Photo Perspective

"Mom, this is my favorite chore! I LIKE handwashing. That's why I'm doing it so much."


We implemented a new chore schedule today, and the younger boys graduated to some older kid jobs that they had never gotten the opportunity to do. They were pretty excited about some of the new chores, and I'm hoping and praying the excitement lasts a LONG time.

I caught up on a few birthday layouts over the weekend.

We've been talking about symmetry lately, and Miah lost his second tooth to provide an illustration for us.

Of course, Dad had to bribe him with a bowl of ice cream, a banana muffin, a chocolate cookie, and $.50.

Miah comes up with the funniest things sometimes. Today he spent the day at a friend's home while I was working on V's room. He noticed a picture of Jesus hanging on her living room wall.
"Why do you have a picture of Jesus?" he asked my friend.
"Because I like that picture of Jesus." she replied.
"Did you go to heaven and take that picture?" he wondered.
Of course having a photographer for a mom that WOULD be the ONLY way to get a picture of Jesus, right? Makes sense to me.

Tonight as I was tucking Miah into bed, I told him I loved him. His response took me by surprise. "Don't say that anymore, mom."
"Why?" I asked feeling a little hurt.
"'Cause I took a picture of it in my mind so I could remember that you love me and you don't have to tell me anymore."
"Oh!" I'm glad he will always remember I love him, but I'm not going to stop reminding him.

Yesterday, Miah was muttering under his breath, "Hurry, hurry, hurry." Then he turns to me and says, "Did you hear that?"
"What?"
"That 'hurry, hurry, hurry' sound."
A little confused, I just looked at him. Then he says, "Oh, that must have been the monster inside my body that said that."
Now I'm a LOT confused and after all my research on RAD, I'm thinking some wild things. So I ask, "Do you really think there is a monster inside you?"
"No, Mom, I'm just making a story."
Whew!

Miah has come up with some doozies these past few days:
It's raining = The sun's crying
Being nice = Be niceing

Then there is the opposite arguing at the table between the two four year olds:
"I'm blue and you're green."
"I'm good and you're bad."
"I'm pee and you're poop."

And how's this for faulty assumptions leading to bad conclusions:
While dad was changing a messy diaper, "Dad, why do girls poop green and boys poop brown?"

I love looking back and reading some of the cute things the kids said. I have one scrapbook page in Miah's book that is dedicated to cute things he said while he was three, but since then I haven't really kept a journal of them. I decided I'm going to put them here so you can enjoy them and I can remember where I put them!

Miah while fighting sleep in the van during today's sunny drive: "Mom, my eyes keep turning on and off, and I don't like it!"

One of my most frustrating part of my life these days is getting everyone ready to go somewhere. Inevitably one or two of the kids will be unable to find a matching pair of socks. Why, oh why don't those silly socks like to stick together? Why is it that one can be outside under the trampoline while the other is on the bathroom floor? One can be just inside the side door while the match to it is under the couch in the living room?

Does anyone have any good tips for me? What do you do with unmated socks? Any good suggestions for helping preschoolers remember not to run outside in their stocking feet?

This portrait was also taken by K