Recent Kid Quotes

Andy: "I love you, Ebba."
Annabelle: "I love you, too, Daddy."
Andy: "You love me as good as you can, can't you sweetie?"
Annabelle "Yes, I love you all the way."

This conversation came after she had recently told me she loves me "as good as I can."

Rain Reds the Raspberries
-Sam - May 2014

First Half of December Photos

I could watch a sleeping baby all day.

Samuel has been saving up for a long time for his first knife and he finally had enough money. Can't believe a child of mine is old enough to have his own knife.

Younger brother anxiously awaits his turn to have a knife.

Sam's first competition! He did so well. Placed 9th for rings. It was a huge venue and so intimidating. He wasn't nervous at all. In fact here is a conversation we had the day after.

Me: I'm really proud of you Sam for competing yesterday in that huge arena.
Samuel: Really? Why?
Me: Because it was so huge and there were so many people. I don't like doing things in front of a bunch of people.
Samuel: Really? I love it. It makes me feel like everyone in the world loves me.

He never stopped smiling.

Many days before Christmas Joseph had already made, wrapped and had Annabelle's present under the tree. Melts my heart to see them loving on each other on their own initiative.

Joseph dressed Annabelle up in her fanciest dress, put on some music and told her he was going to take her dancing. Oh my is he going to be a fantastic husband someday!

Sam had a holiday show at his gym.

Her last night being zero.

Random Thoughts

I've been compiling a list of random thoughts that don't have any pictures associated with them so haven't ever been blogged about. Here's the list.

Horton Hears a Who - I was never a big Dr. Seuss reader when I was a kid, so reading all of the Dr. Seuss books now with the kids is quite new to me. I just loved the book, Horton Hears a Who. "A person's a person, no matter how small." What an excellent way to express the support of life in all it's stages.

Baby Bird - One day we were studying birds and  I was short on dinner ideas. I made some rice and beans and tried to pull it off that we were going to eat like birds that night. The rice would be the worms and the beans the bugs. They totally bought it! It didn't even have sauce or cheese. I feed them all their dinner just like Mama birds do and they flew around the house and then would come back to me when their mouths were empty. It was a blast. Well, every time Annabelle doesn't enjoy a dinner and is having a hard time eating it, she asks to play baby bird!

Question Time - As a way of building communication with our kids and giving them opportunities to share their thoughts on different things, we came up with the Question Game. Someone asks a question to the whole family about something and then everyone has to answer. It cannot be a yes or no answer. It has been so much fun! I have learned so much from my children and Andy that I did not know. It's also been neat to see what they want to know about us, too. Many times a day it is asked "Can we do question time?"

Parts of Rosemary That are Fat Game - The kids came up with this game. Someone starts first and then everyone goes around and around naming the different parts of Rosie that are fat! Hahaha! It's quite hilarious. I'm well aware that this won't be able to continue forever, but for now it's adorable.

Rosemary's list of nicknames is hilarious... I wouldn't have expected anything less from our family. Daddy is most often the initiator of the names and this time it is no exception. It started with calling her "Rose Puppy" and then it morphed into "Rose Pappy" then that was expanded into "Pappy Lee Lau from the South" and now it's stuck! How ridiculous!

The kids think Rosie's favorite color is white since milk is white. They choose the color white for her whenever there is that option and we joke that she doesn't understand when things don't come in the color white.

Annabelle's First Haircut

Annabelle and Mommy went on a special date to get our hair cut. This was her first professional cut. I fought bangs for so long, but finally caved. She doesn't keep clips or headbands in, and even though her hair is long enough to fit behind her ears, it doesn't stay.

Her hair stylist's name was Hannah. She was so excited because that's the name of her ballet instructor. She did phenomenal. The wait was quite long and we had such a good time walking around, getting some french fries and just enjoying being together.

While we were sitting in the waiting area she leans over to me and says loudly, "Mommy, after we get our hair cut we are going to look so pretty! We are going to look like NINJAS!" Oh my gracious my heart just burst right then and there. I cannot handle her cutness.

Apparently ninjas are pretty in her world and she thinks they all have long hair for some reason.. still haven't gotten to the bottom of that comment.

Mama got one too, but it's not styled or anything because it was late and I just wanted to leave. :)

This face!!!

Trying To Find Egypt

We were given a telescope for Christmas by Andy's dad and stepmom. It was finally a clear night when we could also give the telescope a try. While they were setting it up, Joseph ran inside and exclaimed to me, "Daddy said we can see planets with the telescope. I'm going to try and find Egypt!" Oh my! I try so hard.

Tre and the Boys

There are very few people, okay, maybe no one, who are more special to the boys than Tre. I don't blame them, Tre is an amazing kid. He is the son of an older couple in our church who have 6 children. 5 girls and 1 boy. The boys are the brothers he never had. We spend a lot of time with their family. The boys and Tre have become very close. I just adore homeschooled kids. They can appreciate and befriend someone despite their age difference. They don't buy into the idea that it's "not cool" to befriend someone younger than you.

This past summer Tre was traveling overseas with his family. He came home for about 48 hours and then flew out to start college in California, which to the boys is a different country. (I tend to agree, but for different reasons.) The 2 day window he was home, they threw him a going away party. But, we were on vacation and could not attend. So, the boys never had a chance to say good bye to him.

With his dad's help, Tre surprised his family and came home for a good friend's wedding. He made it quite clear that I was not to tell the boys of his visit, because he wanted to surprise them himself. I thought that was just too cute. Here are pictures of their reunion. It was just priceless. And of course, all serious photos are followed by a funny photo these days. Tre knows this all to well. 

I often wonder if Tre knows just how special he is to these boys. But, considering right now and other times before he's had a picture of the three of them as his facebook picture, maybe he does understand, because the feeling is mutual. 

December cannot come soon enough for this household! We have a countdown link to the baby's due date, but it's also a countdown to when Tre comes home.

And in case I haven't made it clear enough how much these boys think of Tre...Samuel thought that since Tre was going to be home right around the time the baby was going to be born, he thought it would be a fantastic idea if Tre cut the umbilical cord! Although, I love Tre as well, I had to softly let him know that will not be the case.

Breakfast Prayer

I have been trying to upload this video for over a month and just got it to work... enjoy!

If you need translations let me know...

Kidisms

Both Samuel and Joseph have been saying the most hilarious/adorable things lately.

First, Joseph's vocabulary has gotten just too much. It's so cute. He now uses the word frustrated all the time. He either tells us how he's frustrated or is asking others if they are frustated. A few weeks ago it was 'rustrated' but now it's normal.

Some of his other words that I love to hear are:
be-pause : because
praw-bee-bee : probably
delicious, which he actually says correctly, but it's so cute coming from a 2 year old.

Andy was holding the boys on his lap and commented to me: "look at these people, where did they come from?" Joseph quickly responded "From mommy. From mommy's tummy. We popped out!"

Recently the boys have become obessed with our wedding rings. They want to see them all the time. Samuel said the other day: "Daddy has ring because he's pregnant to mommy!"

Sitting at the dinner table Samuel says: "Joe Joe, you are the cutest fellow I have never seen." Then Joseph says very forcefully: "NO, I am not a fellow I am a BOY!" Then Samuel responds: "NO, you are a fellow!" And then they continued back and forth for about 10 rotations until we changed the subject.

Another night at the dinner table Joseph says: "Ahh, it's too hot for babies. You blown on it?" Andy and I just crack up laughing. Then Joseph realizes that we're laughing starts cracking up too. Slamming his hand down on the table says: "It's so funny I say that word!"

We Have Boys

The reason why I know this is because these are the top 10 words

most frequently heard around our home:

1. Poop
2. Fart
3. Bottom
4. Pants
5. Diaper

6. Penis
7. Underwear
8. Eww
9. Gross
10. Yuck

Each day I'm getting more and more excited at the fact that we're having a girl :)

Translations

Samglish to English

Yes-raunt :: Restaurant
Lemon-m's :: M & M's

School Bus School

Today is the first day of 'school' for our boys this year.

I am watching a little boy this year while his mom is at work and his name is Samuel too. He's almost two and is more adorable than you can imagine. His first day over was today.

Those of you who have been around for awhile, know of Bushu. (You can read the story here if you're not familiar).

Well, since it's been two years since we've named our school, I thought I'd give it another shot and see if Samuel could come up with a more grown up name. He wants it to be 'School Bus School.' I've asked him several times if he's sure and tried to come up with other names, but I've been unsuccessful. He is determined it's going to be 'School Bus School.'

Only Samuel could come up with a name for his school that somehow involves a vehicle and is somewhat relevant to his school. Too bad he won't be riding on a school bus to get there.

So, I've begun to embrace it as any good mom would do :) This is my lesson plan book.

The party started with some egg muffins. You can't learn on an empty stomach, now can you?!

Here's to a fun, productive year of School Bus School!

I forgot to take pictures at school today, so here's a cute one from this past week to hold you over.

It's Both of Mine

Another Samism:

We're learning about sharing in our home.

It's not going so well.

Joseph is quite the instigator and insists he needs the exact toy that Samuel is playing with. He will quietly walk up to him and rip the thing out of his hands.

The word "mine" has been tossed around more than I can even count...

So, obviously we turned to the teaching that all the toys are both of theirs and they need to take turns with their toys. Well, Samuel has a twist on that idea. When Joseph takes something from him, he will yell...

"No no, Joe Joe, it's both of mine!"

The Birth of Samisms

Ever since I started this blog I wanted it to be my online baby book for the boys since I don't keep up with their baby books enough to catch all of the details of their growing up process.

Well, I thought of this idea months ago to have a Samisms category and a Joeisms category to document all the hilarious things that they say.

Samuel said the cutest thing last night that finally has brought me here to start Samisms and Joeisms.

Last night Andy really wanted some ice cream, so while I was out running an errand I stopped by and bought some ice cream. He put Joseph to bed and told Samuel he could wait up until I got home to have some. As he was sitting there about to eat his mint chocolate chip ice cream, he said "this smells like toothpaste."

We commented that it does because it was made of mint and sometimes toothpaste has a mint flavor too.

Then after he was done, we went upstairs to brush his teeth so he could go to bed.

He said "Mommy, I don't have to brush my teeth, I had ice cream!"

Stop Taking Pictures

As I was going through the photos and videos of April I came across this hilarious video of Samuel, complete with lots of nose picking. Enjoy.

Favorite Words

The boys are helping me with the dishes.

Joseph is repeating his favorite word, Mama; and Samuel is repeating his new favorite word, Samuel.

Thought the grandparents would enjoy :)

MaMa

I knew after all this pain and sacrifice of tending to my littlest one I would get some appreciation, it would just take some time. But, I didn't think it would come this early!

For the past week or so Joseph has started saying Ma-Ma. If he's hungry and wants to nurse he'll start saying it. Last night he woke up and wanted to eat and was in his crib next to us and Andy and I woke up to him just really quietly calling out to me. It was so adorable. It melts my heart!

This is extra special to me because Samuel's first word was Dada, and Mama came much later. I guess it sure shows what a Mama's boy this kid really is. In case any of us weren't convinced prior to this :)

Sam Dog

This video definitely needs some explaining. Andy and I call Samuel "Sam Dog" quite a bit. He had never really said his name before and then this day he repeated it after Andy when he called him Sam Dog. He kept saying it and saying it. He was so proud of himself.

I tried to video tape him, but he was too camera shy, so I let him run the video while he said it and it worked. So, forgive the video of my neck! The audio well makes up for it, though. Oh, to have a toddler :)

Now that he has his name above his bed while he's going down to sleep we'll hear him practicing his name over and over again. He's even started to say Samuel now. It's precious.