April, 2011

A couple of conversations with Michaela...

I went to pick up a prescription from Walgreens from the drive-thru, which I have never done before (I know, right?  Do I live in America?) and I used cash to pay.  The guy pushed the drawer out towards my car window and I held the bill out and it flapped in the wind.  I said,"Is this going to blow away?!"  He said,"You could slip it under the bar." 

Ah, yes, the silver bar across the end of the drawer closest to me, that is MADE FOR HOLDING YOUR MONEY DOWN.  I'm brilliant. 

I said,"Oh!  I didn't notice that."  I laughed nervously, and idiotically.  When he sent my change out I laughed again and said,"My aunt calls us 'chocolate covered blondes.'"  He smiled at that and I drove on my silly, merry way.

Then I realized my intelligent, blonde daughter was sitting in the back seat watching the whole scene.  I then tried to explain to her about dumb blonde jokes without using the word "dumb".  I said "ditzy", I believe.  She understood what I was talking about and I went on to say that she certainly didn't fit into that stereotype of being a ditzy blonde.  She smiled and said,"I know.  It's because I have a theologian dad."

(What am I?!  Chopped liver?)

***

The other night we were doing her devotional which was about how we need to wear the armor that God provides for us in order to fight the principalities and forces of this world.  The first piece we read about was the belt of truth, which is, of course, the truth that we can find in God's word.  We must know the truth in order to be equipped for the battle.  We talked a little about how there are many things that the world will try to convince us are okay, but that the Bible teaches us aren't okay.  She asked,"Like what?"

I told her that one example was that the world says it's okay to live together before you're married, but that that's not God's design for men and women, to act like they are husband and wife before they are actually husband and wife.  She understood that, and then offered up another example.

"Like insects?"

I looked at her for a minute and then realized she meant "incest".  I said,"How do you know about that?" with a little bit of a chuckle.  Imagine my surprise at her response.

"Nanny McPhee."

There is a scene in the movie where there is a case of a mistaken identity, and an old aunt or something believes that the scullery maid is a daughter of the main character when she is not; they have actually fallen in love (the main character and the scullery maid).  So, that explained the knowledge of incest (although it could have come up several times when reading Bible stories...people have been messed up for a long time, eh?). 

And of course I went on to explain that is something that most people in the world would not try to argue is okay when the Bible says it isn't.  Goodness...this is only going to get hairier, isn't it?

Thanks to the testosterone she's getting from both her dad and from me...yes, yes it is.

April 7, 2011

We were at the table eating and also playing with new homemade playdough.  Michaela moved to the other end of the table with a giant playdough roll, in order to make a snake.  She brushed many crumbs of some kind aside and I said,"What is that?!  I wiped the table clean last night!"  No one had eaten anything at the table with crumbs, just bowls of cereal so far.  She looked at it closely and said,"I think it's just orange playdough crumbs."  I said,"Okay.  Sorry.  I was just a little perplexed."  She replied,"It can get pretty perplexing around here."

March 21, 2011

From Christian:

"I wish I had sound-proof underwear."

We were playing a guessing game; one of us says,"I'm thinking of an animal that starts with the letter..."  It was my turn to think of an animal, and I said,"I'm thinking of an animal that starts with the letter 'l'."  He guessed lion, leopard, and then asked for more hints.  I told him they lived in our backyard.  He said,"What?!"  Then he said,"Where else do they live?"  I told him they were everywhere.  He had a guess immediately..."Leprochauns!"  Of course.

(It was lizards.)

March 18, 2011

Eliana tonight at bedtime:

"How does a kitty say monkey in Spanish?"

Eliana:  (fussing, fussing, fussing about being hungry)

Me:  It's bedtime, which is sleeptime.  It's not time to eat.

Eliana:  But I'm hungry!  (fussing, whining, fussing)

Me:  Be quiet and go to sleep.

Eliana:  I am not going to sleep!

Me (trying to remain calm and kind):  Be quiet then.

Eliana:  I will not be quiet!  I am going to be noisy! Bababablahbahgahgahgahdahdanahnahgahgahgahboodeedoobahbahnoooneeenaaahhnoooneeebahbahbah!!!

(I kid you not.) (The only reason she stopped all that nonsense is because Christian came in the room to ask me a question.)

March 17, 2011

I was sitting down in the living room reading a book while the kids were playing upstairs.  Christian came down to ask me something but as soon as he walked into our living room he stopped short and said,"What are you doing?"

I said,"I'm reading."

He said,"What?!"  He looked bewildered.  He went on,"I've never seen you read before!  I mean, by yourself."

I read to them most nights, but I guess I never sit around with a book.  I am not even sure if he asked me whatever he came down to ask.

March 8, 2011

Eliana said a little part of the Hokie Pokie at the table and I asked her where she heard that song.  She told me her class.  So, we started singing the Hokie Pokie, with Michaela doing the motions.  After she had done her left arm and her right arm I burst into a solo, alternative verse.  When I was done Eliana said,"I'm going to tell my teachers that you know how to do the Hokie Pokie."  I think she was impressed. 

March 1, 2011

Eliana was drawing on her MagnaDoodle and made a picture of me.  She looked at me and said,"You have two chins."  Sure enough, there were two upside rainbow shapes under my mouth. 

February 25, 2011

Michaela and I have been doing devotions at night from a new book that I really like.  It tends to go a little deeper than the one we began last year.  Tonight's devotion was about whether or not we, as girls, obsess about our appearance.  There was a list of questions regarding the topic, meant to help us realize if we were thinking a bit too much about outward things/our bodies.  I shared with her that sometimes I worried about fitting in here, and at our church, because I don't dress fancy like many of the ladies or wear makeup and stuff.  She said,"That's because you look good without it."

She is a sweet girl.  I think I need to get her to the eye doctor right away, though.  haha

February 14, 2011

Some gems from my daughters:

Eliana:  Mommy, will you play with me?
Me:  I can't sweetie, I have some work to do.
Eliana:  Mommy!  Playing is working!

Michaela was doing some math, which she does not like.  I told her I was going to go put some laundry away, which I don't like, and then come back and check on her and read to her.  She said, without skipping a beat,"I like to put laundry away.  Wanna trade?" and pushed her math workbook towards me.

February 2, 2011

Christian came in our room to ask me if I would play a game with him while Mike and the girls were getting lunch from Sonic.  He was like,"Please?" and then,"We can start it," and,"a really quick game!"  All of a sudden he stopped and stared at the side of my head and at the same time said,"Your ears are small!  They're as small as mine."

He makes me laugh.  He's as random as I am, and as distractable.

January 2010

And here are a couple of quotes from Michaela recently...

-We were sitting around the dinner table, Christian, Michaela, Eliana, and I, waiting for Mike and our friend Scott (who is staying with us for a bit) to return home.  We went ahead and began eating without them, since I wasn't sure exactly when they would be back.  Christian fussed,"When are they gonna be baaaack?"  I told him I didn't know, they probably got caught up in something and lost track of time.  Michaela followed up my statements with a knowing look and said,"They're men."

-Tonight she finished writing in her journal, and came downstairs for a quick bite to eat before going to bed.  She peeled a banana and sat down next to me with a thoughtful look on her face.  She said,"How can some people not like chocolate?"  I am sorry to say that I don't have a good answer for this puzzling question.  It is beyond my imagination!

January 2010

Here are a few quotes from Eliana so far this year.  She cracks me up daily.

-"Mom, you're great."  (I beg to differ, but it was sweet to hear.)

-I was reading The Best Nest and came to the part where Mr. Bird is flying sadly around in a storm, thinking that Mrs. Bird had been eaten by a cat.  Suddenly he crashes into something.  (I meant to take a picture of the page, at Mike's mom's...shoot!)  The illustration is of Mr. Bird hitting something that you can't see, but what you do see is a bright yellow, comic-book like "crash" symbol.  She said,"It was a star!" indicating with her tone that it couldn't be more obvious.

-She finished her Chocolate Cheerios and said,"Mom, it's chocolate milk!" as she looked into her bowl.  I said,"You have chocolate milk?!"  She looked at me with her eyebrows raised, head tilted to the side, her explaining face, and said,"It got made from my Chocolate Cheerios." 

-After spending a couple of nights in our new house, and in her new (pink!) room, she looked at me and said contentedly,"This is just the house I wanted."

-In a conversation I could overhear between Eliana and Christian, she said,"You have to trust me.  Will you trust me?"

-Driving home in the car today, she just had socks on (no shoes).  I could see her face in the rear-view mirror and she looked pretty somber.  She said to me,"Mommy.  I am having some trouble with my socks."

December 23, 2010

Cousin J drew a picture on his MagnaDoodle and asked Eliana what it was.

She immediately responded,"A carrot!"

He said,"No!  Why would you say it was a carrot?!"  Then he explained,"It's a zucchini."

December 2, 2010

This isn't exactly a quote, but it's a funny short story.  I was writing my post last night and needed a synonym.  I often look up synonyms on google...reading the same word over and over is boring.  I clicked onto a tab that was already open and then clicked our "home page" button, which is the google search page.  In that millisecond before the screen changed from one site to the other I noticed an ad at the top of the old page, and it was for something about Narnia.  Well, I couldn't not see what that was about!  I hit my "back" button and waited for the ad to run again.  It was a series of banners, one faded into the next one, and what caught my eye was "Return to Narnia".  Could it be?!  Yes!  It was an ad for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!  I was excited to see that this was coming out, and soon. 

I went back to the google search page and stared at the screen for a few seconds.  I thought to myself,"What was I going to look up?"  I remembered it was a synonym...what was the word?  Then it came back to me..."distraction".

November 11, 2010

Shakespeare, interpreted by Eliana:

Bubble, bubble, toilet trouble!