Slices of Life, Vol XIX

Our first little slice can be the kids in their Halloween costumes.  Better late than never.  Although never would probably be fine.

They decided on being Octonauts, characters from their favorite Netflix cartoon.  It was creative and fun and so unique that no one knew who they were.  Like the guy at Krispy Kreme who asked if Daphne was a nurse.

Dashi Dog, Kwasii Kitten, & a Vegimal

For some more slices...here are a few Recent Conversations with Daphne:

(She was playing with my calculator.)
D: "Where did you get this?"
M: "I've had it since I was in school."
D: "Oh, so it's an antique?"
M:
D: "Well, I thought antiques were things that were old!"

D: "Will we be in the history books someday?"
M: "Maybe if you do something amazing, like become president of the United States."
D: "Or invent a corn station?"
M: "What's a corn station?"
D: "A place where everyone can get a corn sandwich."

(Days later)
D: "So if I become president does that mean I get to make all the rules?"

We had just completed a unit on the medieval times for history.  As we were doing the review questions, one question asked "what do you call a person who works for someone else in order to learn their trade?"
D: "A gangster?"
The answer is apprentice.  

Overheard Between Daphne and Christian:

(While playing with David's walkie talkies)
D: "Do you copy?"
C: "Yes, I want coffee."

C: "I got to watch Octonauts with Mommy!"
D: "I got to go to Bible study and see Papa and eat chocolate!"
C: "Then I'm not going to play with you until you're seven!"

back when they were still playing together

Jonas has a lot to say these days, too, especially when it comes to food.  And cheering for food.  He'll say "More apple? Yay!" Or, "More crackers? Yay!"  Sometimes he just cheers for himself:  "Yay Joe!" 

Lola! Yay!

A few weeks ago we couldn't find Jonas anywhere in the house.  He was straight up totally lost.  Finally David went into the dark big kids' bedroom and there he was, sitting on the top bunk, silent and happy.  We didn't know he could climb the ladder, nor did we know he liked playing in dark rooms by himself.

Now we know both of those things. 

Slices of Life, Vol XVIII

When planting the garden this Spring, the kids and I had a little discussion on the necessities for getting seeds to grow.  This talk was mainly geared toward Christian, with his penchant for stabbing sticks at our newly planted seeds, or throwing rocks at them, or jumping on them...you see the picture of his gentleness, I'm sure.

I said, "Seeds need three things to grow: good soil, sun, and water.  They do not need little boys digging them up."

Daphne piped right in to say, "They also need a fourth thing.  They need you to sing to them."

Singing to the plants is up to her if she feels it needs to be done. From time to time I find her singing to her one special pot that she planted full of succulents. They seems healthy enough, I guess.  Nothing spectacular.

When I brought home basil to plant, she asked what it was.

"A basil," I said.
"A bagel?"
"No, a basil"
"Abasil?"
"Just basil."
"So what do we do with it? Does it grow us bagels?"

discovering the peas

old picture...everything is way, way bigger now

After bath the other night Christian held up this book for me and said in a most solemn voice, "Look, Mom, this book is about toilets."

Fortunately I had the camera with me, because we wouldn't want to forget a touching moment like that. 

How Jonas feels about water:

Hates it.

I'll leave you with two Life Tips by Christian:

"If there's red on you that means it's blood. Or color crayon. If it's moving, you know it's blood. If it's not, you know it's color crayon."

"If you get lost why don't you just use the guy in Daddy's new phone to tell you which way to go?"

Slices of Life, Vol XVIII

Warning! A few of these, I mean most of these, are totally gross, because Christian is totally gross.  Many of them are rather violent and are aimed at me which is definitely frightening.

"The whole of you is a meatball so I'm going to eat all of you!"

"MOM! Jonas has GREEN SNOT!  Oh, but I like green."

Christian: "Can we have cereal?"
Me: "No"
Christian: "But I like cereal! And cookies and ice cream and...chocolate!"

"I'm going to clean my nose everyday, OK Mom?  With my finger."

"I'm going to cut you in half, Mom, and then I am going to eat you."

"I spy with my little eye something big and hairy. It's you, Mama!"

(He's got some beat-boxing skills that he's been perfecting.)
"I have a musical in my mouth!  I have a piano in my mouth...and a drum in my mouth!"

"Sometimes people puke, right Mom? And sometimes they laugh.  And sometimes people have hook-ups*!"

*hiccups

Slices of Life, Vol XVII

Christian and I were walking around the yard looking at flowers.
Me:  "This one is a daffodil!"
Christian:  "Are there any Christian-dills?"

Peeking out the window one night Christian asked, "Did someone cut the moon in half?"

David wanted to fix Christian's hair.
David: "C'mon, buddy, let's do your hair."
Christian: "No, because I am not a girl."

I found Christian looking through a book.  

He said, "This is the Bible.  It tells us...what does it tell us? Does it tell us what time it is?"

After some obviously much-needed explaining, he continued on,

"God made allll the arks.  And God put all the animals on it.  And there were snakes and chocolate monkeys!  Right mom?  They make chocolate."


He and I were sitting together one day and I said, "Tell me something nice."  (Too low to fish for compliments I am not.)
He said, "You're pwetty like a pwincess.  I'm going to call you pwincess."
And quite often now he does. 

I was helping Christian take his vest off after we got home from Awana.
Me: "Don't pull it off, it will rip.  Do you want it to rip?"
Christian: "Yeah."
Me: "Why?  Don't you want to go to Awana anymore?"
Christian: "No, I just want to sneak into class and get the treats."

Daphne was asking questions about the Star of Bethlehem while driving home one evening.  Suddenly Christian pipes up with a shocked voice:  "Bethlehem is REAL??!  I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!!"
We told him yes, and everything he was learning in Bible Study was real, because the Bible is real. 
"Moses was REAL??  The Israelites are REAL?  I DIDN'T KNOW THAT! Moses as a baby was REAL?  I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!"
He was getting louder and louder and so emphatic; there's no way to accurately write the way he was talking.
It was a real come-to-Jesus moment, that's for sure.

At the taking of this photo, he was saying, "I really like this rocking chair. I'm going to die in this chair."

After a rushed trip to Costco at 5:00 on a Saturday evening...best time for a Costco run, for sure.
Me: "We were really fast, weren't we?"
Daphne: "Yeah, but not as fast as the wind."

Daphne asked: "How long would it take to get to the moon?  Five Wickeds?"
(As in the soundtrack to the musical; we often listen to it and other Broadway soundtracks on long drives because the kids love them so much.)
Me: "No, more like 1000 Wickeds."
Daphne: "Oh, then I don't want to go."

Daph and Christian were arguing one morning when I heard her tell him, "Buddy, you are making this day worse than it's ever been."

David and the big kids got to go to a Winterhawks game with our neighbors.  Daphne is now the Winterhawks' number one fan.  The morning after the game David asked who wanted to go to the store with him.  She said, "I will, if you buy me a hockey stick."

Slices of Life, Vol VX

CHRISTIAN

(Christian found a purple moon shaped Lucky Charms marshmallow on the floor.)
"Look!  I found a golden pretzel!"

Sometimes feeding him can be such a battle.  I set his supper plate in front of him and he said,
"This will make my tummy hurt my feelings."

(I was holding Jonas)
"I can't see Jonas because he is too little!  Jonas is too small, Mom!"

He told me recently,
"It's so nice at our new big house!  We can do so many fun things here, like go poo and go to the bathroom!"

It's hard to get pictures of Christian these days, but here he is doing something to Lola while Lola is obviously thrilled about it.  

DAPHNE

(We're trying to get into the habit of getting all toys put away before David gets home so that our evenings can be spent hanging out with him instead of the pulling of teeth that is getting them to clean.)
Me: "If you pick up toys now, then when Daddy gets home we'll have time to do other fun stuff."
Daphne: "Maybe we can sing songs like we're a tiny choir?"

(Daph loves hosting parties and particularly making sure the people coming will have a good time)
"We can have a party with all our friends and have packs of gum!"

(I was trying to distract the kids from laughing and being gross about Winnie the Pooh's name)
Daphne: "Why is it Winnie the 'Pooh?'"
Me: "It's his name, it's not the yucky poo."
Daphne: "Oh, it's just the smell good poo?"

Daphne told me:
"I'm going to be in the para-Olympics and the Olympics so I need to go live out in New York City."

(We were discussing the BSF lesson)
Me: "What was your story about today?"
Daphne: "Moses came down from the mountain and the people were worshiping a calf."
Me: "Well, that's pretty silly."
Daphne: "No Mom, it wasn't silly, it was very bad."

Daph got a new hat from Papa's work.  Most days as we're heading out the door I'll here her mutter, "Oh, I forgot my hat" and dash upstairs to grab it.   It's fine because it's better than the AWANA vest.

JONAS

Now, what is this?!  A video?  Welcome to 2015, people.  I realize a video of a baby blabbering is kind of a bore...but still.  Watching it makes me want to eat his darling little face. 

This video was taken a month or so ago and his vocabulary skills have improved greatly since.  Lots of impressive consonants now. 

Slices of Life, Vol XIV

*Driving past Bonneville Dam:
Daphne: Is that a bridge?
David: Nope, it's a dam.
Daphne: Oh, it's a dam bridge?
David and Melissa:

*While watching me cook supper:
Daphne: What are you doing?
Me: I'm grating cheese.
Daphne: Grating? What's grating?  Are you making the cheese dead?

*Daphne: "Someday all the old people at our church are gonna die!  And then some new people will come!"

*After seeing inside Papa's beehive and then noticing the hexagon tile in our bathroom Daphne said, "Our floor looks like honey holders!"  (We've since taught her the word for 'honeycomb.')

*While we lived in our rental, our neighbors used to sit in their windows and stare at us while we were in our backyard.  Sometimes 5,6 people at a time.  It was strange.  So one day Daphne said, "Maybe when we live in our new big house we can stare at OUR neighbors!"  (Now that we live here, we don't do any unusual staring.)

*Daphne: "Daddy is going to let me visit jail so I can see the bad guys.  And I will say to the bad guys, 'You naughty bad guys, you are going to stay in jail until you learn to follow God and your Heavenly Father!'"

*Daphne got on the phone with David and said, "Hi Dad! I'm playing with needles but I'm being careful!"  Then she hung up.  (Nothing to fear when Mom is in charge, obviously.)

*Daph loves to be crafty and Jonas gets the benefits:

Slices of Life, Vol XIII

A few recent favorites from Christian:

*We were at home with the Nat King Cole station playing on Pandora.
Christian:  "Can we go inside the music?"
Me: He asks this a lot and I never really know how to respond.  "Nope, sorry buddy."
Christian: "Is it because it's dark in there?"

*I asked him if he likes babies.
"No, I don't like babies. I like chocolate that I can eat." 

*BUT, I think he is more into feeling and watching the baby move than his sister is.  Yesterday, after getting kicked by the baby a few times, he asked if he could "bomp the baby."  I didn't know what he meant, but then I noticed his hand in a fist...so I went the safe route and said no to bomping.  Last night he prayed, "fank you I feel the baby movin'."  How sweet is that?

*He's pure boy in how entertaining he finds bodily functions and noises.  The other day he ran up to tell me, "Mom!  It's tooting time!"  He was so excited.

*But then he says things like, "I like those shoes because they make me looks like a pwincess."  

*It warmed my heart when he told me "I want to go to Gwamma's house and ride a tractor with my friend Mommy."

*Then it did the opposite of warm my heart when he said, "Mom, you're big and huge."

Daphne told me the other day that she's decided she's not going to be funny anymore.  I totally don't believe her because she's still making me laugh every day.

Like...

*"If you marry your brother then you only have to worry about one grandma!"

*"Did you know the Bible says when kids grow up then their mama and daddy become grammas and papas?"

*She likes the baby, too:

"wake up and come out, baby!"

kisses

Sliced of Life, Vol VII

*The kids are sharing a room in our rental and will continue to share when we move into 'the big house,' as Daphne usually calls it.  We set up D's bumble bed and C's crib, but Christian kept asking to sleep in the bumble bed until finally maybe 3 nights into our move we let him have the top bunk.  (Daph has decided she wants the bottom now.) A night or two of that and he just plain wanted to share Daphne's bed with her.  For as snuggly as she is, she did not appreciate his wanting to share a pillow at night.

So the compromise of the blanket curtain was born and now they are both happy.  Although at bedtime I have to say to Christian "do not bite Daphne's toes," because he likes to do that.

*Christian calls restaurants 'nummy houses.'  We've been going to a lot of nummy houses recently.

*Although our house sale closed on Friday, our money didn't land in our bank until yesterday.  Yesterday afternoon also happened to be the first afternoon since we moved that we didn't have plans, so it officially became Celebration Evening.  We bought bar stools at Ikea and went to Red Robin, the kids' favorite restaurant.  Nothing more festive than that combination.  A teeny tiny baby and his family happened to be sitting in the booth next to us, so I pointed him out to Christian.  He said, "Yucky, that's gross."  It appears we have a lot of work to do to prepare him for our new baby. 

*Speaking of babies, he also thinks that since there is a baby in my tummy, clearly that means I ate a baby with my mouth.  Maybe that's why he thinks babies are gross?

*During our bedtime prayers I ask the kids what they want to pray about.  Daphne usually asks that God will keep her safe from nightmares and that He will heal everyone's owies, and Christian asks to pray for pirates.  So we pray that all the pirates will learn to love Jesus, because I think most pirates are kind of bad people and it seems a little Jesus in their lives wouldn't hurt?  I'm not sure. 

*This morning on our way to BSF Daphne told me that Daddy is her favorite person in our family because she just likes people with short hair and people with beards.  I lose on both accounts, I guess.

*Out of the blue the other morning Daph asked, "Are there still marigolds on this earth?"  I had no idea where she was going with that question.  I know she loves marigolds, so maybe she was concerned because she doesn't see them around right now because it's winter?  I asked her what she meant.

"Marigolds are the good things God does," she said.  "I learned that at Bible study.  So are there still marigolds on this earth?"

Miracles.  Are there still miracles on this earth.

You betcha, sweet girl.  May your eyes and heart always be sensitive to recognizing God's hand in your life. 

Slices of Life, Vol XI

Brought to you by the one and only Daphne Faith:


"I need a little tractor for me with a trailer so I can pull bananas and stuff."


"Did you cut up my paper that I painted?  I didn't want you to do that!  I will miss it!"


"Will your hair turn white when you get old?"
Me:  "I don't know, probably."
"But I like your hair the way it is!!"
 (And then she started crying.)


She saw a 'no smoking' sign at the MAX stop and asked what it meant. 
I tried to explain, "Have you ever seen someone with little things like sticks in their mouths with smoke coming out?"
She answered, "I've only seen Daddy do that."  
(WHAT???)


We were in the car, Daphne's favorite place for some non-stop chatter.
Me: "Hey Daph, how about you stop talking for awhile?"
Her:  "But I want to talk!  Can I talk?"
Me:  "OK, but I'm done answering for a little while so you'll have to just talk to yourself."
Without missing a beat she turned to Christian,
"Christian, what do you want to do tonight?  Do you want to go to sleep and then wake up and we can change minds?"


"I want to be a grandma when I grow up."


"If I could have a little vacuum I could clean up the whole city."


First time going to work (court) with Daddy; she said it was pretty boring:

Working hard on something:

Slices of Life Vol X

A Typical Afternoon:
Daph was working on an art project while Christian chased Lola around with the baby stroller.  Christian and Daphne were both happy.  Lola was sad.

(Sorry about the space...it won't go away for me.)

 

never been happier

A few lovelies that Daphne has given us recently:

*"Another day you and I can go to a place and cut people's hair.  We will wash their hair and cut it.  Then Daddy will help and we will put sparklies in their hair."  

*"Where are the scissors with the black handle?  We need to find them.  When Daddy comes home he will find them.  Because he is amazing."

*"Jesus, thank you for Erin, Kyle and Addie and all the Albany people, and thank you that Christian takes a nap."

*"Did the bees make that honey for you?  That's so nice that the bees did that."

*Daph: "Can I have a gummy bear?"
  Me:  "Umm, no."
  Daph:  "Is that a question for Daddy?"


An Impromptu Interview with Daph:

Me:  "Where you do you like to go?"
Daphne:  "To Addie's house and Adelle's house."
M:  "What is your favorite food?"
D:  "Pears and peaches and bananas and tomatoes and oranges and corn."
M:  "What are your favorite types of clothes to wear?"
D:  "Hello Kitty clothes."
M:  "What do you like to do?"
D:  "Paint and cook."
M:  "And what is your favorite show?"
D:  "Veggie Tales!"


Most mornings after breakfast I turn on music in the living room and the kids have themselves a dance party.  The same stuffed animal dance partners are included at each dance session.

Even though she was just dressing to go outside to play, Daphne was insistent upon wearing a bow in her hair.  She may look nothing like me but at least she inherited my love for all things pretty.

When you ask Christian what a lion says he'll give you a little lion growl.  He sounds just like a tiny lion cub and it makes him very squeezable and cute.  He also likes to look pretty. 

this photo is horrifying to David

 

Slices of Life, Vol IV

This edition of Slices of Life contains some favorite gems that Daphne has come up with recently. 


*Daphne was reading off her list of things to do for the day:

"First we'll go to Fred Meyer's, then we'll go to [her friend's] house, then we'll come home and watch a show."

The recipe for a good day in her eyes, apparently.



*Daph's getting really good at identifying specific musical instruments in a song.  The other day while out running errands a piece of music came on the radio and we started playing our "Let's ID the Instruments!" game.  (Best car game ever.)

Daphne: "Is that the guitar?"
David: "Nope, that's the trumpet, like what Daddy plays."
After a long, long pause, Daphne said, "I play the microphone."

Now if you ask her what instrument she plays she will tell you she plays the microphone.



*She asked me the other day, "Is your hair strong like in the Bible?"

(Name that Bible story!)



*When Daphne told me this summer that she "only goes to the bathroom in the toilet and in the grass" I knew that someone other than myself was teaching her about toileting locations, since I've always emphasized the importance of using only a toilet. 



*The concept of time is confusing for any child, and when Daphne told me "I will have those later yesterday for my birthday" I really had no idea when she was talking about.



*Ever letting her imagination run wild, especially when it comes to pretending what she can be, she told me "I'm an f-15 girl.  I need to go to the airport to take off."  Also, you can tell that there is much talk in our house about airplanes.



*Daph got into a little trouble the other day and so was spending some time out time in her bed.  When I went in to get her she appeared to be missing, but on closer inspection I found that she had taken the pillow out of the pillowcase and climbed inside the case.  It was a pretty good hiding place.



*David: "Tomorrow I think we'll go outside and you can help me pick up pine cones."
Daphne: "I don't want to go outside.  I want to stay inside and help mommy and talk about stuff."
Me: "Oh really?  What are we going to talk about?"
Daphne: "Bananas.  And animals.  Banana animals."



*And finally, I heard Daph hollering about putting a headband on Christian so that his hair would stay out of his eyeballs.  I grabbed the camera and found this scene in the bathroom:

The big sis dressing up the little bro has officially begun.  And it seems as if Christian is quite pleased with the arrangement.

Slices of Life, Vol VIII

Daphne Gives Advice

David:  What should Daddy be for Trick Or Treat?

Daphne:  Umm.  I don't know.  Maybe a pumpkin.

David:  What about Mommy?

Daphne shakes her head:  No, you can't be Mommy.

David: (much laughter) What should Mommy be for Trick Or Treat?

Daphne:  Mommy can be an elephant. 


Daphne Makes My Heart Happy

Daphne likes to bring me her little Bible and say, "I want to learn.  You teach me."

Then she sits in front of me, I hold the Bible up so she can see the pages, and she learns.
 














Christian Cannot Be Fooled

I wanted to take a shower one morning, but since Christian LOVES taking a bath, as soon as he heard the water running he came crawling to the bathroom as fast as his little arms could propel him.  Hoping to draw him out so that I could shower in peace, I went to Daph's room and grabbed a musical toy (another love) and turned it on in the living room.  When he wasn't making an appearance I went into the bathroom to find him, and there he was, still in his prized spot at the bathtub, but dancing to the music that he could hear from the living room.  Dancing is also a great love in his life, but clearly not beloved above bath-taking.


Christian Learns to Talk

Christian:  Airplane!
 
Me: Christian, say 'Daphne.'

C:  (chuckle, chuckle)  Airplane!

M:  Say 'Daph.'

C:  Da.

M:  Yay!!  Say 'Daph.'

C:  Airplane! Airplane! 

M:  Say, 'mama.'

C:  Mama!  Aiplane!

M:  Say, 'Daph.'

C:  (chuckle, chuckle)  Airplane!  Airplane!  Airplane!

He crawls off and finds a toy airplane and flies it around his head.

C:  Airplane!  Airplane!

(Most of our conversations revolve around airplanes.)


Christian Makes My Heart Happy

One recent morning when David came upstairs, Christian spotted him and launched into a full-on happy-to-see-daddy dance.  It's a good moment when your baby gets old enough to do a happy dance out of joy from seeing you.

~photos by Angi Carmen Photography

Slices of Life, Vol VI

1.  David and Daphne like to snuggle up and read about the Avengers.

2.  Christian likes to sit around looking handsome, which is good, because we like our babies handsome.  (And sullen.)

3.  Sometimes (and this is hard for me) I have to say yes to the mess and let them build a tent in the living room, just because it makes them happy.

4.  Sometimes David and Daphne read about the Avengers in the tent.

5.   I went to get Daphne from her nap the other day and found she had stripped herself down and put her swimsuit on. Too bad it was 60 degrees out.

6.   The other night I got crafty and made some magnets using washi tape, where the end result make the magnets looks like strips of tape on the fridge.  So cute (thanks, Pinterest, and this link here in particular!).  The next day I was so happy to show David my creation.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Look at these cool magnets I made.  They look like tape!

David: Tape?  How do they look like tape?

M:  The ends look torn, like you tore off tape.  So cool, right?

D:  They don't look like tape.  Why are they colored?  How does that look like tape?

M:  It's washi tape!  Washi tape is colored and pretty!  DON'T YOU LIKE MY TAPE MAGNETS???

D.  They don't look like tape.

And now anytime we have a conversation about anything, he says, "well, maybe you should go make some more tape magnets."

Then, about a day later, Daphne was in the kitchen and she said, "Mama!  Look!  There's tape on the refrigerator!"

I love her.

tape magnets.  obviously.

Slices of Life, Vol VI

This afternoon Christian, Daphne and I were sharing a chair in the backyard, enjoying the perfect summer-like weather.  Daphne had me singing songs, and Christian especially enjoyed the songs with motions.

After singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," Daph asked me to insert Christian's name ("the itsy bitsy Christian climbed up the water spout..."), then her name ("the itsy bitsy Daphne...") and finally my name.

Once my song was over, she politely told me I needed to say that the mama is really big.  I had to sing "the really big mama climbed up the water spout..."

This moment did nothing for my ego.

Good thing I love them.

Slices of Life, Vol V

Daph in the Third Person.

(from her bed one morning)
"Mama! She wants her bear! Mama! Her bear! It's in the lifin' room!"

(standing on the couch looking out the front window)
"Mailman! She wants a box!"


Daph is Very Wise.

David: "Daphne, is Jesus at church?"
Daphne: "No, Jesus is in Mary's tummy."


Daphne: "You do not put fish in a kitty's mouth."
(As she learned by watching Tom and Jerry. Don't say TV can't teach you anything.)


Daph is Independent

Sometimes Daphne goes to the bathroom a little bit, flushes the toilet, then goes some more.

She's been getting herself up in the morning quite a bit lately. The first time she did it David and I woke up to hearing someone pounding away on the piano. Fortunately it was just Daphne and not a musical intruder.


Daph Celebrates Holidays and Vacations

Daphne: "Easter is not yummy."

Daphne: "When the snow comes back we will go to our snow house!"


Daph is a Creature of Habit

Every night she goes to sleep lying on her tummy with Yoda and Eeyore under one arm, Ducky Duck and Praying Bear under the other. Then Brown Blanket is over all 5 of them, and White Blanket on the very top of it all.

I kiss her and hug her and tell her I'll be there when she wakes up. She says, "When the sun comes up, when it's light outside, and when Daddy comes home."

Don't even think about trying to mess any of this up.


Daph is Kind

Daphne: "When Daddy is a little girl and he goes poo I will give him one of my treats."

Slices of Life, Vol IV

(What is Slices of Life? Go here to find out.)

*When Daphne doesn't want to do what we say, she likes to run as fast as she can to her bedroom and slam her door shut. I kind of thought we had a few years before that would start.

*I have some Silly Putty that I keep in the diaper bag for Daphne to play with in the car or when we're shopping. For some reason she has a really hard time remembering what it's called so she usually calls it 'wedgie.' It is not uncommon to hear her to ask, "Mama, can I play with the wedgie?"

*Christian will not nap during the day and I have no idea what to do about it. We are struggling.

*The other day Daphne asked if we could sing one of her favorite songs. She asked, "can we sing 'Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains?'" I liked that she recited half the song just to ask if we could sing it.

*Continuing with the Christmas music theme, she also often asks if we'll sing about the shepherds seeing the angels and then going to see baby Jesus. We don't know what song she's referring to and she always seems happy when we make something up. I think she just wants there to be a song about the shepherds. Aside from baby Jesus, they seem to be her favorite of the nativity people.

*Christian lunges his body toward me when he sees me and someone else is holding him. It's nice to know he likes me.

*The other night before bed Daphne asked if we could pray for Daddy's trainee. David is an official coach at work now and takes out new hires to help them learn the ropes of the job. He is assigned his current (and first) trainee for the next couple of months. I guess Daphne is listening in on all conversations more intently than we realize, since we have never sat her down and discussed the fact that Daddy has a trainee at work.

*Daphne is big on the "I'll go this way, you go that way" game. If we're heading to her bedroom, we most certainly cannot go the same route together. She has to go "this way" and I have to go "that way." If I try to go the same way as she is going, someone throws a big fit. (Not me.)

*I taught Daphne a little game: I squeeze her hand 3 times and it means 'I love Daphne.' It's like a little hand squeezing code where I'm supposed to be able to squeeze her hand 3 times and she knows what it means without me having to say any words. I taught it to her by holding her hand and first squeezing 3 times and counting 1-2-3 with each squeeze, and then squeezing 3 more times while saying "I love Daphne." She sort of gets it; she squeezes my hand a bunch and says "1-2-3, I love mommy." Sometimes now she'll stop what she's doing, squeeze my hand while saying "1-2-3, I love mommy," then go on with what she was doing. It's the sweetest.

Slices of Life Vol III

In the middle of the night when I'm taking care of Christian I get confused and almost always refer to him as 'she.'












Wednesday night during the wee hours he projectile vomited directly onto my face.

Daphne always refers to Christian as 'it.' As in "I hold it, Mama?" Clearly our family has issues with pronouns.


















Christian has even worse reflux than Daphne had. He spits up a lot, although less than he did before he had craniosacral therapy. Our first week at BSF he spit up all over me multiple times. I was like, "hi, new BSF group members, I apologize for my milk puke stink. Don't you want to be my friend?"

Christian weighs exactly 9lbs as of yesterday. He gained 2lbs in 3 weeks. That's a lot.

The bad thing about Christian being born on the 31st of the month is that he doesn't always get a month-birthday. There is no September 31st, so does that mean he will never be 1 month old?

Slices of Life, Vol 2

*One of Daphne's favorite things to do is walk with her belly, legs or toes. If she tells you she wants to walk with her belly, it means she wants to walk with no shirt on (and legs means no pants, etc). Just in case she ever asks you if she can walk with her belly and that question confuses you.

*Daphne wants to know what everything says. Mama, Daddy, butterflies, rocket ships, ambulances, doors, balloons...there is no limit to her curiosity on what any person, place or thing might say.

*The other constant questions we hear are "who's that?" and "what's that?" Reading a book really isn't that fun anymore because she asks "what's that" to every tiny thing on every page. And of course she asks about the same item 10,000 times.

*I love it when Daphne wakes up in the night and starts talking to herself. Two nights ago she woke up to sing the Spongebob Squarepants song. Last night she woke up and "tweet tweet tweet-ed" like a bird. It cracks us up.

*The other day we were getting ready to head out the door when Daphne disappeared for a minute...and came back wearing one of David's hats. Apparently she decided she wasn't officially ready to go until she looked just like Daddy.


















*Yesterday after we left a friend's house, I asked Daphne if she had fun playing with her friends. She raised her arms high above her head and said "it was sooo great!" I didn't even know she knew that phrase.