janelle's was a big one--65! So the family gathered for a big celebration with flaming matches on the store-bought cake (I think this was Jeremy's idea).

Reenie attended in style, with her homemade Jurassic Park sweatshirt . . .

Soccer!

We signed Josiah up for the preschool "rookie" soccer league run by a local Catholic parish, St. Francis Xavier. It's popular with lots of families in the community--there are 19 teams in the rookie division (4s and 5s) alone! Unfortunately, they apparently have a problem with coach shortages (coaches are all volunteers) . . . so Jeremy shouldered the unexpected responsibility of being our team's coach!

Josiah was less than enthusiastic about it after the first practice. But with a pep talk and a promise of reward for good attitude, he perked up considerably for the second practice and gave good effort at all the drills.

He was pretty excited to get his uniform--and his sisters were pretty jealous! They want to know when they can play soccer, too. Both like to try on his socks and cleats, and Abby has chosen a particular knitted shrug that she calls her "ooniform" and wears around the house.

It seems many teams consist primarily of people who requested to be on a team together--because their kids attend the same school, they know each other from various activities or church, etc. Ours is thus more a random conglomeration of the people without a pre-existing clique. Jeremy has had quite a challenge trying to corral everyone, balance too little parental involvement with too much, keep the wild kids under some semblance of control, and teach a few skills.

 Josiah and teammates at the first game

The first game was mostly chaos. Our team scored about half the other team's goals, since the kids didn't have a clear idea of which way to direct the ball and were eager to kick it into the nearest goal. Victoria, the lone girl on the team, is one of the best players. She clearly has older siblings who have taught her something about soccer. If she gets her feet on the ball, she usually gets it into a net.

 Pre-game talk from the coach

Josiah kicks at the ball when he's near it, follows the pack when they're running, and generally listens to instructions. But he often asks Jeremy for a break to get water or check out the snack situation. He told us his favorite part about soccer games is the snacks. So far, for our two past games, two different families have provided an unprecedented amount and variety of treats in the snack bags that Josiah finds far more interesting than running around the field.

 Water break

Getting ready for kick-off (Josiah is in the middle) 

The second game this past Friday was perhaps some improvement on the first--at least the kids had a pretty clear idea of which goal to kick the ball into! But some of the wild kids were wilder than before, and some parents don't really assist in controlling their children. Some of the kids seem to think soccer is more akin to football, so they dive for the ball and end up with a pile of others on top of them. Some play dirty, trying to kick or grab other players. Some have potty mouths. Josiah reports back to us lots of the words and antics he observes!

While the season will be a challenge for both father and son, I think overall it's good for Josiah (and maybe Jeremy). I hope our little bud picks up a few soccer skills along the way!

Twins and Twins

We were excited to meet my cousin's identical twin girls while on vacation this summer! Our girls loved holding their second cousins, Cora and Adele. They were thrilled by the "two babies"! 

I do hope their holding skills improve quickly after the birth of their own little sister, though . . . poor little Adele got her nose squished above by Abby.

Cora

Adele

Lydia on the left with Adele, Abby on the right with Cora

Abby and Cora

Abby was pleased that her baby was "the happy baby" here. As you can see, Adele wasn't as happy with Lydia . . .

But maybe she started warming up?

Josiah the Kleptomaniac

Can you believe this ham has a sinister side? That's right--our funny, sweet four-year-old is slipping into criminality.

We discovered his propensity for crime several weeks ago when a few of the girls' training underpants went missing. I felt sure I had placed them in a particular spot for use the next day, but they were gone. After some rummaging around, I remember Josiah had expressed an unusual interest in them earlier. I asked him about them . . . and he ran off into our room, pulled them out from under our dresser, and returned them to me.

Next we seemed to run out of the girls' diapers at a faster rate than normal. For some reason Josiah has asked on and off to wear a diaper. (Sometimes he sidles up to me when I'm washing dishes and whispers, "Can I wear a diaper?" Other times after using the bathroom he disappears into the kids' room and shuts the door. When I check on him, he's often pulled out a few diapers and cloth diaper covers and is attempting to fit them on himself.)

So with the odd interest in diapers and the depletion of our stash, I figured I'd check under that dresser. Sure enough, he had several diapers stuffed under there. (He takes his afternoon rest time in our room right next to the dresser, so perhaps he was saving the diapers for naptime use?)

Since then, other items have mysteriously disappeared only to be discovered under the dresser--Daddy's screwdriver, rubberbands, clips, tape, bobby pins, etc.

But Josiah reached new heights of kleptomania when he started to swipe things from the kitchen. Thankfully he's not very good at keeping secrets.

One afternoon he came out of our room during rest time to get me. "I hafta show you something, Mama," he said. "Come look." I followed him back to our room, and he pointed at the floor near the foot of our bed. It took me a moment--and then I realized the container of honey sat there. Apparently he sneaked it off the counter sometime in the morning and hid it away for nap time. I had to wipe honey off our comforter and some of his naptime books, and we found a few sticky spots under the dresser later, too.

I caught him in the act of whisking away with the coconut sugar another day. Now I'm more vigilant about desirable sweeteners and interesting implements within his reach! I also check under the dresser periodically to make sure his stash stays under control. And we've instituted a "no swiping, no stashing" rule.

Just a Few Cuties

Contrary to T. S. Eliot's assertion, our experience the past two years is that September (not April) is the cruelest month. We had a brief reprieve after Josiah's bout with bronchitis that turned bacterial, and then Jeremy and I came down with a cough. Two weeks later, I'm finally starting to feel like I'm on the mend. 

Abby has been coughing some, but she never got the fever and severe cough Jeremy and I have had. Lydia has escaped unscathed--thus far! 

Being Mom and sick is tough. Thankfully amidst the hardships these three cuties also remind me to smile . . .