kid updates on facebook

I'm going to do more regular kids updates on facebook.  If you are interested in having access to that, let me know.

life

Ethan told me after he went to the bathroom that his prize for going potty was to play in the sink water.  I let him turn the faucet on just a dribble and left to play with Rayen.  After a while, I heard water splashing onto the floor, so I came back to see what he was doing.  He had plugged the sink drain and filled the basin, taken off all his clothes, and sat in the sink, spilling water over the edges.

Ry was playing on the little toy marimba.  She clicked the sticks together, "one, two, three!" and then started playing a song.

We were heading home from my parents' house one night at bedtime.  Ethan said he was hungry, but I told him it was bedtime and we were just driving home.  He was quite for a few minutes, then announced, "Next stop: In-N-Out!"

I noticed Rayen using her plastic Ariel doll's head to dig a hole in the dirt. She did this until she realized Ariel's hard plastic skirt was a better tool.

Ry came up to me and said, "I Ci'rella. (sigh) Prince. Dreams true!"

Rayen is always singing.  Only recently have I been able to understand the words to her songs.  Recently she sang, "Prince sleeping. Dancing, dancing. Ci'rella, where'd you go? I have a dream! Dreams true. Prince dancing. Car wash, car wash."

I overheard Rayen playing with her Cinderella and Ariel dolls, "Hi, Ariel! How you doing? Pretty dress!"

A few days later, this time she's playing with Cinderella and a T-Rex. Cinderella says, "Ah! Di'saur!" The T-Rex says, "Rarrr!" (T-Rex bites Cinderella's head) Cinderella responds, "No! S'op eating me!"

Recently, on our way to church, Ethan told me, "Momma, we better hurry! We're really late and all the kids are going to leave!"

I say a family prayer with the kids every night.  Last week, Ethan said, "Momma, I'm going to say the family prayer tonight. Dear Heavenly Father: Thank you for this beautiful day. Please bless that I had a fun birthday at Rob's and at Daddy's. Please bless us to sleep well. Please bless that we could go to two Monster Jams and see Gravedigger and all the other Monster Trucks. Please bless us to have good dreams and to feel safe in our nice home. Please bless us to be happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Rayen was on the potty and I said, "Let's listen for the pee!" She held her little hand up to her ear and called, "Hello, pee? Whereaaoo?"

Rayen said, "Have two Mommas!" I said, "Really? Who's your other Momma?" She stuck out her tummy and matriarchicly patted her own chest, nodding solemnly.

In the bath, Rayen told Ethan, "I eat a whale!" He responded, "No, Rayen; whales are pretty big." She opened her mouth as wide as she could, "Ahhh!" Then apparently she changed her mind. She blew water at me, saying, "I whale!"

Brett buys the kids glow-in-the-dark wands every once in a while.  Rayen calls them "ba-boo" (Bibbity-bobbity-boo, right?)  I noticed her wandering around the house looking and calling, "Ba-boo? Whereaaooo?"

I told Ethan he could play in the puddles in our back yard, as long as he didn't get his clothes wet.  After a few minutes, I noticed him sitting naked in the middle of the biggest puddle.  Sneaky.

Dad gave us bird feeders for Christmas.  Alice (the cat) loves them.  One day I noticed her sitting directly under one of the feeders.

When I came outside a bit later, I noticed her in the tree above the feeders.

I wasn't able to get a picture of the last stage, but when I came out the last time, she was sitting behind the tree, peering around the trunk at the bird feeders.

 

Princess Ry

I took Rayen to Disney on Ice. She chose to wear her "Ci'rella" dress for the occasion. When she was dressed and ready to go, she told me seriously, "I Ci'rella."
She was the only girl there without a tiara. As soon as we got home after the show, she ran up to her room to get her crown.
I only needed to take one picture, because her expression did not change from start to finish. Pure awe. Every once in a while, she would point her little finger at the dancers and comment (look for it in the picture of the stage), but her face was constant. She is a sweetie.

i love my babies

I walked by our shoe shelf and noticed Rayen had placed her Ken doll's shoes neatly next to her own.

Ry was playing with her Cinderella and Prince dolls and they were dancing.  Then Ry has 'Rella (as Rayen calls her) look around and say, "Oh no! My s'ipper! Whereaooo s'ipper?"

We spent a couple days watching the movie Brave over and over.  A few days later, when I was disciplining Ethan, he recited the dialogue from Brave when Merida is telling off her mother, "You walk around telling me what to do, what not to do! Trying to make me be like you!"

Rayen always demands, "Hand!" when she's walking down stairs.  I heard her talking to her Prince doll and as she was coming down the stairs, she told him, "Hand!" and walked down holding the little doll hand.

I took Ethan to Monster Jam recently.  When the announcer yelled "Put your hands together!", Ethan obediently clasped his little hands like he was praying.

After Monster Jam, Ethan came home and told Rayen (about one hundred times), "Rayen, did you hear that Gravedigger was there!?"

One morning, as we were getting ready for church, Ethan protested, "But we're too sick to go to church!" (big fake coughs)

Ethan loves onions on his cheeseburgers.

Warning:  This next quote is another example of how my standards have lowered, as Chris pointed out to me recently.
Rayen let out a little toot and said, "I burp! See?" (sticking out her bottom)

Ethan had a little squirting bath toy.  He tried to squirt Rayen, but ended up squirting himself in the face instead.  I told him that is called a backfire.  He responded "No, it was a bath-fire!" and proceeded to laugh at his joke.

We potty trained this past weekend.  I told Ethan, "We're not going anywhere until we've got the toilet mastered." His response, "But we don't have a toilet master, so let's go to Toys R Us and buy it!"

Ethan working the system: Each time he needed to go to the bathroom, he would pee about one teaspoon, wash his hands and get a prize, then go back and pee another few drops, get another prize, going as many separate times as he could.

I got Ethan a Monster truck DVD as a reward for pooping in the toilet.  After the first viewing, Rayen started yelling the monster trucks' names with Ethan, "'Rave 'Igger!"

We went to In-N-Out and as we left, I put Ethan's fries on top of the car while I put him in his seat.  Rayen yelled, "Hi, Bird!" and I noticed that there were four seagulls on the car, eating Ethan's fries.

Rayen counted to eight last night!

more life

I was on the phone for a short time.  After I hung up, Ethan came and told me "I put soap in the fridge water!"  I hurried down to the kitchen and he had taken the huge Costco sized jug of soap and set it upside-down in the Brita.

Ry came to sit on my lap while I was finishing my lunch.  We bumped heads because she leaned in to eat the same bite I was planning on eating.

We pulled up to Amy's apartment building to pick up Chris.  When Rayen noticed where we were she said, "Amy's house! Hi, J-son, hi Amy, hi Dex."

Ethan asked me recently, "Momma, why do people laugh when I say, 'I would be most grateful!'?"

Ethan had a huge sobbing crisis last week.  I slowly pieced together why he was shrieking: "I'm not a genius anymore because I lost all my powers in the bath because of all the water hitting me with little pokes and I lost all my coolness power too!" The next morning, as he was doing math puzzles he exclaimed, "I saved my life! Now I just have genius powers again!"

We were teasing Rob about his muscly chest, saying he had huge pecs.  Ethan shouted, "Yeah, like Ariel's dad!"

When I picked up the kids from Brett's house today, Ethan was telling me about his day, "The first thing I saw in Daddy's hand was a surprise for me!"

Picture update

kidisms

Ethan was telling me that his favorite cars are Subarus and that his daddy bought a Subaru because Ethan loves them so much.  I said, "Your daddy loves you so much." Ethan said, "I love him. And I love his Subaru very much!"

We tried potty training again, with Rayen participating this time.  She dumped all the potty award stickers on the floor and peed on them.  Not exactly, Ry.

Ethan and I were discussing a new haircut for him.  He said, "I want no hair like Dave. And Charlie Brown has no hair, too!"

I recently came across Ethan using his toothbrush to clean the wheels of his toy monster trucks.

Ethan was trying to convince me to let him sleep with me by saying, "Mommy, I'm not going to giggle in your bed."

Rayen was having a tantrum and started to bang her head on the floor, but noticed it was too hard where she was, so she scooted over so that her head was on a softer place then continued the tantrum.

During our ward Christmas party, a nativity was performed.  Ethan asked, "Is baby Jesus here?"

Ry found the bath letter 'I' and said, "bug!" (We have an alphabet puzzle that uses 'I' for 'insect'.  Clever connections!)

Ethan fell out of his bunk bed and was complaining about his back.  Ry followed him around, looking for sympathy for herself, lifting her shirt and saying "button hurts."