Sibling Gender Review

I was visiting with the kids at my friend, Theresa's house. Weazy was outnumbered 6 to 1 by the boys, but managed to have the following conversation with Theresa's 3rd child who is age three and a half: (as reported to me by Weazy on the way home)
Nicholas: "Is he (pointing to Niklaus) your little brother?"
Weazy: "Yes."
Nicholas: "My little brother is a boy. Is your little brother a boy?"

Theresa's 4 boys have more zingers than I can remember, I hope she starts her own blog soon. It would be a DAILY read for me!

Speaking of China...

The three biggers were thrilled with Papa's selection of fireworks that he is amassing for the big Fourth celebration. On our way home from Papa's yesterday, Matty was commenting on how EVERYTHING is "made in china". "Those stupid fireworks...almost everything is made in CHINA! My bionicles are made in china, our toys are made in china..." Weazy chimed in, "Our Polly Pockets are made in China!"
Matty: "Except our plastic cups...they're made in Taiwan."
Trina: "...and you know this because...?"
Matty: "...because every time I take a drink my eyeballs are looking right at those words!"

Modern Art?

I was watching a news item about an art gallery in Chicago that helps underprivileged youth to express themselves better and learn how to market their art. For a moment, examples of their artwork flashed on the screen and the kids were in my bedroom getting ready to read and settle down for the night. One of the paintings was a side view of a woman tastefully done and kind of ambiguously nude. Trina said, "eww, gross, that picture had a NAKED person on it!" I said, "That was ok, it's just art!" Trina said, "MAMA, art is NOT naked!"

New Name for Old Object

We went out of town this weekend and we left a few things behind. Auntie Anna brought them over when she dropped off Roman while she went to the dentist. The kids were playing with something from the bag of forgotten items. They were putting it on each other's heads and laughing and giggling and being silly. Matty and Trina said something that I heard as, "Ultra Lord Double Barrel Slingshot!". It was something they had heard on the cartoon "Jimmy Neutron". It was then that I realized they were referring to, and playing with my bra that I had left up North! Later on, I took a shower and I shouted down to Matty, "Matty, could you toss up my...Ultra Lord Double Barrel Slingshot?" He said, "Sure, Mama!" and he made a perfect fling up about 9 feet and I got what I needed. I have a feeling that if I would have asked him to toss up my "bra" he would have said, "ewwwww, gross, no WAY!"

Future Shopping

On our way into Target yesterday the kids had this following conversation:

Katrina: "I only want to spend ten dollars today. I'm gonna make ten dollars this week babysitting."

Weazy: "How do you know?"

Katrina: "Well...I'm going to babysit...I mean, I'm PSYCHIC and that means you can tell the future!"

Weazy: (after a short pause while she was thinking) "What's CHINA doing???"

Interesting Inspiration 

"Monkey Food"

Last year when we went on "vacation" (I put quotes around it because it was about a 4 hour drive with just me, my friend Janene, her daughter and my four kids to a place in nowhere'sville WI and Niklaus cried almost the whole drive and when he wasn't crying, the kids were bickering, and I was threatening, and basically the kids had a blast and afterward, I NEEDED a REAL VACATION!!!!) I bought these Gerber snacks for Niklaus for the drive. After a while they were being pitched all over the car for entertainment purposes and the kids still talk about the "chicken puffs" (so named, because matty thought they tasted like chicken flavor) and laugh at the memory of trashing our suburban with those things. I never did buy more of them until last week when they were on sale in three packs at Target. Niklaus didn't show much interest in them, but it has got the biggers giggling again about last year's adventures. They made up a jingle and I heard them singing it the other day...
Monkey Food
by Trina, Matty, and Weazy...
(all three of them sing...)
Monkey Food, Monkey Food,
OH, so nummy and CHUNKY too,
Monkey Food is YUMMY!
For your TUMMY!
(then Weazy yells in a commercial-ish fakey-happy voice) ... "For BABIES!!!"

When I asked them why do they call it "monkey food" now, instead of "chicken puffs" they said it was because of the new, disgusting banana flavor. Today, Niklaus was begging for it when he saw the canister I had put in the burb for emergency purposes and he was really cowing them down. I wonder if he was convinced to try them after repeated performances of the new "advertising" campaign by his siblings?

Prettiest Heart, by Analise 

Number 7, by Trina 

Oops, I forgot...

..."bubboos"which is Nikolese for "bubbles" the things he thinks are integral to the bath which he shares with his big bro and sis on a regular basis. They all have to wear swimming suits because GOD FORBID we don't ever want to see each other naked!!!! (Who the heck knows where they get all that modesty, certainly not from me or daddy!) Every time they hop in the tub, Nikerbocker says "bubboos!" and points to the button for the jets. They then have a discussion and a vote on whether or not they should have bubbles and at what intensity. Usually Nikerbocker casts the deciding vote. Then they swim around in their own dirt for a half an hour and get "clean" (ahem). I usually hear at least once during the bath, "MOM! Niklaus is drinking BUTT WATER!!!!!" and loud laughing and screaming which makes for an entertaining morning, to say the least!

Words and Phrases

"I wa rye", "where's Anna", "Where's Papa", "duece"(=juice), "no", "mama", "dada", "tractor"(multipurpose word meaning anything that has four wheels and goes brrrrrrrroooom), "hi", "byebye", "birdy", "huh huh"(breathes hard like a panting puppy, means "puppy"), "ewwwwww", "uck!", "uh-oh", "up"(means "up", also means "down"), "keykeykey"(=kitty), "baby", "bite"...for the word "yes" he grunts like a caveman and the kids know for sure that he means "yes" because his "no" is so very clear. This is a pretty good vocabulary for a one and a half year old, I think. The biggers get such a kick when he comes up with a new word. Weazy and Niklaus were in the bike trailer tonight and Trina was rollerblading along side us. The dolly was in there, too, per Niklaus' request. Weazy noted that he was getting quite good at taking care of "baby". She said he wanted baby by HIM and he had his arm around it and was kissing it and petting it so sweetly. I told Weazy that he was practicing being a big brother someday. Weazy mulled that one over for a while. I can't imagine Niklaus being the youngest forever. I can't wait until the day he gets to be a big brother...someday!

Amazon by Trina 

Katrina (Trinabina, Trina), Matthew (Matty), Analise (Weese, Weazy), Niklaus (Gik, Gickerbocker, Nikerbocker) 

I Hate Cats

I really do dislike cats (stinky, smelly, scratchy, nasty, snobby, and evil)but kittens are another story. Nina called me today to tell me, "I guess we have a cat now." She didn't sound like she was brimming with resounding excitement. Anyway, she told me about how the kitty kept trying to sneak into the house and how she doesn't have the heart to just let it turn into a farm cat when it really acts differently than the skittish farm kitties. So because Gabohla was going nuts for the critter, Nina and Anna put a box with a towel or something in it in the garage and the kitty slept there. Nina asked Gaboh what the kitty's name is and she matter-of-factly told her, "Mear-ow". Good name for a cat, I guess.

Nikerbo(n)cker

We had a wonderful night at Auntie Nina's. We grilled and played outside. Niklaus mowed the lawn with daddy on the "rye" which is Nikolese for "ride". He only repeated it apx 42,000 times since he mowed the lawn at home yesterday with daddy. He was temporarily distracted by the new baby kitten that had found it's way over to Nina and Matt's. I'm sure it was permanently brain damaged and terrorized by 6 kids going, "kittykittykittykitty" and chasing after the freaked out thing. After a couple of minutes, though, the cat didn't seem to really mind and I think it might make a good mouser. Niklaus hugged (well, choked), kissed and otherwise fondled the thing to death and he didn't even care if it scratched him a bit. I swear that kid is made of rubber. He finally got rid of the humongous bruise that he got on his noggin from falling out of the car after Matty opened the door he was leaning on, and yesterday he misjudged how close he was to the edge of the porch step and KADUNK, there he went down onto the sidewalk (only two steps, but still!) and he got a beautiful new bruise with a bonus bloody scrape on his whitebaby forehead. Of course, he didn't cry, he just popped up and saw the lawn mower and said, "I wa rye"...again.