A Couple of Hours with Aunt Bethie

Monday night Patrick was working and I went to a meeting for church for a couple hours. Aunt Bethie to the rescue. As I sometimes capture little funny conversations among the kids, Beth had that chance on Monday. She told me this after she went home:

"...the kids were good. when i first put leah down, i sat at the top of the stairs for a few minutes and enjoyed listening to the boys' conversations...hilarious. nathaniel kept saying that you were never going to be home, maybe tomorrow; leyton kept confirming that you would be home; nathaniel told leyton aunt bethie can't stay that long (until morning) because she doesn't have her jammies.

earlier in the night when i came to the main floor with leah for a little bit after she climbed up from down-down, when the boys came up the stairs, i heard nathaniel encouraging leyton to ask me if they could watch something - do you think aunt bethie knows how to work the dvd/vcr (one of those was mentioned); leyton came over and said nathaniel wanted me to ask you if we could watch...i didn't want to ask you aunt bethie..."

I told her this is just the kind of thing that's funny to just sit back & watch/listen to. I love their conversations. Then her other story was with Jacob & the search for a missing toothbrush:

"jakey and his missing toothbrush...it went something like this...
(J) i want my other toothbrush
(B) where is it
(J) behind the couch
(B) i can't find it?
(J) (in a very similar tone as my previous response) yes you can

repeat above sequence...it was hard not to crack up laughing the first time he said, "Yes you can." he was up in the bathroom waiting with a little truck or something, driving it along the countertop"

"Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin"

This is Jacob's new favorite phrase. If you ask him any question for which the answer is "no," he'll say with a cute little smile, "No, not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin." And then he giggles & giggles.

Too Cute to Pass Up

Here's Jacob really enjoying goofing around a week or so ago. Cute or what?

What Leah is up to

Or shall we say where has she been going? Up the stairs, both on the steps & on the outside of the bannister on the edge of the stairs - already figured that out, too. She can also commonly be found around the kitchen table searching for left over Cheerios, etc.

She's also really starting to make a lot of sounds. Yesterday I gave her a banana & she said, "na-na." She'll also say, "Ugh" which is cute. Lots of shaking her head side to side when you tell her, "No." Still saying, "Da-da." What's missing? STILL NO "MA-MA!"

Oh well, at least her eyes still really light up when she sees me! What a doll. Growing too fast. Hard to believe she'll be one in about 6 1/2 weeks!

The other thing I notice so much is how interested she is in cups. She'll swipe any cup she can find...especially Jacob's (who by the way, is really enjoying that he has a little one around to push around & pick on). But, there can be three cups on the floor & she'll always go for the one Jacob has been using that day - it's like she knows it's his & that it must have something good in it. I don't know how good, though, as Jacob pretty much always drinks rice milk.

One last thing is that she is the happiest girl right up until she goes to bed. She just doesn't get fussy. She'll play and play and play, and then literally you pick her up to take her to bed and the first step into her room, she starts rubbing her eyes & is ready for the bedtime routine. It is so cute.

Our little princess is doing great!

The Answer I've Been Looking For!

Tonight Nathaniel solved my problems...
"Mom, I need a stuff room."
He went on to describe: "You know, a place to put my stuff. Then it could all be put away and we could keep our house really nice & clean."

Ah ha! That is it! We do need a stuff room. That's exactly what we need!

5am Conversation with Nathaniel

We had a thunderstorm this morning & Nathaniel came in our room to lay by me. He was talking sweet & sounding completely awake. These were his comments:
"Mom, I hope the lifeguard isn't outside."
(Me: "Oh, she's not, she's at home sleeping I'm sure.")
"Mom, the light bulbs almost came on with that big lightning."
(Me: "Really?" Then there was a lull in the thunder & lightning for a moment.)
"Mom, isn't that nice of Jesus to take away the thunder for a little bit so we can have some quiet time?"
("Yes, it is.")
"Mom, does it rain all over the world?"
("Yes.")
"Even in California?" ("Yes.") "Even in Mexico?" ("Yes.")
"Oh."

True Dedication

Last night we were coming inside for the night and Jacob was already in. He was in the bathroom, actually, with one of our big flower watering cans. I peeked in and found he was working very diligently. He had a small medicine cup (like the ones that come on top of a bottle of children's Tylenol or something) and he was filling it about half full and dumping it into the big watering can. I asked him, "Jacob, what are you up to?" He said, "I'm filling up this sprayer thing." He just kept dumping that water, about 1 1/2 tsp per load, into the can.