From the Mouths of Babes

Quote Monday is back from vacation

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Evie to Uncle Ben: “We need an adult.”

Me: “You’re getting so big!”
Evie: “I can almost touch the ceiling of this hotel! Well, maybe when I’m five I can.”

::middle of the night, Evie starts crying::
Me: “What’s the matter honey?”
Evie: “Daddy, don’t cut up my peaches!”
Me: “…I won’t honey.”
Evie: “You already did!”

There’s nothing I love more than getting people to say things when they’re sleeping, but I think that was the first time Evie’s done it. However, just over the weekend she woke up and would only say, “Meow meow!” for about 10 minutes. Afterwards she fell back asleep, and when we asked her about it later, she didn’t remember that.

Sara: “I guess you have a lot of fish frys when you have a lot of fish. Or a lot of Catholics.”

Evie: “Mama! Those are just for looking at!” – Well, if Evie’s not allowed to touch stuff in the store, Mama shouldn’t either! It’s only fair.

Evie: “I can’t sing the ‘la la’ part because it sounds like ‘wa wa’!” – She is surprisingly aware of this. We just keep trying to reassure her that she’s not supposed to be able to say ‘l’ at her age.

Lisa: “Your husband still wants to play Kevin Bacon. ‘Cause you know why? Bacon.”

Quote Monday – Questions and Death

/ Shane / Leave a comment

“I look like a different girl!” – Evie, looking in the mirror while wearing a headband to keep her bangs out of her eyes.

Evie, singing: ” Happy Birthday to Nala! Happy Birthday to you! I don’t want to lose you, but you’ll die some day too!”

Sara: “I think we need a little break from the questions.”
Evie: “Why?”

Me: “Do you want a bite of my pickle?”
Evie: “Gross.”

Where did she learn that one from? It might have been from us. It’s not like we make an effort not to say gross. It was just surprising to hear it come out of her mouth! Sara said, “I guess kids learn that stuff whether they’re around other kids or not.”

Quote Monday – Water Edition

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Me: “I’m going to go stick my head in the fountain.”
Evie, getting upset: “Nooooo!”
Me: “Why not?”
Evie: “Because that’s where your ears are!”

She does not like water in her ears! Really, she doesn’t like water anywhere near her face, but particularly the ears. So I didn’t stick my head in the fountain because she was upset, but after a while she started tugging me over towards the fountain. “Guess where I’m taking you!” she said. So I went over and put my head in the fountain (it was a really hot day). As soon as I took my head out she started sobbing.

Evie: “You need a towel! Get a towel!”
Me: “Why? It will dry, honey. I like getting my head wet.”
Evie: “No! No! You have to poke your ears!”

By this I assume she meant dry the water out of my ears (it wasn’t even in my ears!) I told you she doesn’t like water in her ears!

Sara: “Why are your breadsticks wet?”

This was in response to some of the saddest, soggiest, most unappealing breadsticks I have ever seen. The place had a “limited menu” for Sunday that was so crummy, Sara and I decided not to eat.

Me: “What was your favorite part about the water park?”
Evie: “When we went to the potty!”

It’s not like she didn’t have a good time! I don’t know why we even try to plan things. However, it should be noted that she let me dunk her head in the water (asked me to do it actually!) This has never happened before (see above for water-in-her-ears-phobia). She didn’t even rush to get out and get a towel right away (but she did a different time the same day when she accidentally tripped and her head went under for a nanosecond).

I should also mention that Sara totally flipped out of her tube and got dunked the first time she went down the big slide. Of course, this was the only time this happened and I wasn’t around. Totally missed it! 😦

As for me, I am totally lobster-ized. I slapped some sun screen on my shoulders, arms, face and neck, and even reapplied it. That is why every place other than my shoulders, arms, face and neck is bright red like I’m wearing some sort of weird red sunburn sandwich board. It’s actually kind of funny because it looks even worse compared to my un-burned arms and shoulders. And usually, whenever you have a sunburn, your shoulders are the worst part. But since my shoulders were protected, it doesn’t really hurt much to wear a shirt! I guess we know for sure that the new sunscreen we were trying works! Consider my painful middle the control group.

She’s trying to make me cry

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Parents worry about things that kids just don’t think about. “Am I making the right decisions for my child?” or “Am I raising this kid right?” Being a parent involves a lot of uncertainty. I don’t know if children pick up on this, and thus know the weak points to prod at, or if they just ask so many questions that some of them are bound to hit below the belt.

For example, one thing on my mind a lot is the fact that raising our kids in Chicago, they are having a much different childhood than Sara or I had. In particular, we yearn for some sort of yard where the kids could go out and play.

Evie: “This is silly, but for the house, for my birthday, I wanna ask for a yard.”

Ouch.

However, lately it seems like Evie has been going for the jugular. It really seems like she’s going out of the way to try to make us cry.

Evie: “When I die, I want to bring mommy with me.”

Evie: “When I die, I want to die close to the house. Can you make me die close to the house?”
Sara: “Why do you want to die close to the house?”
Evie: “So I can see you again”

Evie: “When I die, will you let me take Oliver with me?”

Cue daddy with a lone tear dripping from his giant cartoon eyes while his bottom lip starts quivering.

She hasn’t really had any personal experience with death yet, but I assume that thinking about death probably normal at her age. It’s not like she thinks about it all day, but it does come up probably every other day or so.

The thing is, you just never want to think about death in conjunction with your child. This seems pretty obvious, but I can definitely say that, although you might think you understand, its something that you can’t really know until you have a child. How absolutely terrifying it is. And also strange to think, “I guess that means my parents felt that way about me too.”

Well, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about these things, since Evie keeps bringing it up!

Quote Monday, back with a vengeance

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Evie: “I heard a clip-cloping in the hallway…I think it was a dinosaur!”

We’ve been having some difficulty lately with Evie and her L’s. Like any kid her age, she pronounces them like a W. This can lead to some confusion:

Evie: “I have wemon pee pee.”
Sara: “Women pee pee?”
Evie: “Wemon. It’s yewow.”

Me: “We have to wash your face, it’s all messy.”
Evie: “Why?”
Me: “Well, you were in the dirt and you were eating smores and doggies were giving you smooches.”
Evie: “They wicked it.”
Me: “What? Wicked it?”
Evie: “Wick. Wicked it.”
Me: “…wicked it?”
Evie, patiently: “With an ‘L’.”

She’ll probably be able to spell it before she can pronounce it!