Live, Love, and Learn: April 2010

Monday, April 12, 2010

Sibling Rivalry

We had a little bug ripping through the family. Ryan was very sick all night and a couple days later Katie started up with the vomiting. After several trips to the bathroom, I warned her that after Ryan had thrown up all day he then had a pretty bad bout of diarrea and she should be on the lookout for that to start up. Just in case. Well, Claire popped in from around the corner saying, "I want diarrea too!" Not a clue what diarrea is, but if her brother and sister are getting it, she better not be left out!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Waffle Glasses

When Ryan was one, he bent the frames of Tim's glasses, and they have sat crookedly on his face ever since. Very cute. At one point duct tape has held the frame intact. Most recently a piece of scotch tape held a lens in place.

Maybe Tim should have gotten a new pair of glasses in the last 7 years... but he hates to wear glasses! He only wears them on the rare occasion that he would lose a contact and not have a spare.

Last summer on our family cruise Katie asked him why he brought his waffle glasses on vacation... was he planning on making some waffles? It was then that I realized the only time she had ever seen Tim wearing glasses was on Saturday mornings when he made waffles for breakfast.

We bid a sad farewell to Tim's waffle glasses.
The did not survive the camping trip.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Camping

THIS... is why we should never go camping EVER AGAIN!!!

This is clothing and gear for a one night camping experience. Not including the tent, cooler, and 2 huge sleeping bags. What in the world were we thinking? It was August hot during the day and down to the 40s at night so we had to bring winter and summer stuff. It's still not all completely unpacked. And notice the potty seat... was I really expecting to work on potty training at the campsite? Really?

Beside our tent was a huge bristly bush. Wrestling around between the branches was either a serial killer, or it may have been a bunny. Either way, it totally freaked me out. Between that and the 50 million little cactuses the kids kept stepping on, we were not very comfortable in our surroundings.

We did manage to grill a delicious meal, and I'd packed some random leftover paper plates to use up on the trip. As I served Claire her dinner she announced, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!!" when she saw her green shamrock plate. We roasted an entire bag of marshmallows and made countless s'mores. The optimum roasting time for Claire's marshmallows is approximately 4 seconds. She out-ate all of us.

Shhhh. Don't tell her she's not actually blowing up the tent. She wanted to be soooo helpful!

We had a fun time. Kind of. The problem was that we went to the same campsite last year for a night and had such a great time we thought we could replicate the same experience. We should have known that wouldn't work out very well. We found a different campground that we're going to try next year. Yes, we're such gluttons for punishment it's not even funny.

What did you say!?!?

There is no filter in a child's mind- they say whatever they're thinking without a care if it's socially appropriate... sometimes I'm left wishing I could dig a hole and hide, other times my heart is melting from the sweetness of their thoughts. Here are some of their classic moments:

Katie one day decided she wanted to start taking showers instead of baths. She explained to us that "The bad thing about baths is that you dip your head where your bottom just was!"

embarrassing moment #382
"I know why your bottom is so big, it's because you ate too much ice cream"

I can't believe you were born when it was still 19o0 something. That was like a hundred years ago!
At church one Sunday, Claire was playing around the baptismal fountain. We rushed over to grab her before she fell in. Ryan scolded her saying,"If you fall in there you would be blessed, and then you would drown."

We were talking about how when I was little there weren't any car seats. Katie asked, "Is that because you rode in a horse and wagon?"

Claire just kissed me, I'm not going to wipe off all her slobber yet- I'm going to wait until the love is absorbed first, then I'll wipe it off.

On the difference between boys and girls... "Boys have a penis, but girls get to paint their nails."

They used to totally flip out when the rain washed away their chalk drawings and hopscotch, now they recognize it as "God's eraser."

I offered a slice of my spinach/feta pizza to Ryan who apologetically declined, "No Mommy, I don't want to throw up today."

We were discussing how Christmas is a birthday celebration for baby Jesus and asked the kids what they thought Jesus would like for a birthday present. Ryan responded, "Probably nothing since he's dead."

Katie recently complained to me that she's "not having much luck getting people to pay her before coming into her room" I asked how much it costs to enter, and she informed me, "My fee is $20."

After taking Ryan to school on the first day of Kindergarten, Katie broke down sobbing, "Now I have no one to play with except a baby! And she's going to bite my nose!"

In a movie we were watching, a man was singing and Ryan asked if it was David Cook. I told him it wasn't and he said, "Too bad, that would be a treat for the ladies!"

I am the only brunette in a golden blonde world, and once when he was little Ryan suggested that I go to the doctor so he could fix my hair.

Ryan on Kindergarten friendship, "I told that kid he was pretty cool, and he told me I'm awesome, and then we were friends." I hope it's always that easy to make friends.

Embarrassing moment #462
I was talking to a friend about her upcoming wedding and Katie interrupted- "Uh, aren't you already married?? You should be since you have a baby."

Ryan on T-ball vs Soccer... "I'd like to sign up for T-ball again, as long as they don't make me play in the outfield... that was boring!"
Why do we need to bring my birth certificate? Isn't my proof that I was born that I'm standing right here? --Ryan, not quite understanding the complexity of traveling across the Canadian border.

Katie wants to know why there's a reindeer named Nixon, but none of the other presidents had a reindeer named after them...

We were practicing all the body parts with Claire, she's learning to identify eyes, hair, belly button, etc. and Tim asked her to find Daddy's eyes. She leaned over and practically gouged out his eyes and said, "Ass." Her pronunciation is a bit off, but she's getting the basics!

Hark the Herald Angels Sing~ go ahead and sing it, I'll wait for you... Does it end the way Ryan's version does with a grand chorus of "Glory to the New York King!!!!"

I was taking Katie to the bathroom late one night around Christmas and she was mumbling something in her sleep. I asked her if she was excited for Santa to come and she answered, "He has to please his customers."

One day I thought Ryan had had a serious growth spurt. His pants were like 4 or 5 inches too short. Finally at the end of the day I asked him about them and it turns out they were Katie's pants. He said, "Yeah, I thought it was weird that they had a butterfly on the button."

Why doesn't Arkansas rhyme with Kansas? They have almost all the same letters! Ryan, who did just fine on his PALS testing at school, is learning how complex the English language is!

Ryan was sooooo disappointed to have school on St. Patrick's Day. "How can we have school today? Don't they know it's a holiday!"

How do blind people wake up in the morning if they can't open their eyes?

Mommy: "Ryan, get back over here, you haven't even touched any of your vegetables!" Ryan: "How many times do I need to touch them?"

Mommy, why is there a net inside my swim trunks? Is it in case I want to go fishing?

I have 2 questions Mommy... Why didn't you sign me up for ESL? And, What is ESL?

We were reading a story about Leonardo Da Vinci and Ryan stopped me after a few minutes. "Wait a minute mommy, his middle name is 'duh'?!"

I hope Granny makes it to 100! She's SOOOO close!!