A Reason to Kiss

Just overhead this conversation while Isaac and Sofi were talking together in the family room:

Sofi: I did kiss Zander once...
Isaac: You did?
Sofi: Yeah. But it isn't like he's my boyfriend. It's just my way of saying I like you, I think you're silly.

Buying Time

I did not actually hear this said, but was amused enough by the retelling that felt it needed to be documented....

Loie, a member of our church, has become a sort of honorary grandma to our kids. She often watches them when I can't find daycare, or when Mary and I want to go out, especially over the months when Ardelle winters in Arizona. The kids enjoy being with her, and she with them. Loie is good for bringing over scrapbooking supplies for the kids to create cards and crafts with, and she is also as good as the grandmas at spoiling them with treats and trinkets.

So this past Sunday we invited Loie to sit with us in church, because we enjoy her company, the kids especially.

Normally I have Isaac in the nursery during the first part of church, which includes the readings and the sermon, and in turn gets kind of long and boring for the kids. I then go get them for the offering and communion, being more kid friendly because they actually get to move around (the kids get to run up front and drop coins loudly into a metal bucket during offering).

But this Sunday in which we invited Loie to sit with us I, without really thinking, elected to bring Isaac to church the entire time.

So we ended up finding ourselves looking for things for Isaac to do, to keep him quiet. It didn't take long for Mary to suggest to Isaac to color in the cover of the bulletin, which was a black and white drawing of Jesus and the disciples cooking fish around a campfire.

So Isaac contentedly colored in the drawing; which in his case means filling in every little empty space in the drawing with graphite of the stubby number two pencil found in the pew until the drawing is pretty much obliterated. Upon finishing his "coloring" in fairly short order he declared the his artwork done and also declared who would be the recipient of his latest work: "this is for you, Loie".

To which Mary, looking to buy more time, cleverly replied that it was nice of him to gift that to Loie and—handing him another bulletin—would he be so kind as to color a cover for her?

So Isaac spent the next minute or two filling in all the empty spaces of the cover with his number two pencil and, again, declared it done and gifted it to his mother as requested.

To which Mary replied again that this was great, and looking to buy more time handed him another bulletin and asked if he would now color one for Dad?

Isaac took the third bulletin in his hands, but then he leaned forward and looked past his mother and down the pew; and noticing that there was one other guy sitting in our pew at the end said: "OK... but I'm not coloring anything for him."

Signs of Needing Chocolate

"If my cheeks are red, that means I need hot chocolate."

~ Sofi, upon climbing into the mini-van after playing hard after school outside in the cold.

Waiting Through Winter

"It seems like summer is taking forever... I'm tired of waiting.
I'll be 18 before summer comes again."
~ Sofi

Snow Allergy

Sofi: [loudly and dramatically] "Dad! I'm allergic to snow!"

Dad: [with a hint of mock-concern] "Really! How do you know?"

Sofi: [seriously] "Because every time I go outside I get a cold."

Dad: [smiling] "I think there may be other reasons why you 'get a cold' outside in the winter—"

Sofi: [matter-of-factly] "Well, it's true. I know it."

Kiss the Hand

I asked Isaac for a bedtime kiss tonight and instead got the hand in my face pushing me away, and was told: "Kiss the hand". I countered "But I need a kiss from my favorite son!"

After a dramatic pause I was answered with an even more dramatic... "KISS ME!"

Pass that Buck

On one of these "below normal" days in August of all months where the current outside temp is 56º....

Dad: "Hey, who left the back door open!"

Issac: "I did."

Dad: "OK, then go close it."

Isaac: "Oh! Then YOU did."

The Big Boy

As Mary said this morning, "Isaac is getting to be such a big boy!"

This was in response to two things: 1) letting Mom brush his teeth without throwing a fit, and 2) wearing underwear for the first time. The latter of which he ran into the kitchen to show me, pantless, quickly spinning round to show me his butt with Lightning McQeen printed across it. He was very proud. We thought this indulgence in Disney marketing might motivate his transition out of diapers, and this first attempt is proving that Mom and Dad are correct in their assumption.

So while getting ready for the day this morning, and in response to the above, I announced to Isaac as he was finishing up his accomplishments in the bathroom "I'm going to brush my tooth too, so I can be a be a big boy like Isaac!"

To which Isaac replied: "But you can't wear unnerwear"

Dad: "Oh. OK."

Isaac: "Because unnerwear is for birfdays... and you don't have a birfday."

Dad: "I don't!"

Isaac: "Nope. Only kids have birfdays... and Sofi."

Possesive Punctuation

Sofi's discovery: "Hey Mama! Did you know that you can get whatever you want? All you have to do is write your name and add a capostrophy s!"

Mom: "Where did you learn that?"

Sofi: "On TV somewhere...:

Big

On the way to Sofi's dance class at the YMCA I overheard this conversation in the backseat:

Sofi: "...and some day Isaac you'll be really big." [makes a gesture of tallness with her hands above her head]

Isaac: [matter-of-factly] "I am big."

Sofi: "No, you're not. Not like Papa. But someday you will be... if you eat all your vegetables."

Power to the Pedal

This one is for Papa....

While biking on the way home from church today, pedaling hard on her trail-a-bike behind mom, Sofi declared: "Checkered flag, here we come!"

Buzz Before Bed

After frozen custard at culvers tonight I casually noted Isaac running around in a pre-sleep frenzy. Suddenly he stopped, looked at me with a big grin, and wisely noted: "ice cream makes me run around!"

Isaac wants "bloo ice keem on a pine cone"

A declaration from Isaac as we were driving down the road: "We shud buy a gahbags truck... to drive it."

Isaac: "When I grow up, I'm make car outta wood"

And What Did You Learn In School Today?

We were biking home today from Come for Supper, and Sofi declares:

"I want a pet chick....

"And when it gets old—and isn't cute anymore—I want to eat it."

What would cause Sofi to make such a bold (and Mary would say morbid) statement? She informed me, after stating the above, that chicks visited her class today at school. She said she learned what you feed them, and based on her statement above I can only assume that she also learned what becomes of them. Leave it to Montesorri to not gloss things over, I guess.

Sofi then closed our discussion with one last statement:

"Actually I want a farm... and a really fat chicken."

The Sleeping Beauty

Despite the fact that she spent the night sleeping on the floor (or as she puts it, sleeping in her "fort"... read: sleeping bag on the floor surrounded by toys and boxes) when Sofi woke up this morning, before she even moved a muscle, she declared "I LOVE SLEEPING!"

She then followed that up by adding "I wish I didn't have to go to school or daycare, so I could just sleep!"

That's our Sofi: five going on fifteen.

Vote!

As we were on our way to church this past Sunday I saw our political propoganda in our lawn and front window and announced to everyone else in the car that it was "just two more days!" and that I was getting excited to see the outcome. I then asked Sofi if she would like to go and vote with me on Tuesday, something I'd been thinking about doing simply because I want both kids to know from an early age that this is something everyone should do.

She responded "Yes" and then continued: "I'm going to vote for Hannah Montana!"

We had heard this before, and are a bit amazed by it, because we rarely ever watch the Disney Channel (I'm assuming that is the one she is on), and we have never watched Hannah Montana. I assume that she has learned about Ms. Montana on the bus (that's were every preschooler learns about the wider world, right?). Wondering what classmate might be the one who has political influence over my daughter I asked "Do you know anyone else who is voting for Hannah Montana?"

Sofi was quietly just pointing at herself, leaving us guessing, when suddenly another voice from the back seat piped up to answer my question: "I-ICK!"

It appears that Isaac, as well, plans to cast a write-in ballot. He does, after all, try to do whatever he sees his sister doing.

Who's the Boss

Sofia has been, as of late, preoccupied with who is the boss. It did not take her long to decide that we, the parents, are the boss. But that doesn't mean that she found the conclusion satisfactory. Occasionally there is protest: "You are NOT the boss!" Occasionally there is reassignment: "I'm the boss." Occasionally there is favoritism: "Mom is the boss."

One evening at supper when it was just I and the kids the topic came up again. And I suggested that perhaps what she needed was a "Kids Are Boss Day".

So I asked her, "What day do you want to do that?"

"Today."

"I'm thinking sometime next week. What day would you like: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday?"

A slight pause, a tilt of the head, and then: "Both."

Bubble Butt

My grandfather Ralph Kraay died yesterday, so I decided to go to the Twin Cities to be with my mother and the rest of the family.

Originally I was going to go by myself, but my mother said that my grandma would enjoy seeing the kids. So at the last minute I decided to bring them along, which meant a lot more time packing, and a three hour car ride that was far from relaxing. By the time I finally made to Prior Lake in Minnesota, I was exhausted.

But my grandmother was very glad to see both the children, and they certainly helped lighten the mood. As case in point, I'll offer this little snippet: Just now Sofi was squirming around and jumping up and down, with her hand behind her butt. Grandma D asked if she needed to go the bathroom, to which Sofi replied "No.... Sometimes I get bubbles in my butt... and I'm popping them."

It's this kind of stuff that helps lighten everyone's mood.