Baby Sitting Buster

A friend of ours, Alex, was staying at our house while his house was unlivable.  He brought along his Beta fish, "Buster".  Our kids love Buster and fight over who gets to feed him.

Alex moved back into his house but we kept Buster while things in his house settle down.  Tonight, Alex came over to pick up some things he left behind and asked Bryce, our 5 year old daughter, "How's Buster doing?"  Bryce answered, "He's not dead, yet!!"

Independent Thinkers

Our kids are all very independent thinkers.

Our daughter Bryce is 5 and thinks outside the box.  The other day I asked her, "Are you smart like Mommy, or smart like Daddy.  She answered, "Who do you want me to be smart like?"

Our daughter Avery is very precocious.  Last weekend we brought olives to our picnic.  We divided some of the olives equally amongst the kids. I was shocked when all the kids ate the olives.  Avery asked for more and I gave her the container with about 15 olives left.  A minute later, I looked back and Avery had eaten all the olives and was in the process of drinking the brine from the container.  I just shook my head and rolled my eyes.

Later that day I was talking with Avery and said, " Maybe you have bad poop because you ate too many olives."  She replied, "I did not eat too many olives."  I was not sure to say as I earlier I had just seen her eat the container of olives.  I also knew she was overdosing on blueberries, so I asked her if she was eating too many blueberries and she nodded and said, "Yes, I eat a lot of blueberries."  I can only imagine the amount of blueberries she had eaten.

Later in the week, for fun I asked Avery, "What do you like better, blueberries or olives?"  She answers emphatically, "Steak!"

Helping Out

Helping Out

Cooper, now 5 years old, is not our best helper when it comes to cleaning up - he much prefers running around and playing, (who knew).  Our girls, and Chase, were all upstairs getting ready for bed and Cooper and I were left in the kitchen together.  I had to empty and refill the dishwasher and Cooper asked it he could help.  I agreed and gave him the "instructions" on emptying the dishwasher, mainly to match up like items.  He started with the plastic plates, then the plastic bowls and cups and lastly went to tackle to silverware.  We have two sets of silverware and the forks have different number of tines.  So he intently counted the tines, sized up the fork and put all the silverware in the correct spot.  Before finishing the task, he stopped, looked at me and said, "Thanks Dad, this is great fun."

Averyisms: Two year old chatter

Our 2 year old daughter Avery is very talkative and has a great vocabulary for someone who is 30 inches tall.  These are some of the tidbits we heard on our short 4 day vacation.

On this recent vacation, after a dinner out, I brought a drink with me in a portable cup.  On the drive back to our vacation condo, Avery sees me drinking, (lemonade), and she asks, "Daddy, why are you drinking and driving?"

All of the kids love candy.  After a dinner out we took all the kids to a famous candy store and let them choose a small "bag" of whatever attracted their eyes.  Avery guarded her candy and held it close to her body.  She looked at me and said, "I am going to save some for next year."  Soon after, she corrected herself and said, "I am going to save this candy for Halloween."

We chose to drive back from the vacation during nap time.  We went out for dinner and then drove back to our house.  When Avery got out of the car she was horrified and shrieked, "Noooooo, not this house."

Where do babies come from? 2

A few weeks ago our 5 year old triplets had a sudden interest in the topic, "Where do babies come from?"  I will briefly recap the previous post and then add the follow up.

It so happened that at this same time Audrey, their mom, recently read a parenting article that detailed a good way to tell the kids how babies are made and said that we are at a good age to begin the discussion. One dinner, Darcy one of the triplets most interested in figuring out this mystery again asked, "Where do babies come from?"

Using her "parenting article" as her resource, Audrey told the kids, "Mommy has eggs, like a chicken, and Daddy has sperm, and when the egg and sperm get together, the baby begins to grow".  Darcy frowned at Audrey and said, "no no no Mommy, I want to know where people babies come from".

Now a few weeks later Darcy is still struggling with the mystery of where babies come from.  Again at the dinner table, out of the blue she yells, " Do babies come from eating a lot of food, or what?"