From the Mouths of Babes

Quote Monday toots in the dark

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie: “Oliver, you might think that grandma will be here by supper, but don’t count your chickens.”

I don’t know if I say “don’t count your chickens” a lot, but it has become one of Evie’s favorite phrases. Somehow she uses it against you, for example:

Evie: “…and then she’ll walk in, and I’ll run over and give her my present, and she’ll be so excited, and…”
Me: “Evie, don’t get your hopes up, it might not happen exactly how you imagine it.”
Evie: “Don’t count your chickens! I think it *will*!”

Me: “I had a dream that we crashed on a desert island and you became the smoke monster. We all had to go to your house to play board games, but we were all very nervous that you were going to kill us.”
Sara: “Oh, I see where this is coming from.”

Until that moment, I didn’t realize that my subconscious was trying to tell me that Sara is the smoke monster of board games.

::[Anonymous Visitor] is counting for hide and seek. Gas is passed::
Oliver: “Toots in the dark!”

I think it is time to start calling [Anonymous Visitor] by their Indian name, Toots in the Dark.

Quote Monday is growing fast

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie: “I must be like an adult now.”
Me: “Why’s that?”
Evie: “Because my clothes are getting too small, and Nala keeps biting me.”

It’s true that Nala bites Sara’s ankles like it’s her job.

Me: “Are these shoes okay? They’re not too small?”
Evie: “Well, they’re not too big, either.”

Evie spontaneously made up a new verse for the old rhyme below. I thought it was pretty good! Making the move from singer to singer/songwriter?

Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,the birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house, counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlor, eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird and snatched off her nose.

***Evie’s new verse***

The cook was in the kitchen, stirring up a brew,
When down came the blackbird and snatched off his too!

Quote Monday gets stranger and stranger

/ Shane / Leave a comment

::Oliver splashed himself in the bath and was trying to rub his eyes with his dripping wet hand::
Sara: “Oliver, don’t use your hand, that’s not going to work very well!”
::Oliver starts rubbing his eyes with his toes::

::Pointing at a picture::
Me: “What’s that?”
Oliver: “A horse! No! No… A zebra!”

::Oliver takes the cap off a pen::
::I give him a sharp look::
Oliver: “Mischief, mischief!”

Evie: “At school we were talking about what if our mommies died, and I could go to school like this.”
Sara: “Like what?”
Evie: “With no clothes on. And also I could pee on the floor.”
Me: “So, your mommy being alive is the only thing that keeps you from peeing on the floor and going to school with clothes on?”
Evie: “Yeah. And then [a classmate] joined in, and she could dye her hair purple if her mommy died.”

Quote Monday is tired

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie: “I took a nap today at school.”
Me: “You must have been really tired.”
Sara: “Maybe that’s because someone was waking you up all night long.”
Me: “No way, every time I went in there [to put Oliver back to sleep], she was snoring.”
Oliver: “Grandma Kathy!”
Sara: “…Grandma Kathy?”
Oliver: “Grandpa Ron!”
Sara: “Do they snore?”
Oliver: “Mmm hmm.”

Busted!

Old Man: “Are they talking yet?”

Whoo boy, are they talking. This was very funny to me. Aside from the fact that Oliver would be pretty old not to be talking, and Evie would be REALLY old not to be talking, they pretty much never stop talking. Talk about a loaded question! 🙂

::Evie crying::
Evie: “I’m not tired!”
Sara: “I didn’t say you were.”
Evie: “Well, you were thinking it!”

Yum Yum Dim Sum

/ Shane / 2 Comments

The other day we took a trip up to Chinatown to get some dim sum at Triple Crown Restaurant.

Usually when we go to Chinatown we go to regular Chinese restaurants, but we’ve talked about getting dim sum for a long time. First off, the idea of getting many small dishes and trying all of them is awesome for anybody, but it’s especially awesome when you have kids. If they don’t like something, you just move on to the next thing. Second off, we have a copy of Dim Sum for Everyone signed by Grace Lin, one of our favorite author/illustrators. We’ve read it many times, so the kids are sort of familiar with the concept of dim sum, and were excited to try it. (Note that the title of the post refers to a different dim sum book by that name that we’ve read with the kids, so they’re pretty well versed in the concept.)

Well, all for naught, because Evie didn’t want to try anything. She was her usual picky self, and tried a couple of tiny bites that she was pre-disposed to dislike, and therefore wasn’t going to like no matter what. She wouldn’t even eat any of the plain white rice.

Not to worry though, because Ollie *LOVED* it. His love more than made up for Evie’s apathy. The two of them have always been night and day about food. Considering we’ve raised them more or less identically in terms of what kind of food we offer them, etc., I believe Sara’s comment was, “I guess it goes to show you, it doesn’t matter what you do, some kids want to eat and some don’t.”

Anyway, there’s probably nothing Ollie likes more than eating a bunch of different things. Well, there is one thing he likes more, which is eating with chopsticks. Holy smokes did he love that. Don’t even think of trying to take them away from him. He even manged to pick a few things up with them.

The only think Ollie didn’t like is when he burned his face off. Oh, the poor boy, I’ve never felt so sorry for him. He had a sesame ball on his plate, and we assumed, like an adult, he’d take a small bite of it. Instead he quickly crammed the whole thing in his mouth. It was HOT and he lost his poor mind. He obviously thought he could get rid of the burning by trying to swallow it down as fast as he could, rather than spitting it out right away. His face went nuclear and he started shaking like a convulsion. We got him to spit it out and swallow some water, but, I’m not going to lie, it was very frightening. He cried a little bit, and then immediately went back for the sesame balls. Oh, to be a kid again.

Overall, everyone thought it was pretty great, except perhaps Evie. She did, however, enjoy the giant fish/crab/lobster tanks covering one wall, so at least she had something to do.

There was one definite high point of the evening for me. I’m sure what Evie meant to say was, “Yon television program is displaying raccoons.” But what she actually did was point across the room and shout, “I see rats!” There might be worse things to shout in a restaurant, but I don’t know what.