"Things"

Here are an assortment of things I've been recording on a random piece of paper and they needed to be put into a more permanent spot.

1.  Owen loves to say, "Freckles make you smarter!"  He has sufficiently indoctrinated Tommy so now T searches his body constantly looking for just one freckle.  He is so sure some of his moles are freckles.
2.  Ryrie loves to get hugs out of George any way he can.  His latest is to say, "Monkey hug?" This will sometimes work where a regular hug won't.
3.  I read Henry and Ribsy to O and T and loved to hear Tommy say, "I yuv Risby!"  Also, we started Peter Pan.  Owen grasped right away the funniness of Peter and Wendy giving each other "kisses" and "thimbles" and mixing them up.  Tommy seemed to get it too, and sometimes asks me to give him a "symbol."
4.  Will and Ry have been feverishly practicing the piano to prepare for exams.  They like it when I am gone swimming in the morning so I won't be there to practice with them.  I love to hear Will laugh when I say, "Don't worry, I will be here tomorrow morning to practice with you!"  He laughs and says, "Nooooo, please no!"
5.  Ryrie stuck with me as the two of us organized the basement and tidied it up.  The others helped, but pretty half-heartedly.  The very next day the two of us headed down there for something and he looked at me in shock and asked, "What happened to our nice clean basement??"
6.  When Tommy belts out the chorus to "I've been workin' on the railroad" he sings, "Playing on the OAKS-AN-JOE!"  instead of "old banjo."  Gets me every time.
7.  Georgie and I have invented a game called "Where's that tickle?"  It starts by me saying, "hmmm, where did that tickle get to?" as I inspect his body.  He starts to giggle as he anticipates where I might find it--could be anywhere!  It is fun to "find" it all over his ticklish little body.  Sometimes he suggests places for me to look.  Always he says, "AGAIN!"
8.  Conversation between Tommy and his friend:
T--The earth is very big, but Jesus is even bigger because HE made the earth!
M--He did?  How?
T--after a pause--Just by gathering...stuff.
M--Gathering stuff?  From where?  How?
T--He just got stuff from Heaven...YOU know!
M--after a pause--He would have to pick a lot of grass!
9.  Georgie says, "please" in many adorable ways when you don't give him what he wants right away.  These can vary from yelling "PLEASE!" with a scowl on his face to a very sweet wheedle "paleeese?" accompanied by a smile.  Can we deny him?  James tries by telling him, "I don't negotiate with terrorists."  However, he is the sweetest terrorist ever.
10.  It has been quite rainy lately, and Tommy decided that when the sky is covered with dark rain clouds, those are the "bad guys."  The sunny sky is "the good guys."  So he will give me a weather report accordingly--and it comes out sounding quite like a battle report.
11.  Speaking of battles, Tommy had a battle with a bee in our car and it has changed his life forevermore.  When we were at our Raymond house we picked up a composter to bring here.  It happened to have a bee hidden in it, which flew out into the car about halfway home.  Tommy freaked out and so did I and I rolled down his window really quick.  We thought it flew out, but it didn't at that point.  He started asking me if bees are afraid of water, or if they could die by water.  We had a discussion about all the gruesome ways a bee could die, but he hung on to the fact that bees could die by water, and he held his waterbottle tight in preparation in case the bee came back.  Which it did!  It flew all around his face.  He screamed and started dumping the water on the bee, while I rolled down his window again.  He was smashing, thrashing, and so forth with the bottle.  The bee finally made it out the window.  Tommy and I were very relieved (I was driving on the highway this whole time, so was no help at all to him).  He started giggling, but it turned to tears pretty quick.  It was a bit overwhelming for him I think--but at the same time he felt very proud of himself for the brave way he battled that bee.  He kept asking, "Wasn't I brave Mom?  When I fought that bee?"  Now when we drive and I roll down the windows, he often asks me to roll them back up, even if he's really sweaty.  This is because he's worried about bees flying in.  We've had many talks about how bees don't want to come into the car.  They have no reason to try to aim at the window (I say) when its moving very quickly, to come in.  If they come in, its by accident when the car is stopped.  He believes me, but he still always has to reassure himself that they do not want to come into the car.  :-)