Mr. Manners

Just had to record a dinner conversation tonight:

Ben (holding up a carrot on his fork): "Mommy eat carrot too"

Mommy: "Mommy's carrots are all gone, Benny"

Joshua (putting one of his carrots on my plate): "You're welcome to have one of my carrots, Mommy."

What a polite little boy. Sometimes it's hard to remember that he's only 4!

Another moment from tonight: Josh says to me "Mommy, I'm never going to stop loving you." I sure hope not, buddy. I just had to post this so I can look back at it during those teenage years!

Questions, Questions, Questions

So many questions! Joshua has hit the question asking stage with full force. I guess his little inquiring mind just wants to know EVERYTHING!

"Where is that car going?"
"Why do you wear a necklace?"
"What does 'blessed sight' mean?"
"Why did you do that?"

I love that he is so interested in everything going on around him, and we try our best to honestly answer all of his questions, or try to get him to answer them by asking him "what do you think?" But sometimes we just need a break from the inquisition!

The constant questioning is even starting to rub off on Ben. In addition to wanting to know where everyone is at all times, he's now frequently asking "Daddy do?" when he wants to know what Daddy is doing. And you'd better have an answer for the boy, or else... "Daddy do? Daddy do? Daddy do? Daddy do?"

But I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts. One of these days they're going to think they know everything and won't be seeking answers from Mom and Dad. Or worse, they'll be seeking answers from their friends!

Sing it Out!

It looks like both boys have inherited the singing gene. Josh learns songs at an incredible rate. The other day in the car he started singing "This Land is Your Land", which we didn't even know he knew. He said they learned it in school for the 4th of July parade they're having on Thursday. We were so impressed that he nailed every single word of the song, and even helped me remember the words to the second verse! Today he started belting out Yankee Doodle Dandy. He loves to sing. Gee, where did he ever get that??? =)

Ben has also discovered his little singing voice. He can sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider (complete with hand movements of course), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Old MacDonald. Of course these are all Benny versions of these songs (meaning it's "mumble mumble mumble wipe spider out.... mumble mumble mumble eieio - pronounced as all one word), but we can easily decipher which song he is singing. And we always know when his song is finished because it ends with a resounding "YAY!" *clap clap clap*. One of his newest favorite songs is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmit, and he can sing pretty much the whole darn thing. It goes something like this: "Joh... J-cob....Jingle... schmi... name too!! OUT! SHOUT! Joh... J-cob....Jingle... schmi...AHHHHHHHHH!!!"It's so funny to catch him during playtime just singing away to himself. Again I must ask... where could he have ever gotten that? Ha ha! We are working on trying to get some videos of our little maestro, so hopefully we can get a good one to post soon. It's too cute!

Daddy Go?

Ben has become very concerned about every member of our family's whereabouts. So much so that he could care less about who is actually in front of him! Every morning when I go in to get him up, I don't get a "good morning" or "hi mommy". No. I get "Daddy go?" Same thing if Andrew gets him up... "Mommy go?" As soon as anyone leaves the room, Ben must know where they went. It's so cute (although we sometimes have to remind ourselves how cute it is when it's the 18th time in the last five minutes we've been asked!).

Finally a Mommy!

Yesterday Ben FINALLY started calling me Mommy. Up until now, I have been either "Nadn" or "Madn" but never Mommy. He says Daddy, Joshua and Copper (as well as hundreds of other words) plain as day, but Mommy was one he hadn't clarified yet for whatever reason. But yesterday, as I got home from the grocery store, I get out of the car and Andrew has Ben lifted up looking out the window in the garage door and I hear "MOMMY! MOMMY!" Music to my ears!

Ka-Boom!

Ben has officially reached the "Word Explosion." We couldn't even begin to guess at how many words he has, because he seems to be pretty much fluent in the English language, at least with the nouns. Every day he spouts off a new word or short phrase, and Andrew and I will just kind of look at each other and say "did you know he could say that?" He's also starting to understand ownership, such as "mine daddy", "mine backpack" and "Joshua backpack". It's hard not to think back to the polar opposite experience we had with the speech two years ago, and we are so thankful that Ben is such a communicator. There are very few guessing games with him. When he wants something, he just calls it out by name with a "sees" (translation: please) and "da-ku" (thank you). He still uses his few signs, but will say the words along with them. My favorite was the other night in the bathtub when he found a treasure chest with a missing lid. He held it up with genuine concern and said "Oh no!..... Break!" We just love it. It's a real pleasure talking with you, buddy!

Another Installment of Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Last night I was giving the boys a bath, and Joshua announces that while he was riding in the car, he saw a man wearing girl panties. I'm sorry, what??? So I go out to ask Andrew why Joshua would have said that. Turns out that the other day on the way home (on a day when Mommy wasn't in the car), Andrew encountered a driver that was taking more of a passive approach to driving than Andrew thought was necessary (Andrew's a very good driver, but a passive driver he's not!). After a few minutes of quiet frustration, Andrew says "Oh come on! Put on your big girl panties and drive already!" This, along with Joshua picking up the word "Va-jay-jay" (but not using it in a sentence, thankfully) are teaching Daddy to watch what he says around the 3 year old!

Words, Words, Words!

Ben seems to be close to hitting the "word explosion" that toddlers go through. It seems as though he's spouting off a new word every day! I've been wanting to post some of his words so that in a few years we can look back and remember this fun stage! Here, in no particular order are some of Ben's favorite words:

Nana = Banana. This kid loves bananas so it's no surprise he learned this one so quickly!
Shoe
Na-n = Mommy. Don't ask me why.
Daddy
Joshua
Doggie - and he'll sometimes say Copper, too
Up
Down
Out
Ho = Help - this is one of my favorites! If he's having trouble doing something, he'll look at you and say ho-ho-ho, and his mouth is so animated about it. Love it!
sesast = breakfast.
Dite = light
Uh-oh
cheese
sees = Please
da-chu = Thank you
Hello = telephone. He picks up any phone he can find, puts it to his ear and says "Hello!"
Bubble
Hi!
Ball
tractor
tissue
doctor
yes
yeah
bench
kitty
fishy
towel
window
glasses
Moooooo cow
Lots of animal sounds

I know there are tons more that I am blanking on right now. But you get the idea. He is very much NOT the Silent Bob his big brother was at this age. This morning he surprised me by putting two words together, which is something he hasn't really done before. After he was done with breakfast, he started pulling at the straps on his booster seat and said "Want out." When I repeated back to him "you want out?" he replies "Yeah." That's the first time we have had such a dialog. Very exciting!

What NOT To Say To A Woman

A scene at our dinner table this evening:

Ben, sitting in Mommy's chair, pats the chair to have Mommy sit with him

Mommy: "Benny, you're sitting there, I don't think I'll fit."

Josh (to Mommy): "Your butt is reaaallly big."

No I Amn't

Andrew and I don't have a big history or tons of experience with children before our little whipper snappers came along. So sometimes we're not sure if what our kids are doing is "normal" or "advanced" or even "freakish." But to us, this latest Joshua-ism seems to fall more under the freakishly smart category, but please correct us if we're wrong. Joshua has invented a new word. Not even a new word, really, but a new contraction. Amn't, as in am not. Since this isn't a real word as defined by Webster, I have found myself wondering, why not? "Are not" contract. "Is not" contract. Why not "Am not". Okay, maybe it doesn't roll of the tongue as well as "I'm not" and that's probably why those geniuses that came up with the English language decided to go that route instead. In pondering how he conjured up this word, we concluded that he really understands how contractions are formed well enough to think, "well, I haven't really heard anyone say this, but it makes sense to me." We stand with our verdict that he is a stinkin' smart little boy.

Sex Boo-Boo

I can see that I now have your attention! Okay, so it's a little bit of false advertising, but I couldn't resist! So, on to the Sex Boo-Boo story...

As we have mentioned numerous times before, Joshua is so great at so many things, but physical agility isn't yet one of them. So he frequently falls down and gets hurt in various ways. He has learned to take it like a man, and rarely cries about these things. So when Andrew picked him up from school yesterday, Josh told him that he got two boo-boos today. Andrew asked where, so Josh said "My first boo-boo is right there, and my sex boo-boo is right there." Too funny!

Yet Another Episode of....

Kids Say the Darndest Things! That's right, kiddies, we've got more tales to tell of those silly things that come out of a three year old. This one requires a little bit of a back story...

Way back when, probably about a year ago, Josh, Ben and I met up with Josh's teacher from the prior year for ice cream at McDonalds. He has remembered that to this day. He loves his ice cream, and he loves his Miss Kim! He apparently even remembers the exact location of the McDonalds we went to on that particular day. So fast forward to a few months ago, when my office moved, and we were now driving past that very same McDonalds on the way home everyday. He sees it and starts asking for ice cream. We would always combat this question by asking him if he had any money to pay for the ice cream, and that usually ended the conversation. That brings us to today, and our darndest thing quote of the day. We were driving past the McDonalds, and out of nowhere, Joshua asks us "Can I please have some money?" We both looked at him with puzzled expressions and asked why he needed money. "So I can go to McDonalds."

If you break it down, that is a really smart approach to try to trick Mommy and Daddy into some frozen treats... the preemptive strike. "If I can get them to give me some money, then they can't say I don't have money for ice cream." Brilliant! It seems to us there is a very advanced thought process going on here. He's going to be outsmarting us in no time. We're in trouble!

Another Episode of Kids Say the Darndest Things

Let me set the scene for you. We're sitting at the dinner table, enjoying a nice meal together. On the menu was Chicken Enchilada Casserole, which Josh has never wanted to even taste before. But this night, he decided to give it a try. I suppose he thought to himself "Chicken.... good. Chips.... good. Cheese... GOOOOD!" (Name that pop culture reference!) So we are sitting there eating, and Josh is trying to eat some of the cheese that tops the casserole, but it was too big for him... do you see where this is going? Wait for it... So he asked if Daddy could cut it up for him.... wait for it... After Daddy had obliged with Josh's request, Josh says "Thank you, Daddy. Thank you for cutting the cheese." Andrew and I couldn't speak, could barely breath, we were laughing so hard. Josh was looking at us like "What the heck is wrong with you guys?" Maybe you had to be there, but even just typing it right now I am laughing out loud. Gotta love having a 3 year old!

And another...The other night we were lazy and didn't want to cook, so we decided to take the fam to In n Out for dinner. After eating (Ben ate a WHOLE cheeseburger!), we were getting ready to leave when Josh said he needed to go potty. So I took him in the bathroom to do his thing. When we got into the stall, someone's seat guard was still on the toilet. Josh saw it and asked what it was. I told him it was a butt protector. But he must have misunderstood me and started calling it a butt-detector. Good thing we have butt detectors to tell all of us unsuspecting fools when there is a butt close by!

And yet another... Saturday mornings are usually reserved for down time, typically involving the TV. Josh likes the shows on Playhouse Disney on Saturday mornings, so we let him indulge in a little TV time. So after breakfast, Josh told Daddy he wanted to watch TV, saying he wanted to watch "business." Andrew had no idea what that meant, so he turned on Noggin which is Josh's typical channel of choice. Josh watched the first show, but when a commercial came on saying he was watching Noggin, he got very upset, and started saying "Not Noggin.... Business!" Turns out the Business Channel is the Disney Channel. I guess he's not too far off really. Isn't Disney one of the biggest conglomerate corporations in the world?

That's it for this episode of Kids Say the Darnest Things. Tune in next time for all of the hysterical hijinks coming out of the mouths of babes!

What'd You Say?

Little Ben is definitely finding his voice. At this age it's hard to tell what is actually being used, and what is just babbling, but there are a couple things that we SWEAR Ben is actually saying. He's been saying da-da-da for a while... that's pretty much been all he's said, so it's been hard to tell if he's actually associating it to Andrew. But a couple weeks ago he started adding the ma-ma-ma-ma sound to his baby vocabulary. But since then, we've noticed that he really only says ma-ma-ma when he is coming after me, climbing all over me, or when I am at least in the vicinity. We think he is actually calling me Ma Ma Ma (he adds an extra for good measure!)!!! He also has been making a da-da sound whenever he sees a dog. The intonations of this da-da are different than his others, and the other day he started trying to put a "g" sound in it and it really sounded like he was trying to say Doggie. It also sounds like he says "Thank you"... actually it doesn't sound anything like Thank You, but he makes the same sound - 2 little grunts - whenever you give him something. Even my friend noticed it, so we're not totally nuts. He has been loving experimenting with different sounds, and imitating some of the sounds we make. It's so cute, we just love it. We can't wait until Josh and Ben start having full blown conversations. That is going to be constant comedy!

Barbara Who?

Speech to a 3 year old can be a tricky thing. You know what you're trying to say, but can't get it quite right, and hilarity ensues. One of our recent favorites was last weekend when Andrew made some ribs for dinner. We put some in front of Josh, and he pushed it away and said "I don't like Barbara Screw Off" What? After a little guessing game, we figured out he was talking about barbecue sauce. Andrew, can you please pass the Barbara Screw Off?

Joshua Sings the Hits

What a musical household we have! It seems there is always some kind of music going in our house. Lately, our main musical source has been our little maestro Joshua, who cannot get enough of singing. Gee, where did he ever get that?!? He learns the words to songs fast...well, at least most of the words. Sometimes he doesn't get them quite right, which makes it all the more entertaining to listen to...over... and over... and over again. There are some days that we don't even turn on the radio on the way home from work because Joshua provides the musical entertainment. Here are some of our favorites:

"I've been working on the railroad, throw my lunch away!.... Someone's in the kitchen with Dino, someone's in the kitchen I know-o-o-o..."

"Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man? Do you know the muffin man who makes us very late?"

"Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, mary, mary, mary, mary mary, lika bika dream!"

"I like to eat, eat, eat Aypples and the banaynays!"

"Boom boom, how to be crazy! Boom boom, how to be crazy!"

"He got the whooooole world in his hands, he got the whooooooole world in his hands, he got the whooooooole world in his hands, he got the whooooooole world in his hands, he got the whooooooole world in his hands...." I think you get the picture. It's a never ending song!

The other day he totally surprised and amazed us with his photo and phonographic memory. A week or two ago we were watching a show on the Disney channel called Little Einsteins. They incorporate classical scores and famous works of art into an adventure. They had applied words about springtime to one of the classical pieces and sang it a few times throughout the show. Well, Josh has a toy in the car that plays the same song, without the words. When he heard it, he started singing the springtime song. I couldn't believe that he remembered the song from that long ago.

We can't wait to get him into piano lessons! Maybe he'll be the next Harry Connick, Jr.!

Another Edition of Kids Say the Darndest Things...

So I took the boys to the park this afternoon. While we were there, Josh apparently decided he needed to go potty. Our park lacks any formal facilities, but hey, he's a boy, so he goes on the tree. I was feeding Ben when he decided to do this, so I stopped and went over to help him so he didn't pee on his pants. but I was told "No Mommy. Go finish Baby Ben's dinner." I was slightly amused by that, but I decided to let him do his thing. As he was finishing up, I saw that another family was coming to the park to play (a grandma with her 15 month old granddaughter). As she walked up, seeing Josh with his pants and underpants around his ankles, we both just sort of laughed. No need to get embarrassed. When you've got to go, you've got to go, right? So he finally got his pants up and was for some reason fascinated by his pee pee on the tree. He ran over to the little girl and said in his loudest voice "LET'S GO SEE MY PEE PEE!!! COME ON!!!" That's just one of those things that definitely deserved blogging. They're the things I don't ever want to forget. Priceless!!!

Babble Boy

In the last couple of days, Ben has discovered babbling. His favorite sounds are da-da-da-da, ga-ga-ga-ga and ya-ya-ya-ya. He seems very proud of himself, and is turning into quite a talker. He really sounds like he's telling you all about something. I guess he just has a lot to say. He is such a joy to be around. How did I survive almost 28 years without that smile in my life?

Thanks For The Grub

Josh shows us how he prays for his breakfast each morning

The Endangered Gukky

As any 2 year old learning to speak will do, Joshua has had his share of mispronounced words, most of them cute or downright funny. However, over the last week or two, he has been clarifying more and more words. Words are still cute in his little 2 year old voice, but they actually sound like the actual words now. I thought it would be a good time to list a few of our favorites:

"Gukky" - This is the catch-all word, the "I don't know how to say it and I don't want to try, so I'll just say gukky" word. Gukky has been used as a verb, noun, adjective, and probably a few other terms I'm too dumb to think of =) Some examples: "I gukky mommy" means "I help Mommy"; "Gukky-sin" = "Medicine"; "Gukky Street" = "Sesame Street"; "Gukky-nahny" = "Macaroni"; "Gukky-rie" = "Butterfly". In any case, "gukky" has been slowly disappearing from his vocabulary, and we'll surely miss it when it is gone.

"My Did It" - In addition to perfecting his language skills, Josh is like any other 2 year old and wants to do EVERYTHING himself. Instead of saying "I'll do it", he would say "MY Did It". This has changed in the last few days to "My Do It".

"Mommy/Daddy Help You" - Josh will say this when he needs help with something. We would always ask "Do you want mommy to help you?", so we're guessing that is why he asks for help by saying "Mommy help you...". Even funnier was when I tried to teach him to say "Mommy help me", and he came back with "Mommy help you me..."

"Baby Bo / Gisamin" - This is how Josh says Baby Ben / Benjamin. Heck, sometimes I find myself calling him Bo!

"Da-de-da-da's" - Josh's current favorite TV show is the Backyardigans, and somehow, this is how he has decided they are pronounced.

"Mee-nah-mo" - Josh's daycare teacher last year was named Kim, or as the kids called her, Miss Kim; Or as Josh called her, "Mee-nah-mo". Took us a few weeks to figure out what the heck he was talking about with this one!

"Chevy Chase" - We have ABSOLUTELY no idea what this is. He has said it a few times around the same time that we showed him Mickey Mouse, but he knows how to say Mickey Mouse and he has said Chevy Chase at other times as well. Maybe he's sneaking out and watching Fletch while we're sleeping.