I love you this much!

Samuel: "Mom, I love you. Even your nose. And boogers. Hahaha!"
Me: ???
Samuel: "I just wanted to make myself laugh."
Me: Uh-huh

ornery starts young

Rachel just turned 1 in May. She has developed her own unique sense of humor. She also likes to pester people. Here are some examples.

One day her pants were a little long, and she kept stepping on the hem and accidentally pulling them down. Dominic came in the room, saw her showing some diaper and said, "Rachel, your pants are falling down." Whereupon Rachel reached down and pulled her pants all the way down to her ankles, then laughed.

When she isn't wearing a hair clip, I constantly move her bangs out of her face. She has been known to immediately reach up and push all her hair back in front of her eyes, or to shake her head back and forth, accomplishing the same goal.

Rachel has become very possessive of my lap. If she sees anyone sitting on my lap, she throws a fit. It doesn't matter if she just got down or is playing happily across the room. She makes a beeline for me, says "aah" in a mad way or crys until her face turns red, and then tries to shove her big brother or big sister out of the way.

Benjamin was trying to pour himself a drink. Rachel repeatedly hit the top of the pitcher, smacked the cup out of the way a few times, and hit Benjamin's hand. "Hey!" Benjamin exclaimed in exasperation. Rachel ran off laughing.

I put my laptop down to help Lisy in the bathroom. When I came back, it was off. "Did Rachel turn off my computer?" I asked Dominic. Rachel came over and emphatically shook her head no, finally laughing at me.

The Nose Pose

This morning while I was out, Dominic taught our children some basic yoga poses. They were excited to show me what they learned. So excited, in fact, that they started making up new poses. Although they had more to show me, these are the ones that made sense.

Benjamin with an alpaca and her cria

Benjamin:
The Nose Pose - he plugged his nose
The Fall Down Pose - from a standing position, he fell straight down
The Couch Pose - he flopped onto the couch

Samuel feeding the cria, Gypsy Girl

Samuel:
The Hair Pose - he held his hair out to the sides
The Pillow Pose - he sat on a pillow and tried to scoot forward
The Tickle Pose - he tickled his own tummy and then fell to the floor

Rose and her cria, Brooklyn Rose.

The alpaca pictures do make sense. Dominic's yoga instructors breed alpacas, and then give educational tours to children. We even got to see them shear an alpaca while we were there.

"To die, to sleep..."

Elisa and Samuel were quietly playing together, while Benjamin kept charging in and wrecking what they were working on.

Me: "Benjamin, you seem to have a lot of energy. What can you do to use up all that energy?"
Benjamin: "I can die."
Me: "Does dying use up energy?"
Benjamin: "Yes. Look at this."

He then proceeded to die in various ways around the living room. Some of them were very theatrical, and they were all noisy. Afterwards, he was able to quietly play with his siblings without destroying their work. I guess he really knew what was best for himself.