Beautiful World

Elisa has a healthy self-esteem. After I brush her hair, she says that her hair is beautiful. After I brush her teeth, she says her teeth are beautiful. And of course when she wears beautiful dresses, she is a beautiful princess.

Recently, we were looking at the newspaper together. I pointed out an ad for a mother/daughter look-a-like contest. "Do we look alike?" I asked. She turned to me and solemnly stated, "I'm cute." Yes, yes you are, but you didn't really answer the question, I thought.

The other day I noticed that she was staring at her hand. When I asked her what she was doing, she replied, "My hand is boo'ful." Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where even your hand is so beautiful that you can't help but stare at it? I hope she always sees herself that way.

Stinky Feet Pete

My son is strange. OK, so we all know that, but this is yet another example of how strange he can be.

Tonight Benjamin plugged his nose while I helped him brush his teeth. When I asked why, he told me that my breath stinks. I do not feel offended. After all he is 4 and a half, and children his age are blunt. Then he and Samuel started pestering their dad by smelling his dirty, end-of-the-day-just-took-off-shoes feet! Alright, I admit it: I ate onions today. But is dirty sock odor really more pleasant than onion breath? To make it worse, they kept laughing (but that might have been due to Dominic's annoyed reaction).

Dom: Yes, yes it is. Onion breath is worse than smelly socks.

Speaking of smelly feet, Benjamin can have really foul smelling feet at the end of the day, and he's been like that since he started wearing shoes. Dominic first called him Stinky Feet Pete about 2 years ago. Benjamin thought it was hilarious! He loved to go around telling people, even complete strangers, that his name was Stinky Feet Pete. The boys have now named one of their clone trooper commanders Stinky Feet Pete.

Yes, he is wearing socks with his sandals. He insists on it.

A Child's Prayer

As my children begin to say their own prayers, I've learned never to know what to expect.

Lisy: "Dear Heavenly Father, Amen." Sammy used to pray like this, too. It took a bit of coaching, but he did learn to put something in the middle, as will Lisy.

Benjamin: Often prays for the food to not be poisoned. I make it; I know I don't mix poisonous substances into dinner, yet he says that every time.

Samuel: Likes to pray for our house to never burn down or get struck by lightning. This is very important to him. He even asks for a blessing of fire safety on our future houses, too.

Last night, Samuel asked that we get to church before the opening prayer (I'm happy if we get there before the Sacrament song). And wouldn't you know it? We were all ready an hour early! So we drove around looking at landscaping to get ideas for our yard, and we arrived at church before the prelude music started. Thank you, Samuel.

salt and band-aids

I am currently wearing a Transformer band-aid. Why? Well, there are two stories here.

1) My mom used to complain about us kids licking the salt shaker. How odd, I thought. I never licked the salt shaker, and I never saw anyone else licking it, either. Where did she come up with such a crazy idea? As we were clearing off the dinner table last night, Lisy came up to me and happily proclaimed, "I lick the salt!" Eww. So perhaps Mom had a valid reason for thinking it was one of us. Sadly, I cut my finger on the edge of the shaker lid while washing it. Our current band-aid choices are neon colors or Transformers.

2) When Samuel was about 2 years old, he needed a band-aid. I gave him the choice of either the superhero or plain ones. He surprised me by choosing the plain band-aids. But when I put it on him, he started crying. It took me a little while, but eventually I realized he wanted a plane, as in airplane, band-aid. I felt so bad for him - he thought I lied to him. Now we only get decorated band-aids. We'll probably never buy plain band-aids again, unless we find some with planes.

Parents say the darndest things

I was just sitting here, next to MaryRuth, after telling Benjamin not to "shoot" his sister with his sword.

I turned to MaryRuth and said "He can't just stab people with his sword, he has to shoot them."

I then realized how funny that sounded, especially since he's still killing people, is stabbing to death that much better? We knew our prohibition of guns would never really work, but it's amusing to see what they turn into guns sometimes.


Dom

Girl on a mission

The children are all outside playing right now. Lisy just came in, picked up one of my shoes, and started heading back outside.

I stopped her. "Lisy, what are you doing with my shoe?"

"I have to kill a spliler (Lisy talk for spider)," she responded and purposely marched out.

I heard a small commotion and one of the boys saying something about killing a bug. Then Lisy came back in, put my shoe away, and went back out to play.

Several things struck me as interesting. First, she saw a bug outside and felt the need to kill it. Well of course there was a bug outside - that's where bugs live. I'm surprised she didn't see more of them. Why kill it? She certainly wasn't scared of it. We've tried to teach our children not to kill any life unless necessary; I guess she isn't old enough to get it. Next, she felt it necessary to use one of my shoes, as if they are the official bug killing weapons. Finally, for a person who gets distracted at the drop of a hat (we call her our little quail), she had amazing focus to finish her self-appointed task. She even put the shoe back where it belongs!

It was so amusing and unexpected that I wanted to share it.

Dom - OK, spliler isn't going to be a real tag, but I thought it'd be funny. We'll keep an ear out for spliler related stories.

*Update: Now when Dominic needs to kill a spider, he uses my shoes, calling them the "official spider killing tool."

choices and consequences

A few years ago, when Samuel was about 3 and Benjamin about 1, I was refereeing a fight between them and told them that it was not okay to hit each other (something I continue to remind them about to this day). I gave Samuel a choice and the resultant consequence: don't hit again, and if you do, you have to go to your room. Samuel took a moment to think about it. Then quick as lightening he hit Benjamin and ran into his bedroom. I guess sometimes it's just worth it.

healthy competition

Background: The boys have a Superman car. When they shake it, it makes revving noises, says "faster, more powerful" in a dramatic voice, and then speeds off for a few feet.

So I have this new work-out program: EA Active on the Wii gaming system. I usually exercise once Samuel is at school, and Benjamin likes to exercise with me. Samuel likes to join me during his days off, but he and Benjamin have to take turns.

Supposedly we work together to achieve the set goals, but the boys try to "beat" me. The other day Samuel was the lucky one to exercise with me first. Benjamin kept saying, "Mommy, go faster, more powerful." When it was his turn and the timer started, Benjamin pleaded, "Mommy, don't go faster, more powerful!" Uh huh. I guess he's just a fair-weather fan.