overheard

We were just reading a book. There was a picture of oscar the grouch listening to a bird sing. Adin said he thought the bird was singing the ABCs.

I was making Erik lunch. I peeled him a carrot. As soon as I gave it to him he asked where his sandwich was. I said I couldn't do two things at once. He said, "Ask God to help you. He knows how to do everything."

Come again?

Funny things the boys say:

When Adin wants to play baseball he says, "Play Minnesota, Mama?" I guess the only team that exists for him is the Twins! After we dropped off Erik at preschool this week he saw one of my coworkers in the hallway. He ran up to her and said, "I'm Adin Lindell!"

Erik has been learning a lot about animals and that some of them are carnivores. I find it very funny when he talks about how an animal can hide from it's 'creditors'!! He likes Gobstoppers but calls them Godstoppers. I tried to teach him by telling him I think 'gob' is another name for mouth so they stop your mouth. So then he would say, "Godst...mouth stoppers."

We are the dinosaurs

I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch today and there were lots of boys Erik's age. In the past, Erik has either not been interested in playing with the other kids or has been too nervous/shy. Today, he was right in there, climbing and rolling his toy car down the slide. Very fun for me to see.

However, as the play progressed, he seemed to get more excited and maybe was having a hard time controlling his energy. He would sort of get near kids and tense his hands like he sort of wanted to push them and was able to stop himself at the last moment. So I tried to keep a very close eye on what was going on. Soon, it escalated to making claw hands and roaring at kids. No one freaked out, but they didn't really like it, of course. So I gave him a warning to stop. He didn't. I forget now what he ended up doing, but I told him we were leaving in two minutes and he had to sit in the booth until we left.

Sitting in the booth, he became very, very calm. So I had an idea. I told him he was not allowed to be a dinosaur in Playland because dinosaurs were not allowed there. I told him we were going to the park later and he could be a dinosaur there. I asked if he thought he could play like a nice boy for a few minutes at McD's. He said yes he thought he could do that. And he did. When it was time to go he told me that he had pretended to be a baby dinosaur while playing. Yay!

Oops

I ran out to the car to grab Adin's nuk before naptime. When I came back in the house, Erik was trying to hide behind the couch. I asked what he was doing back there and he didn't answer. Then I saw the carpet was covered in whole peppercorns! He started saying, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It was an accident."

Because he was apologizing and it would be easy to clean, I didn't get mad, I just told him that's why Joe and I tell him not to play with the peppergrinder. Once I got out the broom and told him to sweep he could tell I wasn't getting mad. So then he stopped saying, I'm sorry and started saying, "sweeping up is too hard."

Figuring out the world

Adin has been asking us the same questions over and over. "What your name, Mama? What my name, Mama? What Erik's name, Mama?" etc. The other one is, "What your number, Mama? [how old are you] What my number, Mama? What Papa's number, Mama?" Today he was sitting in his high chair eating oatmeal. My mom walked by and he said, "I'm Adin Lindell!"

Erik has always been vehemently anti-bandage. He refused to cover even the bloodiest scrapes. I think he associated band-aids with the pain from getting a shot and twisted it to think that if I put a band-aid on him, it would hurt. Earlier this week he scraped his knee and it didn't seem to bother him for the first couple days. Friday night he was having trouble falling asleep and said his knee hurt. I offered him some Tylenol, which he accepted. Then he asked for a band-aid! I couldn't believe it. Saturday morning the band-aid got wet during swim lessons so he asked for a new one. Tonight before bed he commented on how his owie was getting better. I said I thought it was because of the band-aids, and he agreed!

Cuteness

Oh dear, the boys are always up to some cuteness, but by evening, I can't remember what it was! I shall do my best to remember. Erik has been very interested in telling jokes lately, so Adin has picked one of them and will attempt to tell it. Tonight I was laying on the floor next to Adin's bed and he told me his joke about two eggs about 2 dozen times. Then he went to his next routine, asking me how old each person in the family is: what your number mama? what my number, mama? what papa's number, mama?, etc. Then he started in on: what your name, mama? what papa's name, mama? By the time he got to, "what Adin's name, mama?" my patience was worn a little thin. So I said, "robert". He must have thought I misunderstood. There was a long pause and he asked again. This time I said, "susan." Since Susan is his aunt's name, he must have thought I was confused. He said, "what you talking about, mama? no, not Susan. Not Susan, mama." I don't know if this story will be funny for other people, but it made me laugh!