Fighting about EVERYTHING

I remember fighting with my 4 siblings about lots of things when we were younger.

But I don't remember fighting over the seemingly absolutely silliest, littlest, most insignificant things that my kids seem to do.

The color of plate, fork, spoon or cup that I give them at lunch. One particular marker out of a pile of 50. A toy that has been neglected for months all of a sudden becomes the toy of choice for both of them.

As I'm writing this, I notice that Jon has left his clothes on the floor AGAIN and it irks me.

Hmm. I suppose in the big scheme of things - this is pretty insignificant as well.

Belly dancers

Last night we went downtown and watched the street performers. It's become our Thurs night routine - the kids absolutely love it.

Jon and I have been intrigued by the kids' favorite performers. One might think that the balloon artist or the clown or the mime artist or even the yo-yo guy. Nope. Not my kids.

David can't stop talking about the 45 year old belly dancer.

Claire wants to be one of the fire eating Aerial Angels.

And Jacob? He seemed enthralled with the henna tattoo artist we watched for awhile (but then again he was also filling his pants at the time...)

Synonyms

David appears to be quite good at understanding synonyms.

Conversations like this have been happening quite frequently in our home:

Me: "Claire - did you take David's toy away? [Claire LOVES to antagonize her brother and then pretend she hasn't done anything wrong] That wasn't very kind."
David: "Yeah. That wasn't very nice Claire."

In such conversations I've substituted words like: thoughtful/loving/caring OR have gone the other direction and described her actions as annoying/mean/etc. None of it phases David. Without a pause he always vehemently jumps in with his declaration that what she did to him "wasn't very nice".

We were at Jon’s Aunt and Uncles the other day and David came up the steps from the lake ready to pee.

David while holding his crotch, “I have to go pee.”
Uncle Marion’s dry wit, “It happens to the best of us.”
David’s wise reply, “I know.”

Deb was not here for this one, but I thought this fit so well here I would add it.
-Jon

A tender moment in our attic

Last week while the boys were napping, Claire and I did some organizing in our attic. I finally have a system for my kids clothes and am working on the final few boxes whenever I get a chance. On this particular afternoon, Claire was helping me sort through her old (3T) clothes.

As she was doing so, exclaiming every now and then, "Oh, I LOVED wearing this", she paused for a moment. There were tears in her eyes. She said, "I'm sad - I wish that I were still 3. I miss wearing these clothes."

We talked for a bit about how it's exciting to grow older but that it also can be scary.

Yet another reminder to me that kids so often really do "get it".

repeating...

Lots of people have commented on David's ability to talk in complete sentences. And it's true, he really does talk in complete sentences.

He's also been doing a lot of repeating of what I say.

The other day, after a successful moment on the potty, and, after only taking one Skittle (his reward), I said to him as I was helping him put on his boxer briefs, "You're such a good boy David".

He replied,
"You're such a good Mommy."