independent thinkers

Elliot spots a police car parked with his lights off. I ask him what that means (thinking "there's no emergency"). Elliot responds immediately "the police are having lunch" (cue Opa and mommy laughing their heads off)

I was driving Jeff's (little) car today and Elliot says "good thing you're not a little taller!" mommy, sitting up straight so her head touches the ceiling "like this?" Elliot "yeah, your brai(n)s would fall out!" mommy "my brains?!" Elliot "no, you're BRAI(d)S" LOL

Riley says he asked his teacher, and she said he could bring Puppy to school. Riley goes to find Puppy "because he doesn't know yet!" But when Riley tells Puppy, Puppy isn't excited at all. He's worried that he's going to get lost, like happened another time Riley brought him somewhere. I ask Riley about this (chuckling at how "independent" this stuffed friend is) and Riley replies "yeah, he's worried, but he's going anyways!"

beautifully broken logic

on the way to the park yesterday afternoon, Riley was reminiscing about how we went to the mountains two Winters ago to see snow. The kids all pine for snow, though Hailey's too young to remember living in a cold-Winter climate, and Elliot's lived in sunny SoCal his whole life. (For the record, I don't miss snow, ice, and cold temps one bit, though one week a year would be okay :)

Riley explains to Elliot
"so if you see palm trees, then that's a place it doesn't snow"
mommy "well, technically it's the other way around. palm trees won't grow in places where it gets cold enough to snow, except maybe once a year"
Elliot thinks this over for a few seconds
"so why don't they cut down the things that keep it from snowing here?"

so awesome the ways their little brains work :)

little stories that never made it out of my cellphone

some little things that happen, especially when we're out-and-about just get texted to a few people.  since my phone is complaining about being full (again) - I'll copy a few here while I'm thinking of it :)

today
Hailey hands me 2 stubby clover flowers "here, these are for being the goodest mom!" aww, guess I'll keep her a little longer :)

last week
Elliot "when I'm big like daddy, I'm going to watch the gay movie!"  guessed every word I could think of, but was always met with "no mommy, not the (GAY) movie, the GAY movie!"  daddy figured out eventually that he meant the SCARY movie (drop the s and barely say the r, and it turns out 'ca'y movie does sound like that LOL :)

Elliot to Hailey "I nee(d) you (to) te(ll) me where b(l)ue toad is, or you're fi(r)ed!"

previous week
Elliot took off his diaper, put on a pair of Riley's underwear, then changed when he peed them (1st I knew of it was when I realized he was wearing different clothes)  right idea, wrong order :)  could this be my child who potty trains before age 4?

Riley, in the middle of changing into his swim clothes "I can do a weewee stand!" mommy "uh, what's a weewee stand?" Riley "you have to keep your weewee straight" and demonstrates something that vaguely resembles a "3-point stand"

month ago
evidently, neither of us changed Elliot's diaper this morning.  he threw his diaper in the trash and went commando when he put on his pants LOL.  discovered it when I asked how his pants got wet, and he cheerfully explained it was pee :)

in a fit of temper over being locked in his bedroom for nap, (3 year old) Elliot not only dumped the box of legos, he ripped a door off his bureau!  "I couldn't get it back on" he says mopily.  (it was so hard not to laugh)

my work is done...

Elliot wants juice to drink with dinner.  Riley observes with a sigh that Elliot always wants juice and not milk.
Riley "Elliot, you have to learn to like just milk.  Do you want to go on big rides?" Elliot "yeah"
Riley "if you want to go on big rides you have to grow big, and you need to drink milk to grow big"
Riley repeats this argument a few times
Riley "do you want to go on big rides, Elliot?"  Elliot, surly "I want juice!"'

a moment later, Riley "when Elliot is a grownup and married, he's going to give his kids only juice and never milk"

LOL :)

pronounciation and mispronounciation

As Elliot is starting to enunciate more carefully, the odd ways he says things are starting to become more obvious.

When his beloved stuffed animal Froggy was missing, he corrected me "name not F(r)oggee, it Fuhfee!" - Hailey already said it that way and we thought that was cute, but until now we didn't realize he had named it Fuffy rather than him mispronouncing Froggy

I thought I'd heard him saying Riley's name like "Rodney", and tonight in the bath I got him to say it a few times.  He's actually using an "n" instead of an "l" sound - Haynee and Ryenee are his sibs.  Though I feel bad, when I had him repeat it for daddy he got all sad.  Until now he was using a "y" sound instead of "l"s (which despite having the tongue-tied fixed he still doesn't say right) - but it sounded more natural as a "y".

Another phrase we've started using to get him to pronounce the "tr" at the beginning of "truck" correctly (still starts with an "f" a hundred times a day :) is "trick or treat" - usually "tick o(r) feet".  *sigh* we'll get there someday, still too early to start worrying since these are the hardest sounds to make and some kids don't master them until kindergarten.

funny language

Elliot is talking more all the time, but his pronunciation can still be pretty wonky.  the most amusing is that he won't say the "tr" at the start of "truck", which is a word he uses constantly.  he starts the word with an "f" sound instead.  This has led to several amusing conversations, though we try not to laugh too loud so that they catch on it's an interesting word.

mommy "Elliot, it's TRuck, with a TR.  TRuuuck"  Elliot, using the exact same deliberate pronounciation "yeah, fuuuck"

daddy, trying a more subtle approach "Elliot and I have been working on some words.  Tell mommy how you say turkey and tree"  Elliot "turkey" then turns around and says "say f*ck daddy!"

mommy in the car "look, there's a dump truck"  Elliot "what's a dum' f*ck?"

and since he has so many toy trucks, sometimes he's can't find all the ones he wants.  "mommy, where m'other f*ck?"

I swear I'm not making this stuff up :)

gotta go...

mommy "I have to get off the phone - the child wearing the pajamas I was going to return is chasing his brother around with a butter knife covered in peanutbutter"

(just a day in the life of the Dixons)