Kids Say the Darndest Things

I was just thinking today about the funny things that come out of a toddler’s mouth - for better or worse. I thought I would keep a list of funny Harrison quotes going here so I can remember them...

• “I am your sweetie pie and you are my girl.”
• “I was courageous.” (After falling and not crying.)
• “I would couldn’t not.” (Either meaning yes or no - thank you Dr. Seuss.)
• “I don’t want you to tell me the truth.” (Not sure where this came from - but it’s what he says to me when he’s looking at his stomach and I ask him what he is doing.)
• “I don’t believe you.” (When I threatened him with a punishment for disobeying.)
• “I am in charge here!”
• Is the Gospel waiting? (When we drove into the church parking lot, and I apparently was slow in getting him into the chapel.)
• Jesus made the animals in the ark, and Old McDonald made the animals in the farm. (After a the FHE lesson on the creation used two sets of Little People animals)
• “I don’t want my throat to come out!”
• "I locked up all the consequences and rules!" when I asked him if he knew what the rules were.
• "I can't wait until I grow up and and big like you Dad, because then you will be small like me."
• "Mommy, thank you so much for having long hair today!"
  

Mollie

Back-seat Driver

I have a 2 1/2 year old back-seat driver in my car now. Ever since we read the book “Go, Dog. Go!” by P.D. Eastman, and Harrison discovered what Red, Yellow and Green lights mean, I have had a constant back-seat driver. At each stop light he remarks on the color, and tells me that I have to wait until it turns green. I find myself describing complex traffic rules to him so he knows why I have stopped when he sees green (I’m turning, waiting for a green arrow) or why I went when it was red (making a right turn.) When the light does turn green he exclaims in a loud and excited voice, “Go, Mom. GO!” The other day he got very upset when he didn’t see the light turn green, and told me, “Mommy, you need to obey me and wait for the light to turn green!” Thank you Mr. P.D. Eastman.
Mollie

This is why I love

So, Ebay is great for a lot of things. I have sold things I thought to be useless for a pretty good price. I have bought items from garage sales and re-sold them for sometimes amazing profits. I have found items at stores on clearance, and re-sold for decent profits. We recently had a cordless phone die on us, and I was able to buy a brand new phone, with answering machine and all, for $9.50, shipping included. All of those things make me like Ebay. But this is why I LOVE Ebay:
I had some shoes from J. Crew that I bought about 6 years ago - on clearance of course. They were some simple platform sandals in dark brown leather. Well, after wearing them for about 4 years, one of the straps came loose from the sole. I got it repaired for a small fee, and continued to wear them. Over the last 2 years they have held up decently well, but last Sunday they died. The sole of one shoe broke in half. I was devastated. They were those shoes that you could wear with almost everything - jeans, dresses, skirts, spring through fall (and winter here in San Diego). Well, I thought, maybe I’ll be able to find something similar on Ebay. Not really thinking I would be able to find my exact shoes (sold over 6 years ago). But that’s exactly what I found. My beloved shoes - and in MY SIZE! I won the auction for a measly $10.50, and I just got them today - they are like brand new - worn maybe once. I feel like my shoes were magically reborn! I LOVE EBAY!
Mollie

Garden Harvest

One of the really nice things about where we live is that we have a co-op garden. Not really sure why they call it co-op, but basically you get a little plot of earth that you can use to grow whatever you want. We have had our garden for over 3 years now, and we just love it. Well, most of the time. Right now we definitely love it. We get a new zucchini almost everyday, and our green bell pepper plants are hanging heavy with over 20 peppers. We have enjoyed carrots and garlic, and we are sad the the strawberry season is finally coming to a close. Our tomato plants are large and have many green tomatoes - we can’t wait until they ripen. We only hope that we can keep our basil alive long enough to enjoy some bruschetta with the harvest. The green beans are coming up, and every morning we are greeted by large and lovely bright blue morning glories. Yesterday Harrison helped me plant some bachelor buttons, California Poppies and pumpkins. So that will be fun. Our lettuce is going to seed, which means it’s time to replant. An activity that Harrison will most definitely want to help with. So, although I may gripe from time to time at the constant need of watering, the truth be told, I love our garden.
Mollie

Weeks Recap

We had a pretty uneventful week. We got another pile of books at the library, and I think I’ve decided I’m going to ditch the theme idea. I am so tired of dinosaurs right now... Our library did not have the best selection of dinosaur books, so I am really ready to get these books back to the library. Harrison on the other hand loves them. I made the mistake of telling him there was a museum here that had dinosaur bones in it before I looked up to see when the free tuesday for that museum is. I have a feeling he’ll be asking me if it’s August 1st all month long.
Noah has started doing some fun things. He is catching on to signs really quickly now. We haven’t been as good about doing signs with him as we were with Harrison, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting how quickly he can pick them up. Today during breakfast he signed more and food and all done. He waved hi to me for the first time today, and I think he’s trying to do mommy and daddy too. I also noticed this week than whenever he gets a car in his hand, he drives it back and forth along a surface and makes a vrrrooommm sound. It is so cute! He is really into feeding himself, so I need to come up with some healthy finger food options.
Yesterday my visiting teacher invited us to her condo complex to use their pool. It was perfect for Harrison because the water was really warm, and it was a warm sunny day - so being too cold was not an excuse for not liking the water. I got a little float for Noah to sit in - he LOVES the water. He was dipping his face in, and trying to crawl out of his float. Harrison, it seems, is not really afraid of water, but rather, he is afraid of deep water. He did not want to go in the water where his feed could not touch. Even if we were holding him, he was on edge. So we let him hang out by the steps. They had nice big steps, and he would get into where the water was mid chest, and walk back and forth, and even stick his face in the water for several seconds. He did not want to leave when it was time to go. He even got away from us while we were trying to dry him off, and ran back and got back in the water. I think I am going to try and take him swimming a lot this summer so so can get more comfortable with deeper water. Noah, on the other hand, I will have to worry about getting too comfortable. It’s funny how they have such different personalities.
Just a couple little funny things this week. While Harrison was in time out, he called out to me, “You’re driving me nuts!” Something I think I slipped and said to him the night before when he was being especially precocious. And just today when I told him it was time to go inside, he said, “Whatever you say.” Not sure where he picked that one up....
Mollie

Jinxed Saturday

You know your Saturday has been jinxed when:
You wake up to find that your freezer got left open overnight so that most of the food has been half thawed. Then when you return to what you were doing, you remember that you were in the middle of changing you 9-month-old’s diaper, and you hadn’t finished the job, and your 9-month-old has decided to have his one bowel movement of the day all over the carpet, and then decided to discover what poop feels like between his fingers. Then when you open your front door you discover that the trash from the day before did not make it beyond the front porch, and the expired dozen and a half eggs you threw out were discovered by a raccoon who not so carefully cracked open and ate all of the eggs all over your welcome mat. Then when you go to do laundry you some how manage to spill much of the contents of your laundry detergent all over your back porch. So when you wake up Sunday morning to realize the frozen juice you bought the night before did not make it into the freezer, you are just happy that it is no longer a jinxed Saturday.

Mollie

Fourth of July, Show Your Support

Today is Independence Day. Mollie and I intentionally did not make many plans for the day. Avoiding the teeming beaches of San Diego, we opted to stay home and relax with our family.
Our lone engagement for the day was our Ward’s pancake breakfast and celebration. The activities committee did a wonderful job. The program consisted of a talk by Matt Vernon, a Navy helicopter pilot. His talk was really moving, and gave me many thinking points for the future.
Matt’s talk started by answering the common question of, “What can I do to show my support and gratitude for military.” His suggestion was simple and elegant. Every Christmas he and his family dress up and go visit the VA Hospital and talk to all the vets.
Growing up my family always went caroling on Christmas Eve to friends and neighbors. I think my new tradition will be to go to the VA and sing to the veterans.

Sam

Trash or Treasure?

Living in graduate student housing definitely has its advantages. One of the stranger ones is the existence of “Free Rooms.” With students coming and going so frequently, you get some interesting phenomena's. One is that most people when they leave don’t want to take much with them. So the advent of “Free Rooms”. These are just the Laundry Rooms, but they have become the unspoken designated area to drop of any and all unwanted items. Each time you enter there are new discarded items just left there to rummage through. Sometimes it’s just a few misc. pots and pans or old kitchen items. Sometimes it’s a stack of Chinese comic books. Other times it’s complete wardrobes - and if it’s your size and style, you are in luck. Yesterday someone was giving up their complete collection of children’s books. Harrison, who has been engrossed in reading books since he has discovered that you can get new ones at the library, was quite excited about the prospect of getting a whole stack of new books. I weeded through them, and managed to find a few (maybe too many) worth keeping. Sam told him that he would have to throw away some of his books at home to make room for the new ones, and he ran in the house singing a song about throwing away all his books. His favorite, by far, is a National Geographic about Dinosaurs. He flips through the whole thing searching for the pictures of Dinosaurs. I have also realized that with these new books, they are interesting and new enough that he will sit and browse them on his own. He sat through sacrament meeting today, reverently and quietly looking at his “Laundry Room” books, as he calls them.

Mollie

Twice-a-Year Sale

If you have an Ikea in your area, you probably know what I am talking about. The infamous “Twice-A-Year-Sale” where Ikea marks down all the overstock at often 50% off the regular price. We have been known to go in the past, persuaded in by the free breakfast (which is actually pretty good) or just to go and let Harrison play in the children’s section. If you haven’t ever been to Ikea - it’s really something. They have model displays of various types of rooms (kitchens, bedrooms, family rooms) for all different styles of living. This time they had a whole apartment laid out - 550 square feet - that you could walk through. Pretty cool. But we were on a quest. We needed some kind of new entertainment center. Our current solution was a white children’s wardrobe which we had configured to work to hold our TV. It was on it’s last legs as the kids had been pulling a little too hard on the front doors for a little too long. So the twice a year sale was more than we could pass up. Since going to Ikea is a fun trip anyway, we decided to go and see if there was something we just couldn’t pass up. So after walking through the amazing showroom, we found it. A very nice looking TV armoire, with lots of storage, and the ability to child proof. The best part was that it was marked down to $150 from $300. So we just had to get it. And getting it home was similar to the picture to the left, with 2 kids, a double stroller and a Honda Civic. But we made it, and we love our new entertainment center.
Mollie