I remember the sound

Just Rylie sitting on my bed doing two of her favorite things: not wearing clothes and getting into my stuff.

Christmas time

Growing up, this video was on the same VHS tape as all our Christmas movies and cartoons, so when I watch it it makes me think of Christmas. Anyway, it's kind of a classic in our family and I'm going to show it to my children so we can continue the tradition (not necessarily the watching-it-at-Christmas-tradition, just the watching-it-tradition). :)

Without number

Nathan said he had so many friends, I asked exactly how many. He said:

"There are so many that they go past the numbers and go into the ABC's."

p.s. The picture is a self-portrait of Nathan.

Rylie's lunch

When Rylie has a sandwich, she likes to either separate the components or tear it up and play with the pieces. Then the pieces play together, drink milk from her cup or even have conversations like, "Where's my head?" to which the reply might be, "I ate it all."

At least she eats (most of) her sandwiches, gradual as the process may be. Nathan causes me some anguish when he says he'd rather starve (dramatic much?) than eat a sandwich. He always wants something freshly cooked and that is not something I am always willing or able to provide.

The future

Here's a conversation I had with Nathan this morning after I explained why the neighborhood kids shrieked every time they thought their bus was coming to pick them up for school. I also told him where the elementary school was and that we'd go visit it next summer before he started kindergarten so that he'd be familiar with it and know where to go and everything when the time came (hopefully).

Nathan: What will I do when I'm 6?

Me: You'll go to first grade.

N: 7?

Me: Second grade.

N: 8?

Me: Third grade.

(I won't sport with your intelligence by typing out the rest of the ages and grades, but that's what we did)

N: 18?

Me: When you're 18 you'll hopefully go to college.

N: What's college?

Me: It's still school, but there are colleges and universities all over the country and all over the world. That's what Adrien and Shannon are doing right now. They go to school in Provo.

N: Oh. And then what number comes next?

Me: 19.

N: Okay, what happens when you're 19?

Me: Well I hope you'll go on a mission like Ian. That's what Ian did, he went to college for a year and now he's on a mission.

N: (excited laughing) Oh!

(we went on to talk about the following ages and that he'd possibly finish college at age 24 if he only did 4 years, then I told him the year after that was 25 and that's how old I was and he laughed like he didn't believe me.)

N: I think I want to go to a cheese college.

Me: What??

N: They make cheese there.

Me: I see.

N: Like... macaroni and cheese. (dissolves into laughter)

Dobby is a free elf

Adrien, Shannon, some of their friends and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 at midnight when it first came out. I took a few pictures, especially since we dressed up. Can you tell what we were? We were trying to look like witches (and a wizard) who didn't know how to dress like muggles. You know, like in the books. Not all fashion-magazine-editorial-y like in the movies.

Ian was there... sort of. =)

A few of us after the movie. It was awesome. I saw it again later with Jared.

Random things

It's been forever, again. I have no excuse you haven't heard before. Anyway, the theme of today's post is that my kids are weird. They amuse me.

Rylie today:

(singing): "It's a secret, I'm a secret, there's a secret..."

and a conversation:

(scene: Our bedroom. Jared sits in the rocking chair. Nathan thrashes around on our bed. I'm sitting at the computer and Rylie walks up to Jared.)

Rylie: No! It's my rocking chair!

Me: (I never play along, I'm the boring parent) We bought that chair before Nathan was born and you think you can just come along and say it's yours? (Obviously everyone ignores me)

Jared: It's not yours.

Rylie: It's mine! Get out.

Jared: No. I'll get you.

Rylie: Nooooooo (runs off, then returns 30 seconds later with her tin of barrettes) Here. (pause) Those my swords.

Jared: Swords? These aren't swords.

Rylie: My swords! Have them.

Jared: These are barrettes. (Then he takes them away so she can't scatter them everywhere, she protests and then forgets about the whole thing less than 10 seconds later).

And this is something Nathan did the other day: