The Enthusiastic Eater

Ben really enjoyed his lasagna tonight. As did his hair, apparently.

The Bad S Word and The Bad D Word

Rachel had gotten in the habit of calling things "stupid" and "dumb" when she didn't like them. Brushing her teeth, being asked not to stand on a chair, not being able to watch TV until her responsibilities are done - the things that fall into the category are legion.

We let her know that it was okay to talk about things that bothered her, but that we didn't want her to use those words. So now what does she do? "This a bad S word!" "That's a bad D word!"

Big improvement.

Suspicious Minds and Other Things

Rachel heard the beginning of "Suspicious Minds," where it says:

I'm caught in a trap, I can't get out

and sang "because a king locked me in the trap, and I can't get out and I want to rescue the princess."

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The floodgate seems to have opened, and Ben is chattering away. We're still not hearing too many actual words, but he's imitating so many words and sounds now. He also will say things that seem to be very important and consist of 7 or 8 syllables delivered in an urgent manner with a look of intense focus as he says them to you. He had a good time on Sunday evening when Rachel spent the night at my mom's. I think he finally felt like he could get a word in edgewise! We got some good video, which I'll try to upload soon.

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James arrived home as I was dishing up our meal. Rachel said "Daddy, you're just in time! Mommy's plating dinner." Can you tell she's been watching Food Network with me?

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Rachel is becoming quite the Artiste. She asked today if she could paint the frame of her easel. I started to say no, then thought "Why not?" Here's the result of her artistic vision:

Red on the left, peacock blue on the right. The picture is of her swingset in the backyard.

The back pieces were pink and brown.

Not Nice, But a Firm Grasp of the Subject Matter

An exchange between my 5-year-old and I tonight and she fought going to bed.

"When I'm a teenager, I'm going to knock all these down," she declared, pointing to all the picture frames on the wall outside her room, tracing lines in the glass with her finger to indicate the glass being broken.

"If you do that, I'll just use money from your bank account to replace them all," I suggested.

"If you do that, I'm going to take all your money," she quickly threw back.

"Um.. uh... you can't.  It's not here..." I stammered, wondering if she'd believe me and trying to think quickly about whether it was a good point for a lesson on how money's not real and how it's just numbers coming into and going out of our bank account. 

Apparently I paused for too long because without missing a beat she angrily said "I know.  I'm going to do it online.  And I'm going to take all your money."   And just like that, I was on the losing end of the argument again.

"You can't do that," I responded, thinking passwords and the complexity of online banking and wondering how we'd separate her account off from ours (and when) to prevent us from getting at our money, thinking that maybe I'd missed the chance to calm the conversation down.

"I'm going to get your password and I'm going to make it mine.  I'm going to watch you every time you use the computer and I'm going to get your password.  And then I'm going to take all your money."

I've always said that I would make an excellent criminal if not for the whole moral compass pointing the other way owed to my strong believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and I'm not willing to gamble my eternal future on what would otherwise be an interesting, dangerous and fun career.  While I'm pretty sure she'll come down on that side of things when her logic and moral compass catch up with her intelligence, if she goes the other way, I hope she'll put her ol' mom and dad in a nice downtown condo with great views of the Sound.

(Don't get mad, Adrea, the last part is pure humor.)