TaLaisa

Mia and Jared were watching "Super Why" this morning. Mia turned to Jared and said, "What if the super word was TaLaisa?!"

Memorial Day

Jared was going through the calendar with Mia. He was explaining what every holiday meant. When he got to Memorial Day, he read, "Memorial All Day. Do you know what that means Mia? It is when you go to church all day."

That's Love

Tonight while I was putting Gordon to bed, I laid down by him and read him a story. I gave him a hug and whispered in his ear, "Good night, I love you baby boy." He said to me, "Good night. I love you big Mom. I love everybody. Even Dad."

Robin

Mia was pretending she was Batman and Ellis was Robin. They were going upstairs and Mia turned around and said, "Robin you just laid an egg."

Washing Hands

It's funny to see how our kids associate different things. We've taught them to wash their hands so they "don't get sick." They've also learned that when you're sick, you often end up vomiting. So it shouldn't surprise me that sometimes I'll catch Gordon in the bathroom, where he'll explain to me, "I'm washing my hands so I don't throw up a lot."

Not My What?

Ellis loves the, "That's Not My..." books from Usborne. These are simple "touchy feely" books that say, "That's not my train. It's wheels are too smooth." I was reading it to Ellis and I said, "That's not my train it's funnel is too rusty." Ellis said, "Yes it are." He did this for each page after I would read it.

Scream

When we got to church today, Seth was helping Gordon out of his car seat. Seth asked him a question and Gordon said, "I just want to scream. Outside."

Punch

Today at church I was tracing Ellis' hand. When I finished he took a look at it, made a fist with his hand and said, "trace my punch."

Boys

Jared was doing something that was really bothering Mia the other day. She got up to walk away and I heard her say, "Boys...".

Two Gordys

We were watching some home videos and Gordon saw himself. He said, "There are two Gordys. One is looking at me and I am looking at him!"

Talents

Mia was playing with a package of diapers yesterday. She wanted me to look at a trick she was doing and I told her that it was really neat. She said, "Yeah, I know. One of my talents is playing with diapers."

Babies

Mia was talking about her friend Abby and she said that she really wanted to marry her. Seth told her that she would have to kiss her. Jared said, "Yeah, and you will have a LOT of babies!"

Hair

Ellis got a haircut the other day. Mia took one look at him and said, "Ellis still has more hair than my dad."

BuddyNana

We all love the way Ellis says banana, he says buddynana. We were in the car and I asked him to say banana. He said, "Buddynana." We kept asking him to say it and finally Mia asked him to say banana. Ellis said, "Don't ask me to say buddynana any more! Buddynana. Humph!"

Santa Claus

I already decided that if my kids ever asked me if Santa was real, I would tell them the truth. Tonight I had this conversation with Jared:

Jared: "Mommy. If I ask you something, will you tell me the honest truth?"
Me: "Yes."
Jared: "Is Santa Claus really real?"
Me: "No. He isn't. Your dad and I give you those presents because we love you so much and want you to be happy and know that you are loved. We shouldn't go around telling other people that Santa isn't real, not even Mia, because it is a tradition people like to have and they like to believe in Santa Claus."

Jared digested this for a while and said, "Why do people want to pretend there is a Santa Claus?" Me: "People just like to believe that there is a person out there that only wants to make other people happy and do good for them."
Jared: "Oh. Like Jesus. Only Jesus is real."

He then turned over and went to sleep.

Five

I asked Gordon to get a tissue for Ellis to wipe his nose with. Gordon got one for himself and one for Ellis then he asked me if I wanted one. I told him, "No thanks. I'm fine." He asked me again if I wanted a tissue and I told him, "No thank you." He looked at me and said, "You're five?"

Too Old

I went to Parent-Teacher Conferences today and I parked across the street from the school to avoid the congestion. Jared and I were walking in and I asked Jared if he wanted to hold my hand or if he was too big. He started to laugh and said, "Too big to hold hands!? Even if I were an adult I would still be able to hold your hand!"

Choir

When we went in to tithing settlement today, another ward was having Choir practice in the Chapel. Mia went over and peeked in to see who was singing. She turned around and said to me, "There's only old people in there."

Later...

Seth asked Gordon what he wanted to be when he grew up and Gordon said, "Daddy. I will grow up later."

The splits

Jared just told me, "Mom. I just got a spare even though my bowling pins just did the splits."

Brothers

Jared was putting Mia's shoes away and he said, "Mia. I am going to put these in the garbage." Mia said, "Don't!" Jared said, "Tricked you!"

Mia looked at me a sighed and said, "It is hard to have brothers."

Mia Loves You

Ellis just came downstairs and said, "Mom. Mia loves you. OK?" Then he turned around to leave. I said, "Mia loves me?" Ellis said, "Yes. Mia loves you. Mia really nice." Then he went to play with Mia.

Signs

On the way home from the store, we drove through a neighborhood that had a lot of street signs. Jared said, "Those people who have signs in their front yards are lucky - they can play with them when ever they want."

I said, "What would you do with a sign?"

He said, "Kick it any time I wanted."

Apology Accepted

I had had a rough day with Jared and he had yelled at me over some insignificant thing. When Seth got home, I told him that I was going out...alone. While I was at Costco, getting milk, I got a phone call. It was Jared. He said, "Mommy, I am sorry that I yelled at you when you were looking at my magic trick."

Woo Hoo!

Mia asked Seth if she could have more goldfish crackers. He told her that if there were some left, she could help herself. As she was walking away, I heard her say, "Woo Hoo!"

Notes

Another note that Mia left for me:

"I luv yoo ar cut"

(I love you. You are cute.)

Boss

My favorite story about Jared is last year when he had just studied being free in America and how the soldiers fought for that freedom. I was telling him what to do and he burst into tears and said, "I don't think you want me to be free!"

The Vote is In...

On Wednesday, after finding out who won the Presidential election, Jared said, "I am glad that President Obama won, because there's never been a brown President before."

Service

We went and raked the leaves for Seth's Grandma on Monday. We were talking about service and how it is great to help people that need it. On Wednesday, we woke up to snow. Jared came to me and said, "Maybe we should find a grandma that needs us to shovel her snow."

Peanut Butter

Today when we took the sacrament Ellis said, "Mmm. Yummy Peanut Butter!"

Lightening

On Halloween I was taking pictures of the kids while Jared was in going to the bathroom. He came running out and asked, "Is there a lightening storm?" I told him, "No. I am just using the flash in these pictures."

Love Notes

Mia is our little writer. She loves to write notes and leave them for someone to find. She was going to play at her friend Raleigh's house and she decided to write him a note.

The note said,

"Dear Raleigh
I lov yoo.
Fromia."

She showed it to me and said, I didn't want to waste the "M" so I only used one.

How do you spell that?

Today we were in the car and Mia was trying to spell a word that we don't say.

She said, "S T O O D P." I asked her what she was trying to spell. She thought for a moment and said, "S T O O P E D." Sounding it out the whole time she was spelling.

I asked her if she was spelling stupid and she said yes. Jared said, "That's not how you spell it. You spell it S T O T P E D."

Nekkid

Every time I look at Gordon, he is taking his clothes off. "I want to be cold." he tells me. The other day I asked him to please put some clothes on and he said, "So I won't melt?"

A New Wife

The other day I heard Gordon say, "This wife is dirty. I need a new wife." He then ran to the silverware drawer and pulled out a clean knife.

Beeping

When Gordon woke up the other day, he said, "Mommy! Come here." I went in to see him and he said, "Hear that? My heart is beeping!" I asked him why it was beeping and he said, "Because it is working!"

Thirsty

Because I nursed my kids, my breasts have been dubbed "bottles". At church on Sunday Gordon asked me, "Do you have bottles?" I nodded my head yes. He then asked, "Can I touch them?" I shook my head no. He then started crying and said all too loudly, "But I am REALLY thirsty!"

Honk, Honk

Gordon was in going to the bathroom and he yelled out to me, "Mom! My bottom honked!"

Grandma Ellis

We were going to go to Seth's grandparent's house to give them something. Gordon asked me where we were going and I told him we were "Going to Grandma Ellis' house." He said, "How about Grandma Gordy's?"

Scripture Chase

Mia brought home a game from church a few months ago. It has suitable activities for Sunday. She wanted to act out the activities with some paper animals that she had. Mia drew one that said, "Have a scripture chase." Mia took her animals and had them running all over the place saying, "Scriptures, come back! Come back scriptures!"

Playing First

Yesterday I bought SPORE, a single-player PC game for all ages. I took Mia to the store with me to grab it. On the way home she asked if she could play it first. I said, "No, I need to play it first. Because if you play it first you'll just say, 'Dad, how do I do this? Dad, how do I do that?' But if I play it first, I can find out how to play it and then tell you guys how to do it." She then proposed her own solution: "Well, we could just ask Ma."

Big Ball

I wasn't feeling well and I told Seth I "wanted to go and lay down on my bed and curl up in a little ball."

Gordon was in the room and said, "Mommy. You have to curl up in a BIG ball!"

Outside

Gordon loves to play outside. Yesterday while we were driving on the freeway he asked, "Can I go outside?"

Tissues

When I took Mia to school today, I told her that I would miss her. Mia looked at me just before she got out of the car and said, "You can use my tissues."

No Pants Questions

I was getting dressed in our bedroom, which has a connected bathroom, from which Jared was doing the sitting version of using the potty. Under that setting, he shouted to me that he couldn't beat "Sir Red Beard" on "Super Power Island" of the online game Poptropica. Coincidentally, my brother, Jordan, who is the lead creator of the game, had just arrived at our home (and Jared didn't yet know this). So I responded saying, "Guess what? uncle Jordan is upstairs RIGHT NOW. You could ask him for some secrets!"

After a momentary pause Jared skeptically asked, "Why would it help to ask Jordan with no pants or underwear on?"

Belly Button

I went to Kohls with Gordon today and he saw a button on the floor. He was so excited and went over and picked it up. He said, "Look Mommy. A Belly Button. Someone lost their belly button."

Body Guard

We went to the park with our Neighbors yesterday. There was a little girl at the park who was being mean to Gordon. At one time, she pushed him out of the way so that she could play with the toy he was playing with. Gordon started to cry. I looked over waiting to see how Gordon would handle it. Gordon's friend, Spencer, stepped in for him. He made this face at the girl like he was going to turn into the incredible hulk on her. Through clenched teeth, he said, "Don't push my friend Gordon!"

Later this same girl came up to Gordon and hit him. Gordon was crying and Spencer was yelling at the girl. I asked Gordon if he wanted Spencer to be his Body Guard and Gordon said, "Spencer IS my body guard!"

Spencer is 6 months younger than Gordon.

Breakable

Yesterday I was sitting on the floor and Mia was climbing up my back like I was a tree or something. Gordon was sitting in front of me playing with me. All of a sudden Gordon looked at me and Mia and exclaimed, "Mommy! You are going to broke!"

Suckers

Mia went to the school for Kindergarten testing today. After she finished, her teacher gave her a lolli-pop. On the way to the car, I asked her to eat her lolli-pop quickly so we didn't have to worry about the boys crying over it when we got home. Mia told me, "Mom. They are called SUCKERS. That means I have to suck them and they melt slowly."

Sammiches

Yesterday at church, the Sacrament was being passed and Ellis started saying, "Sammiches! Sammiches!" I told him that they were just little pieces of bread, not sandwiches. He started yelling, "Sammiches. Sammiches." I finally told him, "sure. They are sandwiches...but you only get a small piece of sandwich."

Two.

Yesterday at church, the Sacrament was being passed. It was nearly to our row and Gordon told me that he was going to take 2 pieces of bread. I told him that he was only allowed one piece. When the bread got to our row, Gordon looked at me impishly and took two pieces of bread, ignoring my whispers to put one back and ate them both.

Threats

Gordon didn't want to finish his dinner tonight and I was cleaning off the table. He didn't want me to throw his food away but I didn't want it left out on the table. He sat in his bed and told me, "Mommy! If you throw my food away, I won't read this Winnie the Pooh book!"

Magazine Teacher

06-11-07

I told the kids I was going out with my visiting teachers tonight. Jared said, "Oh, you are going with your magazine teacher?"

Heavenly Father or Santa

10-24-07

Today Mia said, "We get everything we want from Heavenly Father...or Santa!"

Hairy?

10-06-07

Harry Judd is our balding neighbor and Pat is his wife. Jared and Mia had been talking about them. After dropping Jared off at school Mia said, "Is Harry the boy?" I told her that he is. She then said, "Why do people call him Hairy when he doesn't have very much hair?"

Another tooth

09-18-07

On Sunday Jared had his second tooth fall out. In his words, "First I put the string on. Then I was pulling it and then Gordon swatted it away from me and it fell on the ground! That's how my loose tooth got out! I hugged Gordon for pulling my tooth out for me."

Exhibits

09-11-07

The other day we were coming home from Laura's house and from the back we heard Mia say, "Introducing Jared! The next great exhibit!."

No Screaming!

08-25-07

My visiting teachers told me this story:

The other we had a substitute for singing time. She wanted the kids to sing as loudly as they could. After about 2 songs Mia said loudly, "I don't want to scream any more." The primary all started to laugh. Mia turned around, put her hands on her hips and said, "I DON'T like to be laughed at guys!"

Pony Tail

08-23-07

Mia went in to go to the bathroom and I heard her making some noise so I went in to check on her. She was standing in the bathroom with some toilet paper in her bottom, neighing. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I am a horse and that is my tail."

Beauty Shop

08-12-07

I played "Beauty Shop" with Mia today. We fixed each others hair. When she was fixing my hair, she called me Beauty. After a while she said, "Let's play Cinderella Shop. I'm Cinderella."

Barney's Yucky!

07-20-07

We have always told the kids that "Barney" is yucky. Yesterday I had this conversation with Mia.

Mia: "Remember that day when I was sick and I had to watch "Barney"?"
Me: "And you cried?"
Jared: "Because Barney is SO yucky?"
Mia: "Because I called for you and you didn't hear me."
Mia: "Barney isn't yucky."
Me: (laughing)
Mia: "It ISN'T funny AND Barney isn't yucky!"

What's that smell?

07-04-07

I was changing Gordon's stinky diaper today and Mia walked in. She said, "What's that smell?"
I said, "What do you think it is?"
She said, "It isn't Gordon's stinky diaper. It smells delicious!"
I said, "All I smell is Gordon's diaper."
She said, "It is fresh air." Then she took a deep breath and walked out of the room.

I love you

06-23-07

We had a lot of fun in Aberdeen this weekend. Jared and Alex were the best of friends. They wanted to sleep in the same sleeping bag together. When Jared said his prayers he said, "Pray that I can sleep in my sleeping bag with Alex. Pray that I will see Alex at the parade. Pray that I can stand by Alex at the parade..." When he finished he said to Alex, "Know why I said that? Because I LOVE YOU!

Prayers

06-21-07

Jared bonked his head on the dresser tonight.

Seth said the prayer tonight. When he finished, Jared crawled onto my lap and burst into tears. When he calmed down enough to talk, he said he was crying because Seth didn't pray for his head. Seth said another prayer and everything was fine.

Cheese

06-18-07

I asked Gordon to tell Jared and Mia to come eat. I heard him say to them, "Uh, cheese." I guess to a 2 year old that means come eat.

Twins

06-18-07

Mia told me today that she would like to be my twin "stister". I hugged her.

Toothless

06-18-07

Jared's first tooth fell out today. He was so excited! He told me, "I was wobbling it with my tongue. Then I gave it one more wobble and it fell out in my hand!"

It's OK Mommy...

06-14-07

I was parking today and backed out then went in straight and Mia said, "Mommy it's OK that you are not very good at parking."

Wishes CAN come true.

06-11-07

In the car today Jared said, "Tell me what you want for your birthday. I will make your wish come true."

Useful Straws

06-03-07

Yesterday when we stopped to eat, Mia put her straw down her shirt and blew air. She told me in her sing-song voice, "I didn't have any warm air on my tummy today so I am using my straw to blow warm air on my tummy."

Not Sick, Funny

Gordon has been sick the past few days. He has been lethargic during the day time and waking up crying at night from discomfort. It's nothing traumatic or uncommon, but enough to keep him from being very active. So I was surprised a moment ago when he suddenly cried out that he wanted to go outside and swing. This was especially strange considering no one else was playing outside, which would at least explain the motivation.

I tried reasoning with him, "But you're sick." In a defensive and saddened cry he corrected me with, "Daddy, I not sick. I funny!" I couldn't argue that point with him, so out he went to swing! (And for the moment seems to be doing fine.)

These sort of corrections from Gordon are pretty commonplace. If you tell him he's cute, he may say, "I not cute. I sick." Though occasionally he may agree with you, but add emphasis to your description, as in, "I AM a good boy." It's always subject to his approval though.

Huh?

Sometimes I think Gordon just talks to hear himself speaking. He is full of good advice, too. Tonight while I was brushing his teeth, he said to me, "Mom. Don't toothbrush my eyes."

Olympics

I was watching diving with Mia the other night. I was telling her which country the divers were from. She saw some from the US and said, "Are they from America?" I told her, "Yes". She said, "Is that because they have the American Flag on their swimming underwear?"

Gravity

I asked Mia what she learned at her swimming lessons today. She told me that they learned to float. I asked her if she was able to float on her own and she said, "No. My gravity is too big. I will always sink."

Candle

I have a nephew named Kendhal.

Jared received a candle from his primary teacher on Sunday. We have been lighting this candle every day while we eat. Mia was talking about candles and started laughing and said, "Candle! Remember our cousin named Candle?"

Hungry

A year ago I was at church with the kids while Seth was out of town. It was during the Sacrament and Jared was intently watching the boys passing the Sacrament. He turned and looked at me and said, "When I am 12 I can pass the Sacrament...but I might get hungry!"

GASP!

We were reading in the Book of Mormon as a family. We were reading when Lehi was prophesying to the people in Jerusalem and they sought to take away his life. When we read that they sought to take away his life, Ellis gasped.

It was so funny. Like he understood exactly what was happening in the Scriptures.

Princess

Last year I was asking Mia to clean up. She said to me, "Mom. I am a princess. Princesses DON'T clean up!"

I told her that, "I am the QUEEN and the queen TELLS the princess what to do. Now I want you to go clean up your room."

Now whenever we play princess, I get to be the princess and she is ALWAYS the queen!

Trouble

Gordon has a trouble face he makes, where he lowers his eyebrows and looks at you under them.

We were at Grandma's house and Grandma told Gordon he couldn't do something, maybe it was that he couldn't eat in the living room or something. Gordon looked over at Grandma, with his trouble face, and said, "Grandma is trouble!"

Mia who was also in the same room overheard this and after contemplating it for a while said, "Oh yeah? Then WHY is it called GRANDMA'S HOUSE!?"

Life

7/23/2008

My kids are upstairs right now playing "Life". I was just finishing up the dishes and I heard Jared say, "I can't wait until I am married! Can you Mia?"

Gordy-Smo-Gordy

Originally posted 7/14 here.

Gordon loves nicknames. From the moment he could talk, when people would call him "Gordon" he would say, "I'm Gordy." We often call Mia "Mia-bo-bia" and Gordon has picked upon it. Lately when I ask him his name he will say, "I'm Gordy-smo-Gordy!" I overheard this conversation this morning:
Gordon: "My name is Gordy-smo-Gordy."
Mia: "Uh huh."
Gordon: "G-o-r-d-q-v. That is how you spell Gordy-smo-Gordy."

Death Marks

Originally posted on 7/31 here.

I took Mia with me to run errands after Seth got home from work today. We were talking and having a good time when Mia said, "Ow! That is going to leave a death mark." I asked her what she said and she tried to explain, but the traffic and air conditioning were working against our conversation. She then says, "You know. On Barbie and the Pauper, Barbie has a death mark." I began to giggle and told her that it was really called a birth mark. She told me that she "didn't care what everyone else called them. She was going to call them death marks!"

Fires

After we lit a candle this morning, Jared and Mia were talking about all of the things that candles hate, like juice and milk... after a while Mia got all quiet and then said,"The sun can start fires by looking at wood too long."