Here's what the kids have been doing, just some funny things from December through now. These are the types of things I'll miss and otherwise never remember. Kids are so funny.
Matt and Sam sometimes drive trucks around in the basement. When they drive from the couch to behind the wet bar, they say they're driving on "Poopways." When Jeff is around, they call it "Rumble Rumble Rumble" because they know he doesn't like the P word.
Sam plays the banjo. This consists entirely of him holding a baby teething ring and saying "Banjo, banjo, banjo!" a lot and occasionally banging the ring against things. He's never seen a banjo and probably never heard one.
Baseball parties: This is the term Matt and Sam use for dumping out all the toy bins into a huge pile. In fact, baseball parties are what prompted me to sell our toy-bin storage shelf. It was the worst. They were very enthusiastic about it, though.
"Shoes on hooks, shoes on hooks!" This is something that Sam sometimes shouts for no apparent reason. I think it's funny and sometimes say it myself. Matt doesn't know what it means.
A few months ago, Sam had been asking what different things were for. Many times, the answer was "for decoration." He started answering a lot of questions that way. For example, "Sam, why did you dump all that stuff out on the floor?" "For decoration." "Sam, did you spill that milk on purpose? Why did you?" "For decoration." "Sam, what do you think that truck is doing over there?" "It's for decoration."
Sam sometimes go up to Matt or Ben, grabs their ears, and says, "Ear diamond! Ear diamond!" We don't know what that means, but it's funny. He's also been saying "lugo" about everything. Who knows what that means, either.
Matt likes to tell me his dreams. One day, he was laughing so hard about this dream, like it was the silliest thing he'd ever imagined, that it was cracking me up. He explained that he dreamt of a flatbed pulling a trailer with a snowplow. It didn't have a delimber. But - and this was the hilarious part to him - the trees were gone! They were just gone! He kept saying, "They can't work that fast!" *giggle giggle* "There was no delimber, but even if there had been, they can't work that fast! They can't work THAT fast!" *giggle giggle*
One day, Ben was chewing on the trampoline. Sam said to him, "That's your food now," in a tone that was so fatalistic and matter-of-fact that it makes me laugh every time I think about it. I like to say, "That's your [whatever] now" in the same tone whenever the chance arises.
General notes:
Matt has been able to read for a couple of months now. He's very interested in nonfiction in general and animals in particular. He loves the National Geographic Little Kids' First Big Book of... series a lot.
Sam has started stuttering quite a bit. I asked him today if he was having trouble getting his words out. Matt interrupted and said, "Sam is NOT having any trouble getting his words out. He just needs to think about what he's going to say and then say the first letter of the word a bunch of times." He has been clingier than usual lately and wants to hold hands a lot. He is BFFs with both Matt and Ben.
Ben is a toddler now, not a baby. He's almost weaned - one night feeding remains but will be gone soon I'm sure. He loves to turn light switches off and on. He likes to walk around holding remotes or markers. He likes to scribble with crayons. He helps unload the dishwasher and can follow simple commands, like "get your shoes." He loves to hug everyone.
