Favorite Animals and Evolution

Adrian: Gorilla

Jonas: Elephant...and gorilla

Annabel: Ducks, baby ducks, baby goats, otters, and penguins


Adrian: "Do you know what animal I have inside of me?"

Jonas: "What?"

Adrian: "A gorilla. And also an ape."

Merry Christmas

Adrian sings: “Jingle bells Batman smells, Robin laid an egg / the Batmobile lost its wheel and the Joker got away, Hey!”

Jonas sings: “Jingle bells…Robin smells…Batman runned away…Robin lost his wheel and splatted in the hay, Hey!”

Adrian: (laughs)

Jonas: “Stop laughing!” (sings the same thing again)

Adrian: (laughs)

Jonas: “Stop laughing! Seriously! Stop laughing!” (sings again) “OK, now you can laugh.”

Adrian: “Now I don’t want to laugh.”

Jonas: “Mama, when can we go apple picking again in the forest?”

Me: “Oh, not until next fall, honey. We have to wait for the apples are ready to be picked.”

Jonas: “Yep. We can go strawberry picking because I love strawberries.”

Adrian: “Yeah, and I will pick all the strawberries and eat all of them myself.”

Jonas: “What about your family? You should pick some strawberries for your grandma and grandpa and your mom.”

Adrian: “Oh. Yeah, I’ll bring one for my grandma, one for my grandpa, one for my mom and one for my dad.”

Jonas: “What about your cousins?”

Adrian: “Yeah, them too. Except I don’t like one of my cousins. I only like two.”

Jonas: “Who don’t you like?”

Adrian: “No, I have three cousins and I like two of them, but not the other one.”

Jonas: “But which one don’t you like? What’s there name?”

Adrian: “Jacob.”

Me: “What?! You love Jacob! Did you get in an argument?”

Adrian: “Yeah. He makes me do stuff all the time, every day of my life, and I’m sick of it!”

Me: “Oh. Like what kind of stuff does he tell you to do?”

Adrian: “I don’t know. Everything. And I’m sick of it.”

Me: “Oh.”

Jonas: “Did you smash him with a sword?”

Adrian: “No, but that’s a good idea.”

Adrian

Adrian and Jonas were playing "waiter" again this afternoon. (They tuck Superman capes into the waists of their shorts and prepare food for one another using our plastic kitchen, as well as the grill AJ created for them out of paper, markers, and a piano bench.)

Adrian: (to Annabel) "May I take your order please?"

Annabel: (giggling) "For my main meal, I would like some peace and quiet, and for my dessert I would like two little boys who pick up all their toys."

Adrian: "Well, we don't have that."

Adrian

As I rubbed sunscreen onto Adrian's face, he asked "Can you get moon-burned?"

Just a Light Lunch

The kids were eating lunch on the porch, chattering away about this and that, while I swept the living room. Suddenly Adrian called "Annabel! Did Jonas used to have a dad?" Lord. I went out and sat down with them. With the approaching birth of this new baby, I've been wondering if it would bring up paternity-related questions from Jonas. I've been preparing my answers, but didn't expect I would be answering these questions through Adrian instead of Jonas!

Me: "What was your question, Adrian?"

Adrian: "Did Jonas used to have a dad?"

Me: "Well, there are all different kinds of dads. Everyone has a mom and a dad they're born from. Some people live with both their mom and their dad. Some people's mom and dad live in two different places. Sometimes they spend more time with their mom than their dad, or more time with their dad than their mom. There are moms and dads you're born from, and sometimes there are different moms or dads who take care of you.

Jonas: "My dad is Oliver."

Me: "Actually, Oliver is your uncle. You have a dad you were born from, but he doesn't live with us--"

Adrian: "That's like me! I live with my mom and my dad lives someplace else!"

Me: "Yes, except Jonas' dad has never met him. And now he has AJ, who is another kind of dad. He takes care of him, and comforts him, and helps him grow up."

Adrian: "Why hasn't Jonas' dad ever met him?"

Me: "Because he can't take care of him in the way a little boy needs to be taken care of. Sometimes people have babies, but they still don't know how to take care of them."

Adrian: "Do you know how to take care of a baby?"

Me: "Yes."

Adrian: "Why?"

Me: "Because I'm lucky."

Adrian: (laughs) "Because you took care of Jonas when he was a baby. Just like my mom knows how to take care of a baby because she took care of me when I was a baby."

Me: "That's right! Families come in all different ways. Do you have any more questions?"

At that point, Max let out a huge fart, which got them all giggling hysterically and changed the subject. After lunch, during story time, I read them a little book called "Who's in a Family?" It explains all different kinds of family arrangements in kid-friendly terms, ending with "Who's in a family? The people who love you the most!"

Whew! How did I do?

Max's English Words (a list in progress)

• Hi!
• Bye!
• Cookie (mimicks Cookie Monster eating a cookie)
• All done
• Yay!
• Car
• Toy
• I want this (points to a toy on the shelf, or in a picture)
• I want that one
• Mama (anyone who feeds him)
• Papa
• Jonas
• AJ
• A-bew (Annabel)
• No
• Whoa!
• Choo choo (train)
• Big truck
• Pizza

Added 6/1/07:

• Digger
• Cool
• Mine
• Bus

6/21/07

Max's vocabulary has multiplied incredibly over the last few weeks. It's now difficult to identify all his new words, because there are more every day! Here are some that come to mind:

• More peas, please!
• Water
• I want to go outside
• Poopy
• Peepee
• Thomas (as in Thomas the Train. Max says this instead of "train.")
• Team work
• Clean up
• Broken
  

Adrian

Adrian: (to me) "I love Buzz Lightyear more than you guys do."

Adrian

Lunch time often produces the best conversation. I don't write these things down enough!


Adrian: "Do you know what pathetic means?"

Annabel: "Yes."

Adrian: "Funny? And pointy?"

Adrian & Jonas

Jonas and Adrian had a discussion about whether or not super heroes are grownups.

Jonas: (playing with Legos, trying to keep them to himself) "No, Adrian. These only for gwomups." (grownups)

Adrian: "But I'm Batman."

Jonas: "Batman not a gwomup."

Adrian: "Yes, Batman is a super hero."

Jonas: "Superheros not gwomups."

Adrian: "Yes, they are."

Jonas: "Nope."

Adrian: "Annabel, are super heroes grownups?"

Annabel: "Usually they are... and they always share Legos."

Adrian

Adrian was daydreaming in a swing at Barry Park (the child can swing, and daydream for that matter, for hours,) as I pushed.

Adrian: "I wish I had twenty arms. No, twenty-one arms."

Annabel: "Twenty-one arms? Wow, that's a lot of arms! What would you do with twenty-one arms?"

At this point, Adrian looked at me as if I was stupid and said:

"I would pick up lots of stuff."

Of course he would.

Adrian

Adrian: "Jacob (his cousin) says he likes carrots more than me, and I say I like carrots more than him."

Annabel: "Ahh, the great debate."

Adrian: "What?"

Annabel: "The great debate."

Adrian: (no answer)

Adria

Alyssa (Adria and Lila Mae's mommy) emailed me this one and I had to include it.

Lila Mae was sleeping, so Alyssa and Adria were trying to do quiet things around the house.

Alyssa: "Adria what sound does a cow make?"

Adria: "Moooo!!!"
Alyssa: "Good Adria. What sound does a horse make?"
Adria: "Neigh!!!"
Alyssa: "Shhh...Lila Mae is sleeping, honey. What sound does a quiet horse make?"
Adria: "Shhhh!!!"

Adrian

We now have a naughty spot: a little patch of floor next to the buffet in the dining room I use as a last resort whenever someone's behavior outsmarts all other techniques. Lately, Jonas has found himself in the naughty spot several times a day ;-)

Adrian asked for some clarification on this system and I was explaining that it is a quiet place where you sit and reflect about your behavior and what you did that was wrong, and then we talk about it. This inspired the following exchange:

Adrian: "Sometimes I like to sit and think about me, not what I did. I just like to think about myself."

Annabel: "What kinds of things do you think?"

Adrian: "Loving. Sometimes I think about loving. And sometimes about not loving. And sometimes..." (he jumps up, spreads his arms and makes an explosion noise) "I fly. I fly way up in the sky. That's when I'm using my imagination. I dream. When I dream I like to fly in the sky."

Adrian

After swimming at Thornden Pool with Jonas and Adrian, I was buckling the boys into the van to head back home.

Annabel: "You guys did such a great job swimming. I'm so proud of you."

Adrian: "What did you say?"

Annabel: "I was very proud of you in the pool. You did a great job."

Adrian: "And you did a great job holding me."

Adrian

This was on a hot afternoon last week when I was drying my face with a towel, after splashing cold water on my head.

Adrian: "Wow, you look really nice right now."

Annabel: "I do? Thank you."

Adrian: "Yeah, without your glasses on, you look beautiful, but not with your glasses on."

Adrian

Adrian: "I go to work."

Annabel: "You do? Where do you work?"

Adrian: "I go here to your house, and I go to school."

Must be rough working two jobs at the age of three!

Olivia

After Jonas did something naughty (knocked all the electronics off the top of the TV):

Olivia: started singing the theme from Cops "Bad boy, bad boy, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you."

Adria

At Webster Pond:

Adria: "Duckyduckyduckyduckyduckyducky. Duck."

Olivia

On the Monday after her brother Justin's birthday party:

Annabel: "Did you have fun at Justin's party?"
Olivia: "Yes. I ate it."