Heard in our house

It's never a quiet moment in our house o' girls, and most of the conversations crack me up.

Maggie and Katie are earning pennies for doing chores or for good behavior and losing them for fits or whining. Their goal is 50 pennies for $5 to spend at the July 4th celebration; more than 50 pennies will earn them $10. (I figure we'd spend that on them anyway.)

Last night Maggie went to bed without a fit, without sneaking a book, and without waking her sister, which earned her 2 pennies. When I was giving her the pennies this morning, Lainie asked for one also and then started to put it in Maggie's jar. Maggie screamed at her to not do it, so I gave her Katie's jar and Lainie put it in there. Then and only then did Maggie realize her mistake. Not only did she miss out on a free penny, but she made it harder to beat Katie to 50. And so she mumbed as she walked away, "Hmmmpf. I won't make THAT mistake again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natalie has been battling us at meal time for about a week. If she doesn't want to eat it, she's sent it flying. We've tried many different tactics to get it to stop and have it mostly under control. (And now that I've written that, come see us this weekend, while Miss N throws her food across the room!) So, yesterday afternoon, I gave her a chocolate chip granola bar for snack. Halfway through, she decided she didn't want it, but I told her she needed to finish her snack before she could get down. Little Miss methodically placed the granola bar pieces down her shirt and then turned to me and signed/said, "All done!" sneaky sneaky number four!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lainie made a princess hat at speech a couple weeks ago, and was wearing it around the house last week, using a blanket as a cape. I said, "what a pretty princess." Her response: "I not a princess! I a QUEEN!" as she turned with a flounce of dismissal.

~~~~~~~~~~

Katie cracks me up with her mis-spoken words, probably because I do it all the time, too. A few weeks ago, when the river was flooding, a lot of cars were crossing the river bridge just to gawk at the flooding. Instead of rubber-necking, Katie said, "Look at all those river-neckers!"

~~~~~~~~~

They come by it naturally. We heard a (sad) story about an elderly man who disappeared near the water at a nudist colony. Jay's immediate reaction? "Maybe he was out noodling." teehee

~~~~~~~~

These are all such normal, everyday conversations but they are what make our life so fun. Yes, we have fits and screaming and tantrums and whining. But it is stories like these that make my life so full of giggles, as long as I take the time to enjoy them and not try to push on through to the next activity or deadline.

Maybe that's what they mean by stop and smell the roses?