Lisy's birthday

Here are my favorite Lisy quotes about her birthday.

We gave her a zhu zhu pet that looks a lot like our guinea pig, Thor. Samuel named the guinea pig after the super hero from The Avengers. When I asked Lisy what she wanted to name her zhu zhu, it only took her a second to say, "Sor, God of Sunder." Have I mentioned that she can't pronounce the 'th' sound?

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All morning long Lisy has been asking, "Is it still my birthday?" She had a lot of fun yesterday. Since we'll go shopping later to use her gift card, I'm sure it will feel like it is still her birthday.

Samuel's day

Samuel usually follows instructions promptly. Today, however, we were constantly repeating ourselves to him. In frustration Dominic demanded, "How many times do I have to tell you?"

Without skipping a beat Samuel replied, "two." That response lightened the mood, and we all laughed.

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After finishing our dinner of Chinese take-out, Samuel wanted me to read the fortune from his cookie (I'm not sure why he wanted me to read it - he's perfectly capable of reading it himself).

" 'At this moment, someone is thinking good thoughts of you,' " I read.

Gasp. "Is that you?" he asked excitedly.

"Yes," I said. How could I say, or think, otherwise?

Lisy and the gazebo

Dominic put up our gazebo this evening. While he was working on it, Lisy told me that "Daddy is making a tent!"

Then the boys and I had to go inside to do chores, but Lisy stayed outside until Dominic finished. "Did you have fun being Daddy's big helper?" I asked her when she came back in.

"No, I was Daddy's little helper," she corrected.

Elisa playing under the half-constructed gazebo last summer.

It's not always their fault

Lisy dropped something down the drain, then I shoved it beyond reach while trying to retrieve it. "So anyway, I made a bad situation worse," I concluded my tale to Dominic.

"Isn't that what parenthood is?" he asked.

"It sure feels that way sometimes!" I said.

Tailoring to your audience

Samuel doesn't like cheese. He avoids eating anything he thinks might have cheese in it. Benjamin, on the other hand, eats more food with cheese on it. One night last week, we had a cheesy broccoli side dish at dinner.

"Hey Benjamin," said Dominic as he set the table, "this broccoli has a cheesy sauce."

"Yay!" said Benjamin.

Then Dominic turned to Samuel. "Hey Samuel, the broccoli has a special sauce. You'll love it." Samuel just looked at him skeptically.

Watch out for the bedding!

Benjamin, while rolling around on the floor with his blanket, "Aah! I'm being eaten by my blanket!"

To which I calmly replied, "Then stop going to bed with carnivorous blankets."

This picture was actually taken last fall. Benjamin had fallen asleep like that, and he wouldn't wake up for dinner.

"But wait, there's more!"

We haven't had cable in a couple of years, but of course we got satellite to go with our new t.v. The children don't remember watching shows with commercials. So the other day Dominic and the kids were watching t.v. when an infomercial came on. Samuel got very excited about whatever was being advertised. He kept telling Dominic about all the amazing features. Then came the inevitable "but wait, there's more!" part. Sammy jumped up and excitedly said, "Dad! There's more!"

Dominic responded with, "Yes, they always say that."

Sammy, sadly, "They do? Oh."

What a sweet boy. Too bad Dad had to be the one to burst his bubble (though I'm secretly glad it wasn't me this time).