oo-woo

Today Ashlynn was playing with a scarf from the play clothes and wrapped it around her neck.

I said, "OO-woo!"

Ashlynn: "Mama, I not naked!"

Whose Round Table?

This one is especially for my father-in-law.

This week, we've been studying about Alexander the Great. After reading a book about him and his army, Hailey, my 8 yo, came to me with this question.

Hailey: Was Alexander the Great a real person?

Me: Yes, he was.

Hailey: Hm. I didn't think he was because that would mean Merlin and the Sword in the Stone were real too, and I didn't think that was possible.

Me (stifling a laugh): Honey, I think you're getting him mixed up with King Arthur.

Hailey, smiling sheepishly: Oh, yeah.

Defeat is its own reward

Lauryn, 6yo, is not a very gracious loser. The girl hates to lose a game, and we are still learning to do so without pouting. We play a lot of math games as part of her "Kinder" math, many of which rely on rolls of dice, so are purely "luck" games. Yesterday we played such a game and I beat her by one roll of the die.

And she got that familiar pouty face. I decided to try to reason with her (yes, I now realize the futility of that, but it was worth a shot, right?).

Me: Lauryn, does anything really bad happen to you when you lose?

Lauryn: Nothing except LOSING.

Conversations with a 2 year old, verse 2

Ashlynn, now 2.5 yo, was putting the hood from the hoodie I was wearing on my head, all the way over my eyes. Then she would look at me and say:

Oh, Mama, you so cute!

Conversations with a 5 year old

Lauryn (5 yo): What's the sun made out of?
Me (trying to think of a way to simplify it for her): Gas that's on fire.
Lauryn: So it stinks?

She did not appreciate how long I laughed after she said that.

The "F" bomb

*Never fear, this is a family friendly blog and post!*

The other day, I overheard an extraordinary conversation between Lauryn (5 yo) and Hailey (7 yo). One of them was informing the other one that:

"You said the 'f' word."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did. Remember, we can't say that."

Needless to say I was starting to freak out a little. Where in the world had they heard THAT? Who had said that in front of my little girls? And how did they know to abbreviate it to just an "f"??? I was wracking my brain. They don't watch TV, only movies, and I didn't think any of our movies had that in it. Besides, neither had come to ask us if that was a bad word (we have an open policy that they can come ask us what anything means, without any punishment - if it is a word Kelly and I don't use they are supposed to ask before they use it).

The conversation went on for a time while I was trying to figure out how to play this. Should stay cool or flip out? Demand to know where they heard it, or just let them know we don't ever use that word. Then, as I listened to their conversation more, I realized the truth.

If you haven't read this post, here's an excerpt from something that happened a couple of months ago.

The last word I think will become a Smith family no-no word. Years ago, we decided not to let the older two girls use the word stupid at all. We figured that if they didn't ever use the word, they couldn't call each other things like "stupid head" that we had heard other kids call each other. And I have never heard my kids call other people stupid, so I guess in that it worked, though we've certainly slackened up on it in recent years. It did cause grandparents some problems when they would visit and use the word. ("That is a stupid thing for the president to have done." "Granddad, you said a no-no word.")

We may have to revise the no-no word list and add a new one to it. It's such a benign little word too. I think we need to add the word "fine" to the Smith banned list. You see this is how recent conversations have gone in our house.

Me: Ashlynn, come here. (She just stares at me, so I stand up to go over to her.)

Ashlynn (seeing me coming her way, starts running to me, yelling): FINE!

OR

Me: Ashlynn, go upstairs.

(She stands there, staring at me rebelliously. Then as I start heading her way...)
Ashlynn: FINE!

No, not "fine." I'll never hear that word again without hearing my two year old's voice yelling it at me.

Yes, evidently, the "f" word one of the girls had said was "fine" in front of Ashlynn. Once I figured it out, I had a good laugh. That's going to make me laugh every time someone asks me how I am and I answer "fine."

A look back

In one of the myriad of ways we are trying to help Hailey pass the time, we have pulled out old home videos that we haven't watched for years. They cover roughly the years from 1998 - 2003 or so. Plus they've watched the video of our wedding and their uncle Tony's wedding. My kids have gotten a kick out of this. Here's a smattering of what I've heard the last two days from the kids:

Your hair looked funny, Mama.

Daddy's glasses were hideous. (OK, I started that one.)

Granny's hair looks funny.

What is that weird outfit Daddy's wearing? (BTW, it was wranglers, cowboy boots, and a western shirt.)

Granddad looks so young!

Aunt Sarah's hair looks funny.

Ashlynn looks just like Kora did! (We've been saying that for two years.)

Nana's hair looks funny.

Your voice sounds different, Mama.

Ooo, Granddad had a moustache!

Hey, I remember that toy!

Look, she's wearing the same dress Lauryn is right now!

Your dresses look weird.

Mama, you! You! You! (This was Ashlynn while watching our wedding video.)

But we are all in agreement that we had the cutest girls ever. However, the girls got a little grumpy when we asked them, "So what happened?"

Conversations with a 2 year old

Well, conversation may be a bit of a stretch, but Ashlynn has definitely been jabbering away for quite a while now. And some of her speeches have us rolling in the floor, where as some are very sweet.

In the latter category, the other night she was sitting in my lap while I was watching a sad video on the computer. I was crying, and she kept looking up at me with a very concerned look on her face. Finally, she reached up and rubbed my cheek, and said, "Es wong, Mama?" (What is wrong, Mama, for those of you who don't speak 2-year-old-ish.)

But one of her sayings that has us cracking up every time is the way she says, "Excuse me." She'll bump into someone or try to get past one of us, look up at us completely serious, and say, "Skew me."

Picture taken by Hailey, our 7yo

Conversations with a 5 year old, HGTV version

The other day, Lauryn was showing me how she had her doll house set up. She told me:

"See this room? It looks crazy, doesn't it? It needs Design on a Dime."

Conversations with a 5 year old, potty version

Tonight, Hailey bought a little photo album, pink with a latch that velcros shut, kind of like diaries have the latch that locks.

Evidently, Lauryn (5 yo) thought so too. "Hailey," she exclaimed quite excitedly, "it looks like a diarrhea!"

Vocabulary words

Ashlynn was the least vocal of all my girls. She started talking later and took longer to build up her vocabulary than any of the other ones. In fact she said about 5-6 words BEFORE she ever said Mama, and she didn't say that until she was nearly 15 months old. Compared to some of the other girls who were composing stories by that time, well...

But all that is behind her, and she talks about like all two year olds now. She bosses us all around just fine. There are two relatively recent additions to her vocabulary that I wanted to mention. The first is quite cute. The second, not so much.

Ashlynn is the youngest one to learn the following word: princess. Of course, when she says it, it comes out more like "pwincess." She loves to show us all the princesses in books or on a movie (which she calls moo-bies).

The last word I think will become a Smith family no-no word. Years ago, we decided not to let the older two girls use the word stupid at all. We figured that if they didn't ever use the word, they couldn't call each other things like "stupid head" that we had heard other kids call each other. And I have never heard my kids call other people stupid, so I guess in that it worked, though we've certainly slackened up on it in recent years. It did cause grandparents some problems when they would visit and use the word. ("That is a stupid thing for the president to have done." "Granddad, you said a no-no word.")

We may have to revise the no-no word list and add a new one to it. It's such a benign little word too. I think we need to add the word "fine" to the Smith banned list. You see this is how recent conversations have gone in our house.

Me: Ashlynn, come here. (She just stares at me, so I stand up to go over to her.)

Ashlynn (seeing me coming her way, starts running to me, yelling): FINE!

OR

Me: Ashlynn, go upstairs.

(She stands there, staring at me rebelliously. Then as I start heading her way...)
Ashlynn: FINE!

No, not "fine." I'll never hear that word again without hearing my two year old's voice yelling it at me.

The Idea is....

Today during grammar, I had the following conversation with Hailey, our 7 yo. This is the child that lives in fairy land most of the time.

Me: We are talking about nouns today. Give me an example of a person.

Hailey: Ashlynn

Me: OK, now a place.

Hailey: My room.

Me: Good, now a thing in this room.

Hailey: A lamp.

Me: Good, now an idea. Remember that an idea is something we can think about in our mind but we can't see or touch.

Hailey: A unicorn flying horse.

Olympic Withdrawal

So the Olympics are over now, and I feel the same bereftness (is that a word?) that follows the end of football season. I admit to being an Olympics junkie - both summer and winter. My favorite winter sport, believe it or not, is curling. I started watching it 8 years ago, really got hooked four years ago, and sat riveted before every curling match they showed this year. Kelly is nearly as bad.

The funny thing is that the girls, at least the older two, got into it as well this year. It was funny to hear them discussing strategy, about whether they should freeze the rock or knock it out. But the funniest thing came out of Hailey, our seven year old.

In curling, the team that throws the last rock of an end (which is somewhat like an inning in baseball) has what's called the "hammer" or last rock. This is an advantage in the game. During one game, Hailey came up and asked:

"So which team has the ax?"

Poor girl, we've never let her live that down. Considering the game is played on a smooth sheet of ice, the thought of an ax involved makes it even funnier.

Too bad they only televise curling down here in Texas during the Olympics.

Lauryn, our five year old, had one that I thought was even funnier. As a friend of mine said, this falls into the "You know you live in Texas when..." category.

She came downstairs one afternoon last week after nap and glanced at the tv. I had a hockey game on at the time (as there was no curling going on at the time). She looked at the tv and then to me.

"Hmmm. Ice football."

Say wha'?

This was part of a conversation at breakfast yesterday that cracked all of us up. The girls were talking about words and their meanings.

Aubrey: Sit down and sit up both mean to sit, but mean different things. One means to sit when someone is standing and the other to sit when you're laying down. Stand up and stand down have complete different meanings that aren't related to each other at all.

Lauryn (5 yo): What does "stand down" mean?

Aubrey: "Stand down" means to surrender.

Lauryn (looking completely puzzled): In Latin?

The Sword used as a sledgehammer

The other day at lunch, Hailey (7 yo) was explaining to her sisters what she had been playing when called away to eat.

Hailey: I am the queen of everything.

One older sister: Aren't we queens of anything?

Hailey: No. I'm the queen of everything! You are all peasants.

Aubrey (11 yo): Remember, Hailey, "The FIRST shall be Last!"

Conversations with a 5 year old

A couple of days ago, Lauryn was explaining something very obvious to her older sisters. And they, thinking they were being smart, asked her sarcastically:

"So, Lauryn, how did you think of that?"

To which Lauryn very smugly replied, "My brain helped me."

Conversations with a 5 year old

Lauryn and Hailey were watching an old Blues Clues video this afternoon. Steve, the host, sings the theme song, which ends like this:

'Cause when we use our minds and take a step at a time,
We can do any THING... that we wanna do!

Then Lauryn talks back to the TV:

"No we can't, we have PARENTS!"

Conversations with a Four Year Old - The Last Installment

Lauryn asked me today, "Mama, do you have a boyfriend?"

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Lauryn told me about a dream she had the other day:

I had a dream and you were in it but you weren't my mom. You know who was my mom? That lady who at the first was the Queen of Genovia, she was my mom and we lived in Genovia (which she pronounces Genobia) and I was the princess. And you know who was my dad? Daddy! And he was at work.

[Note: She's referring to the Princess Diaries movies, which means in her dream, Daddy was married to Julie Andrews!]

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Aubrey was playing Christmas carols the other day, and asked Lauryn which one she would like to hear.

Lauryn: I want you to play "What is That Child."

["What Child is This" - man, I hope that she doesn't grow out of this now that she's about to turn 5!

Conversations with a Four Year Old

The other morning I was combing Lauryn's hair, which was extremely tangly. So I told her:

me: Lauryn, you need to stop letting those tangles get in your hair at night.

Lauryn: What?

me: You tell that pillow of yours to stop letting the tangles sneak into your hair at night.

Lauryn (laughing): Mama, that won't do!

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At breakfast another morning, one of the older girls said something that I mis-heard. When I repeated what I thought she'd said all the girls laughed at me.

Lauryn says (with her eyes cast to the ceiling with a long-suffering sigh): Mama, you need to go to the 'sylum.

Me: Excuse me?

Lauryn: You know, the 'sylum. To get new ears.

[We've been reading the Anne of Green Gables series aloud, and not too long ago the book spoke about a lady going to an asylum. I wonder if she has any idea what one really is?]

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One school day, Lauryn was in our "school room" playing on the floor rather loudly with a play telephone. The rule is that she can play in there while the older kids are doing school work if she plays quietly. If she wants to make noise she needs to go into the living room.

Me: Lauryn, if you're going to be loud, you need to go in the other room.

Lauryn (putting the telephone down to her chest as if to cover up the microphone): Shhhh, mama, I'm trying to write down an email!

Splish Splash

Lauryn (4 yo) to me yesterday: Mama, I wish I could be a mermaid.

Me: Really? What would you do if you were a mermaid?

Lauryn: I'd have fins.

Me: Yes, I know. But what would you do?

Lauryn: You know, mermaid things.