1) When he “reads” stories to us, instead of “ONCE upon a time,” he says “ONE upon a time.” (I think I am repeating this one–it’s so sweet, it’s worth repeating just this once;)

2) Not breakfast, but “backfest”

3) Not “helicopter,” but “helly-hop-ter”

So, then he tells us a story: “Hey, my friend Tyler at school has a friend Scott. Guess what word he knows.”

Before I could respond, Deep Thinker blurted out, “He knows the word ’shut yer yap’! He says it too!”

I said “Yes?”

He answered, “Wait a second. I’m concentrating POOPING.”

So, I waited, confused as to why he called me.

And after a few minutes, he asked, “Mommy, do all mommies have crooked teeth?” (Yes, that means, do all mommies have crooked teeth like mine. THANKS.)

Anyway, my husband and I are now planning to have a 3rd child and talking to Deep Thinker and Rowdy Rebel about having a little brother or sister. They are very excited about the idea and clear that this is the plan.

So, yesterday Deep Thinker started talking about China again. “MOM, when are we going to GO to CHINA???” I told him it would be fun to go one summer all of us together, maybe I could teach English and we could all study Mandarin.

And he said, “Well, we aren’t going to be able to do this if ya keep GROWING BABIES.”

Rowdy Rebel doesn’t get it. He kept asking me over and over if we could buy a shirt. Finally, I said, “Listen! I already asked her. She said no. We can’t buy one!”

His response: “Well just be sneaky and get one!” (He said these exact words.)

I told him that we can’t just take one because the team Mom would be very upset if we did that.

His response: “Well then go to the coach!” (Exact words.)

Rowdy Rebel has been screaming a lot at night because I put a stop to the climbing in bed with mom and dad really late. He rolls around so much it’s impossible to sleep! This new program is NOT making him happy. But I don’t care. He’s sleeping in his bed–all night. He’s three. He can handle it.

Every night I’ve reminded him that it’s bad to scream loudly at night, and our neighbors might get upset. So, of course, last night he goes up and starts crying as usual I went upstairs, walked into his room and said, “ROWDY REBEL, it’s time to SLEEP.”

And he said, “Okay.”

Then he added, “Mommy, did you hear me? I cried quiet, not loud.” My sweet little man. He must have made a decision not to scream…just like I asked him to.

Rowdy Rebel (age 3) was showing Misha all of his toy cars. He was really excited about it until Misha wanted to hold a car too. Then Misha started biting the cars, and my rowdy little toddler could barely stand it, “Mommy, Misha is GWABBING and BITING my CARS. Make him STOP!”

Then Lila came over and tried to get Misha to stop biting on the cars. She was worried that he could choke on the wheels.

Fortunately, Deep Thinker (age 6) jumped in to save the day. He yelled, “Don’t worry! It’s okay for Misha to bite the cars. He doesn’t have any TEETH!”

A while back, Deep Thinker was taking a bath and noticed he had leg hair. He was SO excited and said “Mommy, Mommy, I have leg hair! I can’t WAIT to tell Daddy about this!”

Today we were walking to school, and he was explaining that he now has more leg hair (which is not noticeable to me, but nonetheless…) I was trying to find complimentary words that would support the pride he feels about his leg hair…”Oh, wow. You’re…uh…that’s great. You have lots of leg hair! You’re…”

And he added “the hair-growing MASTER.”

PS. Sometimes Deep Thinker likes to take photos with my digital camera. It’s always fun to see what he comes up with. This is one he decided to take of his foot, however, his leg hair is also slightly visible:)

Last Saturday my husband was really tired, and it was time for our three-year old to take a nap. So they took a nap together.

The next day, Rowdy Rebel (the three-year old) explained to my husband: “Daddy, nember when you sleep at naptime with me?” And my husband said yes.

Rowdy Rebel said, “Tha’ nice.”

Then Rowdy Rebel asked: “Nember when you don’t sleep at naptime with me?” My husband said yes.

Rowdy Rebel explained, “Tha’ non nice.”

Other than that, he was really good on Saturday. Played nicely, no fighting (well, not really dangerous fighting), no scary stunts, just really calm and sweet.

So, in the evening, we were telling hid daddy how good Rowdy Rebel had acted all day. I said, “He was sooo good today. Oh, except at naptime. Then he was screaming really loudly…”

Rowdy Rebel looked at his daddy and explained, “Oh yeah. That was a assident.”