Camping can be hot

This last weekend we went camping for Rachel's birthday. While we broke camp, we realized Makayla was missing. After a quick search Dominic found her in the van.

"What are you doing in the van?" he asked.

"Well, you see, it's like this," said Makayla. "The sun is hot and the van is colder."

Where is the logic in that?

Today is Rachel's birthday! It was also Cub Scout Pack meeting, in which Benjamin received his Bear (yay!). They planned to have a group of Native American dancers come and perform. The music was loud, of course. Rachel kept covering her ears and complaining. Eventually she told me, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm sleepy." 

I wanted to stay until the end. So, trying to encourage her to want to stay I said, "Rachel, this dancing and drumming is part of your heritage." 

She looked confused and said, "How will that solve my problems?" 

Good point.

Cats can't howl past 9 pm

Samuel's class learned about odd laws from around the country. They each got to choose one to write a story about how that law came about. Samuel chose a Columbus, GA law, which states that cats are not allowed to howl past 9 o'clock pm.

"One day in Columbus, Georgia, a group of reble cats got the idea of howling at 10:00 p.m. Every night it sounded like a nuke was going to hit. Everyone complained. One day the mayor got sick of it and because of the noise; went crazy. The next mayor made a law that cats can't howl after 9:00 p.m. 2 years later the cat rebelion made peace with the humans but kept the law as a cymbal of peace."

I kept his spelling and punctuation. He also drew a picture with a cat and a human shaking their paw and hand, respectively.

Signs, signs, everywhere are signs

One of the toilets got clogged. Yuck. I was in the middle of making dinner when the kids told me about it. I wasn't about to fix it right then, so the girls took it upon themselves to put up warning signs. Elisa put up the expected sign: "Out of order." Later on, when I finally had a chance to fix the problem, I saw that Rachel had also put up a sign that was supposed to read: "Who did it? Rachel did it! Meow!" But Rachel is in kindergarten and sounded out the words she didn't know. Plus, she still mixes up her b's and d's. Her sign actually read: "ho bib it? Rachel bib it! meow!" Have I mentioned that Rachel thinks of herself as a cat?

He has a healthy self-esteem

Samuel came home very excited. "Mom, I saw someone at school wearing a really cool shirt today! It said, 'They told me I could be anything, so I became a NINJA!' "

"Fun!" I said. "I once saw a shirt that said, 'They told me I could be anything, so I became AWESOME!' "

He was not that impressed. "Eh," he said, "I'm already awesome."

Kid's speech 2

Benjamin couldn't say "thank you" for a very long time. It sounded more like "nay-noo." Now we tell eachother "nay-noo" when we're feeling silly.

Rachel is such a girl. She loves princesses, fairies, and mermaids. The r's turn into w's of course, such as pwincesses and faiwies. The one that surprises me the most is how mermaids sounds like worm-aids. I have corrected her time and again, yet I know I'll miss it when she stops.

Makayla loves piggy back rides down the stairs and calls for "higgy back!" or even just "higgy!" Dominic caught me asking her if she wanted a higgy back ride the other day. I didn't even realize I said it.

Rachel feeds her goldfish fish flakes and algae pellets, but she can't remember the word algae. Instead, she feeds her fish allergy pellets.

Driving on a foggy day Makayla said, "The frog is creeping me out."
"You mean the fog?" I clarified.
"Yeah, I can't see through the frog," she complained.

Moms make everything better

Moms fix cuts and bruises
Every summer many neighborhood kids come to my house when they get hurt. They all know I'm home and I'll stop the bleeding. So in the Spring I buy a box of 100 band-aids. They are almost all gone by Fall.

Last week Makayla bumped her knee. She kept asking me to make it better. However, I really couldn't see anything wrong with it; it certainly didn't need a band-aid. I was busy and not thinking clearly, because I didn't realize what she wanted me to do. Finally, she kissed her knee. "There, I made it all better, Mommy." Boy, I felt like I failed as a mother.

Moms cheer you up
Recently Makayla was cranky. I couldn't figure out why. She whined and cried about everything. I began making silly faces and goofy voices and tickling her. She tried to complain but couldn't hold back her smile. She started having fun despite herself. Through her giggles she pleaded, "Mommy, stop making me feel better!" Too late - you're already happier.

Tonight Samuel came downstairs an hour and a half past bedtime, complaining about a scary part in the book he's reading (Fablehaven, when Seth meets the witch Muriel, who is really creepy). "Well," I said, "stop reading. Go to sleep. In the morning when it's light, it won't be as scary."
"I know," he said meekly. "But right now I need a hug from Mom." He sat down next to me, and we hugged. We hugged until he felt ready to go back to bed.