From Spencer's Journal this morning:
My kids keep saying different things that crack me up so I thought I'd write them down. Don't think I do nearly enough of this...
Cadence to Campbell while we were at the dinner table a couple days after Campbell got her new glasses: "You know, kids with glasses can't do popular things."
The other day I was trying to get my kids excited about different cultures and to have a more global mindset... that is one thing that is hard to cultivate in whitebread Arkansas. I spent several minutes telling them great things about different cultures and places I've lived/visited. I told the girls how excited I am to take them to see great countries and cultures.
Cadence - "Well, I don't want to see different countries if it takes too long to get there."
Mom - "We'd go in an airplane so we could get there fast."
Cadence - "That sounds like it would take too long and I would throw up on the airplane. Maybe we should just go to Missouri."
Cadence and I frequently have great conversations in the car on the way to school. Here are snippets of some of those:
Cadence - "I don't like going to school. At lunch sometimes I have to sit next to Indian people and their food smells SO bad."
Cadence - "What do you do in your job?"
Me - "I figure out which of Walmart's commercials make the most money and tell people to spend more on those and less on commercials that don't make much money"
Cadence - "Are you going to be in a commercial?"
Me - "No"
Cadence - "Why not?"
Me - "When you watch TV do you see people as good looking as me on it?"
Cadence - "No"
Me - "They don't want to put me in a commercial because it makes people uncomfortable to see someone so good looking on TV."
Cadence - "Oh, I get it."
Cadence as we were driving past a deer carcass that we've been watching decompose into a pile of bones over the past year - "Dad, on our next Daddy Daughter date we should go see those dead deer bones."
Me - "Wait... you want to go see dead animal bones on our next Daddy Daughter date with your sisters?"
Cadence - "Well, maybe we should wait for my birthday Daddy Daughter date so it can be more special. And then we could go to jump zone."
Campbell just went to the doctor and got glasses last week. The day she came home she was hilarious about her sight... having learned for the first time that she actually doesn't see things very well. She was sitting at the table when I came home and she said "I can't see vewy well." She put her head sideways and held one thumb over the other one. "I can't see which one's my fumb." She also started staring at her plate "Is it puwple? I can't see. It's too bwurwy."
We are at a weird stage where Cadence has started to back talk a lot and Layla is in her tantrum filled threes... making Campbell our easiest going kid for the first time. That being said, she isn't without her moments. A couple weeks ago I sent her to her room for misbehaving and she angrily stomped up the stairs. She went into her room and slammed the door. Then she opened it again and yelled, "FINE. I'm going to slam the doow even hawder. HMMPHF!" Then she slammed the door harder. Then she opened the door. "That's because I'm mad at you... HHMMMPHF!" Then she slammed the door again.
Campbell is very charming too. When I put her to bed she keeps stopping me from leaving "Wait! I want to give you another kiss." Then she has fun with it. Sometimes she'll kiss me in the ear. Sometimes she'll blow a raspberry on my cheek. and sometimes she'll get a crazy look in her eye and hold my face still and come in to kiss be on the lips while fighting back laughter at what a "gross" thing that is. Each time she gives me one of these "gross" kisses she starts to laugh hysterically as I wipe it off.
Layla likes to make a big event of me leaving in the mornings for work. If I start to leave without giving plenty of one on one attention to her I'll hear "NOOO... WAITTT" from whatever part of the house she is in as she scurries toward me for our goodbye. Here are a few things she'll do / say at that goodbye:
Layla - "Did you brush your teef? Blow my mouf!!" Then she opens her mouth wide so I can blow in it and she can taste the minty freshness of my breath (kind of weird).
Layla - "I didn't give you a kiss!!" She franticly runs over to me and then grabs my face extremely tenderly half closes her eyes and slowly and dramatically plants one on my cheek. Very cute.
Just yesterday... Layla - "NO! Dad! Don't GOOO!" She runs up, stops at my feet and lies down on the ground. "I'm a hotdog. Eat me!" I pick her up and start to gobble her. "Wait! You forgot the ketchup!" I pour fake ketchup on her and start to gobble. "Wait! You forgot the mustard!" I pour fake mustard on her and start to gobble. "Wait! You forgot the pickles!" I put pickles on her and then gobble her up.
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Mardee's Addendum:
One of my favorite things that Campbell and Layla holler as Spencer and Cadence drive away, "Bye Daddy! Don't forget to follow the Golden Rule!!"
Layla has become completely obsessed with "lips", which is how she refers to any lip-product. She is especially fond of, and apparently dependent on "pink lips". I'm not sure how to feel about this, since, as you may know, I myself have been completely attached to "lips" since I was about 10. And still am.
Campbell loves to look around and take in the scenery. Especially when riding her bike. One afternoon as we rode along the bike trail she was particularly distracted. Her head was rolling around on her neck like a pool ball. I kept hollering, "Campbell, watch where you are going!" and then she'd hit an unexpected bump in the path and be jolted back to reality. For about 1 1/2 seconds. "Campbell, watch where you are going! Look ahead! Straighten out! Campbell! You are about to wreck into...." Too late. Her head had rolled around her shoulders and failed to notice that she was going write off the path, which dropped down about a foot and was speckled with trees and shrubbery. Into a bush and up and over she went. She screamed and I couldn't really see her. I halfway jumped off my bike only to remember that I had Layla sitting in the child seat in the back, meaning I really couldn't do a thing with my bike! And Spencer was way ahead with Cadence. Poor kid. She wasn't really hurt, luckily. Not like the time the kids refer to as, "Lolli-lolli-lolli-POP!", Wherein she failed to break on a downward slope and flipped over her bike into a bush going full speed. Yay helmets!
Quick little story that amused me:
The other day in the car I was listening to an old playlist that I made when Cadence was just a tiny baby and, therefore, had no need to discern which songs were appropriate for their listening. My girls love to listen to the lyrics of songs and we enjoy discussing what the lyrics mean. So as we drove the song "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson came on. I love the song because it portrays emotions so strongly and vividly and I enjoy pondering what life incident she is talking about (decidedly the messy divorce of her parents), and yet, the lyrics are basically saying, "I blame you for my inability to progress emotionally". So I listened to the whole song wondering if a) The song is going to portray the message that it's okay to hang our emotional stability on the actions of another, and that we must find somebody to blame for our emotional trouble, or b) this is a great opportunity to discuss the way the song expresses emotions and where the emotions came from and how deeply they are felt, etc.... So I sat, sweating, wracking my brain, trying to decide if I should turn off the song or expose them to this message.... am I ruining them, or giving them a chance to expand their understanding of the world of emotions?
The song ended while I still sat, stressing. Then I asked Cadence, "What do you think that song was about?" Cadence answered with an air of confidence, "it's about how she's so in love and it makes her happy."
Guess sometimes I overthink things...
Cadence is also really paranoid of getting sick and being unhealthy. She self-monitors her dessert-intake and will refuse cake or family night treat if somebody around us is sick. All the girls ask regularly how healthy the food they are eating is, i.e., is it healthier than a carrot? Healthier than fruit snacks? healthier than cake? Somewhere in between? As soon as Cadence feels a symptom she begins to panick and asks all kinds of questions, "what happens if I throw up at school?" "What does a sore throat mean? Do I have strep throat?" "How sick will I be?" It's wonderful that when she feels anxious about getting sick she asks to pray with me. this is how her prayers go: "Dear Heavenly Father, Please please please please please please please please please please please please bless me to not get sick and that I'll stay very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very healthy. Help everybody in our family to stay healthy and especially please please please please please please please please please please please please please bless me to be healthy, In the name..." I promise you I'm not one bit exaggerating, either. Sometimes she wants to pray TWICE. I usually offer to say the second one, in the interest of time :)
Every night I pray that Spencer and I can have the guidance of the Spirit to help us to please please take these strong, bright spirits we've been blessed with in our homes, and to point them in the right direction and give them a love of truth and righteousness. There are a million other things we dream of teaching these kids, but we're learning a little more each day that they have already come to this earth ready to rock it. We just want them to do it in the right way.
I also sort of secretly pray that this next baby will be an eager to please, cooperative, bookish type :) (and that it will miraculously be twins in spite of already having ultrasounds that show just one, so that I never have to be pregnant again).
1 comment:
And congratulations!
PS. Your kids are hysterical. Not that you don't know that. But yes, I commiserate with the 6 year old sassiness. It's all a phase though, right?
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