Meep

Samuel's new thing is saying, "Meep" a lot. He says it in answer to questions, when the conversation dies down, or any time that strikes his fancy.

Just now Benjamin walked into the kitchen to get some juice. Samuel was standing in the way and said, "Meep," when his brother tried to go around him.

Benjamin reached for the juice anyway and replied, "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

Potty training lasts longer than you think

Makayla showed up without her pants. "Makayla, where are your pants?" I inquired. She simply shrugged and carried on playing. At what other time in your life can you lose your pants and it's funny?

I found a pair of underwear on the stairs. When I asked who's they were, no one claimed them. I guess I wouldn't claim them either, left in such a public area.

I drill everyone, my kids and their friends, when they come out of the bathroom: Did you flush? Did you wash your hands? I send them back if they say no or can't answer.

Primary

Colvert, an 8-year-old sitting in front of me, kept swinging his scripture case and hitting it against his chair during singing time. I called his name several times before he turned around and smiled at me. How could I come across as stern and serious? So I simply asked, "Why are your scriptures so loud?"

"Because they're happy to be here!" he answered.

Who's on your family tree?

What are your family dinner conversations like? We had another zombie discussion tonight. As a matter of fact, "No zombies at the table" and "Don't eat your brother's/sister's brain" are common phrases around here. Though I must admit that a little kid saying, "bwaaiiins," is cute. Even Makayla holds up her arms and growls "bain!"

Benjamin was the first to finish his meal and put up his plate. He came back to the table as an undead in search of brains. Elisa said, "I don't want a zombie in my family."

Dominic admonished her, "You can't choose your family. You're stuck with them, even if you don't like them."

Then Samuel quipped, "We have zombies on both sides of our family. Mom's family and Dad's family."

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

Rachel keeps begging to see zombie pictures. Why? "Because they say bwains!"

nostalgia

I miss the pitter-patter of little feet as my children and half the neighborhood kids clomp around. They are running up and down the stairs, from the backyard to their bedrooms and back again, in an epic boys versus girls "war." One of the kids is supplying the background music of "Gangnam Style," blaring from his phone.

Exit is not Elisa

<--Lisy with a Jawa at the mall. The stormtroopers frightened her, but she liked the Jawas.

Background: We gave each of our children a name that begins with a different letter. They always learn "their letter" before the rest of the alphabet. Although Elisa prefers to be called Lisy, she knows that her letter is E.

Story: The other day I was shopping at several different stores with the kids. Lisy kept trying to go through the emergency exits or the doors labeled "This is not an Exit." The boys were very helpful in pulling her back from disaster every time.

And every time she came back, she complained, "but Mom! It's my letter!" referring to the E in Exit. She thought the doors were labeled "Elisa" just for her.

Conversation stopper

In the middle of dinner tonight, Benjamin dropped this non sequitur: "But seriously, I'm a spoon."

He laughed really hard at our confused expressions.

Imagination can only go so far

Dominic's eyewitness report:

Lisy carefully spread out her blanket on the hardwood living room floor. She stood on the edge of her blanket, stretched her arms out to her sides, jumped, and belly-flopped onto the middle of her blanket. She groaned, stood up, shook herself off, and went off to play something else. What was that all about? he wondered.

When I came back, Dominic told me the whole story. Lisy heard his account and got very excited. She jumped up and down, and proudly proclaimed, "I flyed like a bird!"

Ohhh, of course. Why didn't we realize that?

I can explain ...

The kids were downstairs first this morning, as usual. When Dominic and I came down, we heard the cat meowing at the door to come inside. Dominic let her in.

Samuel said defensively, "I told Benjamin to let her in, but he didn't even get up." He constantly delegates things to his servants, also known as his younger siblings.

Benjamin piped up, "I did get up! I got myself a granola bar." Well, since you put it that way, I guess there was no harm done.

Blow darts

Yesterday morning we drove around looking at yard sales and listening to NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" We heard a funny story about an elderly woman who was arrested for shooting blow darts at people walking past her house. When asked why she did it, she said she liked to hear people say "Ow!"

Thus began a very silly game of all the boys (including my husband) pretending to blow darts at each other and lots of "ow's" abounding. At one point Samuel kept "shooting" darts at Benjamin, who was getting very frustrated. In a commanding voice Dominic yelled back, "Let Benjamin shoot darts at you!"

I started laughing hysterically. Dominic just looked at me and sighed, "Oh, that's gonna go on the blog."

~~~

Oh, it gets better. Today on the way home from church the boys started "shooting" darts again, which made Rachel laugh. The "shooting" didn't last long, and Rachel began to fuss. Ever the helpful dad, Dominic called out, "You need to start shooting darts at Rachel again to make her laugh!" They did, and she did :)

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.

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."

Sunny days

As the weather warms up and the sun shines more, I keep sending the kids outside to play and always say, "It's a beautiful day. Go out and enjoy it."

The other day after I told Benjamin to go outside, he had to go to the bathroom. When he eventually came out, he asked, "Mom, is it still beautiful outside?" When I answered in the affirmative, he happily ran out to play.

The weather was very nice again the next day. We were going somewhere as a family, and I was upstairs getting ready while Dominic ushered the children out to the car. He told me that as they went outside, each one exclaimed, "What a beautiful day!"

It reminds me of growing up in Maryland and my mom would say, "This is a California day," every time the sun was out and the humidity was low. I always thought, "Yeah, right, how can any place always be perfect?" Then I moved to California during the dry season and discovered that she was right!

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

Saying it like it is

This afternoon the kids and I were frosting cookies. The kids didn't make a mess, though they did eat quite a bit of frosting. By the time we finished, the kids were bouncing off the walls and were very noisy. I thought out loud, "what is going on with you guys today?"

In a matter-of-fact tone, Samuel said, "It's because we're kids, and we just ate a lot of sugar, Mom."

-MR

Like father like son

Today we went to tithing settlement. As we were sitting down and trying to get the kids settled into chairs, Benjamin bit the desk. Dominic reprimanded him, "Benjamin, don't eat the Bishop's desk."

The reason this was funny to us is because when Dominic was Benjamin's age, his family always sat in the same pew at church. He remembers biting the back of the pew in front of him. A few years ago we visited that church building, and his teeth marks are still there.

-MR

table rules

Growing up, my family had the rule that there was no singing at the dinner table. I was surprised to find out that other families didn't break into song at the drop of a hat like we did.

With my children, our dinner table rule is that there are no animals at the table. Animals include, but are not limited too, toys, stuffed animals, animal noises, and eating like animals.

-MR


Maybe one day, those rules will work. There are always loop-holes too, like a kid who is asked not to sing at the table later has to go potty and sings full blast, so the whole table is serenaded with "I am a child of God" from the bathroom.

-Dom

young acrobat

Last night we went to a school activity, where I heard:
"Sir, it might not be a good idea to somersault off the chairs like that."
The lady could easily have been talking to one of my boys, but I am so glad she wasn't this time. Aah, the universality of wild children.

-MR

Sunday Edition

At church today, someone giving the lesson talked about how they were reading the scriptures out loud with their kids, at a place where "Jesus spake unto the multitude." After a little while, one of his kids asked, "Why did Jesus spank the multitude?"

Obviously, they needed it.


Our kids loved watching Sky High. There's a part that my oldest likes to repeat: "There's trouble downtown, big trouble." To which Benjamin says, "Thewz twoble downdown, big twoble." They would also ask if we were going downtown whenever we got in the car.

-Dom