28 or 90

Jonathan (4 years, 3 months)
While watching the Packer's game...
Aden: "Daddy, when can I play football?"
Daniel: "When you get a little older..."
Jonathan: "Yeah, you have to be like 28 or 90 to play football."

Ottoman

Jonathan (4 years, 3 months)

This morning Jonathan asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I mentioned a few "bigger" items and then rattled off a bunch of things that would be within his budget and ability to get for me, such as drawing me a nice picture, making me an ornament, a Snickers candy bar, a new candle, etc. Well, a few hours later Jonathan came up to me and out of the blue asked me how to make an ottoman. We have three ottomans in our house and we often use the word in conversation: "Can you set this on the ottoman for me?" "The remote is on the ottoman sweetie." "Please don't set your food on the furniture. See, you got peanut butter and jelly on the ottoman!" All that to say, the fact that he asked me how to make an ottoman was a little odd (because what 4-year old wants to make an ottoman?) but Jonathan is not a stranger to random comments so I didn't think much of it and went on to describe that you'd probably use wood and make a sturdy box first and then you'd add some padding to the top and then cover it with fabric or leather or something. He just sort of stared at me and then turned and went about playing.

Later this afternoon Jonathan said, "Mommy, when are we gonna put the ottomans on the Christmas tree?"

So, when he asked how to make an "ottoman" the sweet boy really wanted to know was how he could make an ornament for me for Christmas.

Guest Room

Jonathan (4 years, 2 months)

As he snuggled with my mom (aka Grandma) the other morning in the guest room...

"I know why they call this the guest room...cause when people come to your house you have to "guest" which one of them is going to sleep in here."

"I love Lulu the most!"

Aden (5 years, 9 months)

I was giving Aden a pep talk today about the new baby. He is very excited but is quite determined to have another little sister. I explained to him that God knows what's best for our family and that might mean us having a little boy. Aden was insistent and said that we needed another girl because he loved Elizabeth so much and wanted another sister just like her. I said, "But you love Boozie (Jonathan)...wouldn't it be fun to have another brother like him?" And he said, "But I love Lulu (Elizabeth) the most of everyone!" And I said, "You don't love her more than us, you love her differently than you love the rest of us." He said, "No, I love her the most!"

What can I say, he adores his little sister! He is so tender with her and treats her like a princess (well, most of the time!)

Come Tuesday we'll either have an ecstatic little boy on our hands or one who will need to adjust his expectations a bit! Pray for him! =)

"Wee-yoo Wee-yoo"

Elizabeth (2 years, 2 months)

Whenever Lizzie sees or hears a fire truck, police car, ambulance, etc. she points and says "Wee-yoo, Wee-yoo". Even if it's way in the distance...

It's pretty cute!

Precious-est Girl

Jonathan (4 years, 2 months) and Elizabeth (2 years, 1 month)
One of my favorite things about having kids and having the privilege to be with them all day is that I get to hear the sweet conversations that they have. This is an exchange that I overheard yesterday:

Jonathan: "Lizzzie, did you know that you are the precious-est girl?"
Lizzie: "Yah, I knew dat."

As a mama, you just have to smile...

Watermelon

Elizabeth (2 years, 1 month)

Lizzie LOVES watermelon and will eat as much as she can get her hands on. I just love how she asks for it. She's trying to say "Mommy, I want watermelon." but her version sounds like this:

"Mommy, I wanta wanta mewon."

The "wanta wanta" part cracks me up.

Presidents and Cake and Ice Cream

Jonathan (4 years, 2 months)

A few days ago Rebekah sent the boys a couple of die cast play sets. One NYPD set and one Presidential set (which included Air Force One, the presidents helicopter, a secret service SUV, the presidents limo, etc.) The kids and I were playing with them and I pretended to radio the Air Force One pilot to inquire about the president. Aden replied that yes, the presidents (all 6 of them) were on board and were doing well (my poor kids know nothing about the White House...they don't even know what a president is!) Anyway, Jonathan who was cruising his limo around on the rug chimed in with, "Yeah, I got some presents too and some cake and ice cream and some balloons and I'm going to the birthday party now."

Apparently "presidents" sounds a little too much like "presents" for him to really differentiate.

Deep Thoughts From Jonathan

Jonathan (3 years, 9 months)

J: "Mama, do you ever think what it would be like if God didn't make a sun?"
Me: "Well, it would be very dark, very cold, and there would be no life on the earth because plants couldn't survive without sun and people couldn't survive without plants."
J: "Yeah, and if God didn't make an "s" it wouldn't be "sun" it would be "un".
(all spoken in his serious voice)

Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets

Jonathan (3 years, 9 months)

Jonathan: These are dinosaur chicken nuggets because they have dinosaur, chicken, and nuggets in them.
Me: Do they?
Jonathan: Uh huh, I think so, I can taste the nuggets.

And then he dipped his chicken nugget into his ketchup, took a bite, and said, "Mama, this ketchup is delightful."

Seriously, I love this silly boy! He is a laugh a minute!

Ladder Ball

Aden (5 years, 3 months)

While playing "Ladder Ball" on our camping trip I caught Aden trying to climb up the pvc frame. I said, "Aden that's not meant for climbing honey, get down." He said, "If you're not supposed to climb it then why is it called "ladder ball"?" =)

Gorgeous

Jonathan (3 years, 6 months)

About three months ago while looking at my new bracelet:

"Mommy I LIKE this, it's gorgeous! (pauses) Um, what does gorgeous mean?"

Protein

Jonathan (3 years, 9 months)

"You know, milk is protein and it comes from cows and cheese is protein and it comes from mouses."

Green Mountains

Jonathan (3 years, 8 months)

The other day the boys and I were coloring together. I was happily coloring my pirate ship when this little pirate decided to hijack my ship! As you moms know, as soon as you let your kids color on YOUR paper you have forfeited your masterpiece. Well, as this little bugger was coloring on MY paper he picked up the green crayon and started coloring the mountains. "Green mountains? No! Sheesh, now he's REALLY ruining my masterpiece!" I thought to myself. So I said, "Boozie, why are coloring the mountains green? They should be brown!" (Mountains are brown, right?! Everybody knows that!)

 He looked up, pointed out the window and said, "No, them are green! See!"

And this is what he pointed at...

Um, yeah, I guess he has a point.
My whole life my schema for mountains has been brown! So I guess it's time to adjust that and remember that I now live on the "Garden Island" and the o-so-green mountains that cover this beautiful island are what is making up the schema for "mountains" in the minds of my sweet kiddos.

 So, green mountains it is.

Her Nicknames

Some of the names that the boys call their sister (many of which came from their crazy parents!):
1) Elizabeth
2) Sissy
3) Sis
4) Lizzie
5) Lizzie Lou
6) Lu Lu
7) Lulie
8) Lularoo
9) Lulie pants
10) Luli-okalani (remember our old address...Liliuokalani Pl.)
11) Punky
12) Punky Pie
13) Sisterlee
14) Sistapooks
15) Destructo (primarily in reference to her role in Lego and Lincoln Log play time)

Boy, it's a miracle the girl comes when she's called with all these names!
Oh, and on the subject of nicknames, Jonathan has told us that he no longer wants to be called "Boozie." Poor kid, we have been trying hard to honor his request but we are ALL failing miserably! I guess what they say is true...old habits die hard! And in case you're wondering where on earth "Boozie" came from: When he was a baby (like from 6 months) I called him "Asher Boy" (his full name is Jonathan Asher Moore and for quite a while I second guessed our choice/order of his name and wondered if we should have named him Asher Jonathan Moore and people always told me that I could call him by his middle name, etc. Anyway, I often called him Asher boy which eventually became Asher Boo which then became Boo, then Booze, then Boozie and for some crazy reason Boozie stuck and it stuck hard. So there you have it, Boozie.

My Thoughtful Boy

Aden (5 years)

A couple of weeks ago Daniel and the boys headed out on Saturday morning to go to the Home Depot Kids Workshop. They got two miles down the road when the van broke down. They had to wait for AAA to come tow it and since Sissy's car seat was in the van Dave had to go and retrieve them all from the side of the road. All that to say, the morning hadn't gone as planned and here we were an hour and a half later and Daniel and the boys still hadn't left for Home Depot. Aden decided at that point that he wanted to stay home. Surprisingly, Jonathan still wanted to go with Daddy. Usually he's the homebody who chooses to stay home with Mommy when Aden goes off to do this and that with Daniel. I think the fact that the Home Depot project was a race car may have pulled some weight in his decision. =) Anyway, Home Depot is about 45 minutes away and we always have toys and books in the van to keep the kids occupied on the drive. Since Daniel and Jonathan were taking the Corolla instead I ran in the house to get Jonathan a couple of books to read in the car. Just as they were getting ready to pull away Aden came running out of the house with Jonathan's favorite space shuttle, and said, "Here Boozie. You can take this." A smile spread across Jonathan's face and he said, "Thanks Aden." This simple act of kindness left such an impression on me. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it was clear that it was done simply out of a love for his brother...

Fun with Calculators

Aden (4 years, 11 months), Jonathan (3 years, 5 months), Elizabeth (16 months)
Last month when my mom was here visiting she bought the boys calculators at Walmart. They were only 50 cents each...what a deal! Well, for two weeks straight they followed us around the house with calculators in hand asking, "What number is this?" with 685,987,431 showing on the screen followed by, "And what number is this?"... 754,999,012. It was great fun. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) Lizzie got a hold of them and bit all the rubber numbers off and ate them. Yes, ATE them. I was finding red calculator buttons in her poopy diapers for a week straight! So, I'm thinking we'll re-introduce calculators when the boys have learned a little about place value and numbers (and can answer their own "what number is this?" questions) and once Elizabeth gets past the "bite, chew, and swallow everything" stage. =)

"A" is for Aden

Aden (5 years)
A couple of days before Aden's birthday we noticed that a roadside shrub had climbed a nearby pole and wire creating an "A" with it's leaves and flowers. We (my Dad, Carla, and I) got real excited and pointed it out to the kids and said something like, "Isn't that neat, Aden...the flowers grew and made and "A" just in time for your birthday! What a fun present!" (To add to the excitement, the flowers were orange...his all-time favorite color!) Note: these pictures were taken a week + after that and as you can see, the "A" is starting to grow into an "N" but when we saw it for the first time, it definitely looked like an "A"! Anyway, a few days after his birthday we drove by and Aden asked why the "A" was still there. Somewhat confused I asked him what he meant. He answered, "Well, I thought it was just there for my birthday and it's not my birthday anymore!" So the cute boy thought that it truly grew into an "A" JUST for his birthday. And then, because he's always got something cute to say, Jonathan chimes in with, "Yeah, when's it gonna be a "J"?"

Green Bananas

Jonathan (3 years)

So far neither of my boys seem particularly artistic (in the drawing, coloring, painting realm anyway) and often when they do color or paint they rush through it and sort of haphazardly approach the task. Most of their paint projects end up brown because they simply cannot resist mixing all the colors together and often their coloring pages will have something like a blue faced girl with green hair and purple arms and legs or worse yet, the entire page will be colored purple or red or orange. Now, I don't want to stifle any creativity they may be exhibiting but at the same time I think it is a good thing to force them to take their time and think a little while they are "creating". Well, they have these little alphabet coloring books and I like to sit with them and help them choose appropriate colors for the objects they are coloring. For example, a jeep. I'll let them color the jeep whatever color they want but the tires need to be black. Not pink. Not orange. Just black. Anyway, a few months ago we were working in the "B" book and we got to the picture of a banana. I said, "Now Jonathan, think about what color a banana is. Yellow, right?!" (as I hand him the yellow crayon...because of course, this was a no-brainer.) He looks at me, giggles and says, "Silly Mommy! Bananas aren't yellow! Dem are GWEEN!"

At that point I had to laugh. He was SO right! We buy our bananas at Costco and they are always super green...like a "you have to wait at least a week for them to ripen" green.

In case you can't tell just how green these bananas are I placed one of Lizzie's "banana yellow" garden gloves next to them for comparison sake!

In the end he chose light green and I have to say, his assessment and color choice was pretty accurate!

Spelling Lessons

Aden (5 years)

A couple of weeks ago I was working with Aden on spelling. We were sounding out the words/names of each of these pictures and as we'd sound it out he'd write the corresponding letters. He did a great job and did most of it correctly on his own. However, when he got to "umbrella" he wrote a "u" at the end. Makes sense...um-brel-luh...there's definitely a short "u" sound there. But I corrected him and told him that it was actually an "a". He looked at me like I was crazy! I went on to tell him that there are lots of times when English is silly and doesn't follow rules and that he needed to change it to an "a" to have it spelled correctly. He was troubled by this and said that he'd just keep it a "u" because he didn't like it with an "a" at the end. Well, I made him change it anyway but you can tell that he only half-heartedly erased the "u". Too funny!

Boys and Dolls

Aden (5 years)

Aden loves taking care of his baby. And he really does a great job of it too. He feeds her breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He puts her down for naps, tucks her in at night, changes her diapers, and pushes her around in the stroller.
Some of my favorite related quotes:

"Mama, I put my baby down for her nap so can you be a little more quiet?" 

"My baby is almost done with her breakfast and then Lulu (Elizabeth) can use the highchair." (Never-mind that the real-live baby in the house is fussing because she's ready for some food!)

"When I'm gone will you put my baby down for a nap when you put Lulu down for her nap?" (And of course, I totally forgot...what an awful babysitter I am...and you should have seen the look of disappointment on his face when he got home and saw that his sister was sound asleep and his baby was wide awake, never having been put down for her nap!)

"I'm not a daddy, I'm a mommy!"
(in response to me telling Aden that he was "such a good Daddy")


Anyway, a couple of nights ago long after the kids had gone to bed I walked into our bedroom in search of my laundry basket and saw these two babies (one is Aden's, one is Jonathan's) tucked into their "cradle" for the night. Notice the care he took to provide a padded surface for his baby. (So THAT'S where the sofa pillows went!) He's such a sweet, tender-hearted boy and I love him so very much! He really will make a good daddy some day!

UPDATE** A few days after I posted this Aden announced that he wanted to bring his baby to preschool for show and tell. He proudly carried his baby out to the car that morning all the while I was fretting over how his classmates (the boys in particular) would respond. It turns out, ALL preschool age boys play with dolls! Ms. Connie laughed at me and said, "Are you kidding, they all (the boys included) fight over who gets to push the dollies around in the stroller!" Phew...I was preparing myself for one sad little boy upon pick-up b/c I figured he'd get teased. I'm glad to know that sweet innocence CAN still be found among 4 and 5-year olds!

A Glimpse of My Goose

Jonathan (3 years, 5 months)

Me: "Boozie, look at you. You are the silliest boy on the planet!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, heh, I'm going on vacation." (oblivious to his clothing situation and thinking that I am commenting on his carrying the suitcase around)

Me: "No honey, look at your pants!"

Jonathan: "What's wrong with my pants?"
Me: "Well, they are inside out, backwards, and twisted. Do you want some help?"

Jonathan: "No. I'm OK."

Me: "No, you need to fix them. You look very silly...see the tags sticking out?

Jonathan: "No, YOU are silly Mama." (giggle, giggle)

Jonathan: (he looks down and pauses for a moment, and realizing the challenge before him, looks up and says) "Um, Mama, can you help me?"

Bumpy Meat

Jonathan (3 years, 5 months)

Jonathan: "Mama, for dinner can we have some of that bumpy meat?"

Me: "Um...bumpy meat?"

Jonathan: "Yeah, that bumpy meat we have at breakfast."

Me: "Oh, do you mean bacon?!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, bacon."

A Jonathan Quote...

Jonathan (3 years, 5 months)
"Gwamma, why do you put your whackers in a wittle, tiny house?"

Clean Lips

Jonathan (3 years, 4 months)

For Christmas Elizabeth got some Avon roll-on soap in her stocking. She loves to carry it around the house and fortunately hasn't figured out how to get the lid off. Well, one day a couple of weeks ago we were loading up the car to go somewhere and Elizabeth had the soap roller in her hands. I strapped her in and thought nothing of it. The boys were already buckled in and Daniel and I had to grab a few more things from the house before heading out. As soon as we got back in the car we noticed a sweet, fruity smell. I turned around and realized that Jonathan had removed the lid of Sissy's bath soap and had rolled the soap ALL OVER his lips. He looked like a clown!

When I asked him why on earth he would put that stuff on his LIPS (he applied it like lipstick!) he said, "Because I wanted my wips to wook good."