As if she understands

Rachel is 9 months old. She screams a lot (happy, sad, tired, etc.), and sometimes I call her Screech Owl. Although she can feed herself finger foods, I still prefer to feed her for some meals.

At dinner I was alternating between feeding her and myself. At one point I stopped to talk to Samuel. Rachel thought I took too long to get back to her and screeched in that loud, glass-shattering pitch she has. I turned back to see a very annoyed baby and said, "Now that was completely unnecessary. A simple 'more please' would suffice."

Dominic started laughing, and I realized how inappropriate my statement was to my audience.

Rachel showing off her first tooth. It took almost a month, but she finally has another tooth now.

-MR

WHAT kind of lights?!

Background: When Benjamin was born, he developed jaundice and had to stay in the hospital an extra day under bilirubin lights.

This afternoon I was telling the kids about when Dominic and I met, dated and married. (They love to hear our story.)

I ended it with: "And 2 years later, Sammy was born!" Samuel smiled really big.

Then Benjamin piped up, "and then I was born and put under the booby lights!"

I tried to correct him, but bilirubin was difficult for him to say.

Potty training angst

So Lisy had to go potty the other day; however, she had already made a mess in her pull-ups. I couldn't get there immediately. By the time I arrived, well, remember that scene in "Daddy Day Care" when Eddie Murphy's character was looking aghast at the bathroom and the kid said, "I missed" as he came out? Yeah, something like that.

I was wiping everything down with Lysol disinfecting wipes when I noticed that Lisy had tried to clean herself up. "Oh, I see you already wiped," I commented.

And in her sweetest, proudest voice she said, "Your welcome," and I looked up into her happy, smiling face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although the boys have been potty trained for awhile, I always make them go to the bathroom before we go on any where farther than 20 minutes away. Sometimes they adamantly tell me that they do not need to go. But I insist. "Just try to go. You might surprise yourself."

And sometimes they come back and excitedly proclaim, "Mommy! I surprised myself!"

a child's definition

"I'm in pain. It's like hurt but worse." -Benjamin, who fell off the swing set and was in pain.

"helping" with the laundry

I've started getting the boys to help more with the laundry. I had just told them to switch the clothes from the washing machine into the dryer, when Rachel woke up from her nap. I went to get her and came back to this:

helpful children

Me: "Argh! I'm getting really annoyed with this song in my head!"

Benjamin: Reaches toward me, grabs air, and makes a tossing motion behind him. "There you go, Mom. I took it out of your head."

Me: "Thank you. That is very sweet."

Samuel: Runs into the room, singing the dreaded song nice and loud. "Ha! Now it's in your head again!"

-MR

No Quotes?

Our little ones are funny each and every day, and wouldn't you believe it - but the day I actually want to post something, I can't remember anything to mention? Well, here is a run-down of what our kids' lives entail right now:

Rachel: Being cute and responsive. She cocks her head and smiles when you talk to her. She is also crawling around everywhere.

Elisa: She will tell you a story and just know that you understand every word! (of course, even a parent who loves and tries to understand her gets maybe 30% at times). She is so sweet, and makes her sister laugh in the car.

Benjamin: Doesn't pretend to die all the time, but instead wants you to guess which superhero he is at that moment. Half the time, I think he does it just to get ideas about who he can pretend to be.

Samuel: He's working so hard to learn everything at school. He's a great big brother, though he hurt Lisy today in the store (knocked her down onto the cart and gave her a goose-egg on the forehead). He got in a lot of trouble, and was very sad and embarrassed for hurting her. At least it was an accident - but he barely talked till we got home.


Dom

Me pretty

The other day, Lisy was in the bathroom with me while I was washing my face. She got into my lotion and spread it on her cheeks. Then she beamed up at me and declared, "me pwetty!" She is very self-assured and confident in her looks and style, as evidenced by this outfit:


And here is a great example of how she likes to wear her pajamas backwards. Even though her clothes were all twisted, she insisted she wanted them that way and that they were comfortable.


-MR