Yours, Mine, and...?

On vacation, we had to bring our own sheets. My sister was borrowing an old set of twin sheets from our house. Zack was watching her put the sheets on her bed in the vacation house.  As she unfolded one of the sheets, out tumbled...

Zack asked, "Ria, are those yours?  Or are they mine?"

I'm afraid so

Dinnertime with our 3yo has become a real chore.  Every night he basically refuses to eat, regardless of what we give him.  Even his favorite foods, which he begs for and snitches while we're cooking them, are on the "do not eat" list once we're at the table.

One evening, not having the energy for another epic battle, I said to him, "Look, just eat three bites, and then you can be done, okay?"

He shook his head and said, "I'm afraid not."

While the cat's away...

"I miss my dad," pouted Zack one night while his father was away on business.

Big sister Rosie, neither missing a beat nor looking up from what she was doing, consoled him: "That's okay, we'll have more fun without him."

Which is not true, by the way, but there you have it.

How I Know We're Doing Okay

I took Zacky to the Ash Wednesday prayer service at church with me.  The deacon distributing ashes saw fit to give Zacky ashes as well -- and why not?  This was a new experience for him, of course, but me too, as I wasn't entirely sure what to tell him.

First of all, I told him he had ashes on his forehead and not to rub it or it would get all over his face.  He then referred to it as "chocolate ashes."

Our drive home consisted of the following conversation:

Zack: Why did the man give me chocolate ashes?
Me: To help you remember to be a good boy and not a naughty boy.
Z: Why?
M: Because Jesus wants you to be a good boy.
Z: Why?
M: Because He loves you!
Z: HE DOES?!?!  I love Him too!

The sort-of truth

In the process of moving our bedroom from one room to another, my husband left our queen-sized mattress propped against a wall.  When he came back into the room, the mattress was laying on the floor, with Rosie suspiciously nearby.  The ensuing dialog went something like this:


Dad: Rosie, how did this mattress get on the floor?

Rosie: Um, I dunno.

D: Did you knock it over?

R: Unh-uh.  It fell over all by itself!

D: And where were you when it fell over?

R: I was jumping on it!!

A likely explanation, I'm sure...

Pregnant with twins, I've been having some pretty intense upper hip/entire leg pain lately.  Rosie saw me turn the heating pad on, and she asked if my back was still hurting me.  I told her it was.  She asked me why, and I told her I didn't know.

She thought she had a good answer: "Maybe your back is hurting because the babies are scratching you."

He told her!

My two kids generally get a long pretty well; however, as a 4-year-old, Rosie is naturally quite possessive of her belongings.  One morning at the breakfast table, Rosie was howling because Zack was playing with her "special" scissors (the green Crayola safety scissors, you know the ones).

Clever little Zack went all Daniel Tiger on her and sang, "You can take a turn, and then I'll get it back!"  Two years old, and he's already teaching his sister a lesson :)

New Identity

Today Rosie decided that she is Vanellope (pronounced like Penelope), the racer from Sugar Rush in "Wreck-It Ralph."   She now insists that we call her Vanellope.  When her daddy called her Rosie, she told him, "My name is Vanellope!"  Zack was with her and added, "My name is Elmo!"

Bless his little heart

My parents took the kids out to lunch one day.  When they came home, Zack came running to me, shouting, "Mommy!"  Teasing him, I asked where he'd been, and he responded, "We had lunch!"  I then asked him, "Well, where's my lunch?" and I pretended to look around.  His smile faded a bit, and he said, "We didn't bring you some lunch."  So I made a pouty face at him, and he said in a hopeful voice, "I love you, Mommy...."

Sorry, you're not on the list

Rosie, the snack fiend, reached her little arm into the locked cabinet where the snacks are stored and removed two little packages of Swedish Fish.  Grandmom saw her and said, "Two packages of Swedish Fish?  And who are they for?"  Rosie answered, "One for me, and one for Mommy" (which was actually true).  Grandmom asked her, "Where's mine?"

Her response, always matter-of-fact: "Well.  I didn't sign you up for one."

So there.

My budding artist

This morning Rosie presented me with her latest drawing: "It's you and Daddy when you got married!"  And then the conversation proceeded thus:

R: I was in your belly when you got married.
me: Um, no.  No, you weren't.
R: Then where was I?
me:....... In heaven.
R: With Jesus?
me: Yup.
R: And then I was in your belly?
me: Sure.
R: And then I came out!  I'm gonna go draw that.

And that, my Rosiegirl, is a drawing that I do not want to see.

Great new song

Zack has been walking around singing the same song over and over again.  Maybe you've heard it; here's how it goes:

"Zippy doody dah
Oh my, oh my, what a day
Suh-shine head my way
Zippy doody dahhhhh!"

Billions and billions served?

As I was running errands with Rosie and Zack, we were in the car in a neighborhood that we don't usually frequent.  We passed a McDonald's, which Rosie pointed out.  When we go to McDonald's there are two that we usually go to, and this was not one of them.

She said, "Look, there's another McDonald's!  There are THREE McDonald's in the world!"

Such elation

Shortly after the new pope was elected, I came across a printable coloring page with the pope's image on it.  My Rosiegirl loves to color, so I printed it out for her, thinking I could teach her about the pope while she was coloring.  I printed the page and gave it to her.  I asked her if she knew who was on the page, and she took one look at it and shouted, "Pope Francis!"  I suggested she show Deacon Pop what she had, and she ran into the other room shouting, "Poppy, look!  Pope Francis, Pope Francis, Pope Francis!"

Must be doing something right

Like most kids, mine love to play with big empty cardboard boxes.  Usually they like to sit in them and pretend the boxes are vehicles, like a car or a rocket ship (thank you, Little Einsteins).  Rosie also likes to get her markers out and draw on the cardboard inside the boxes.

So I was not surprised the last time we got a package in the mail, when Rosie hopped into the box with her markers and started drawing away.  This time, though, she told me that her box was a church, and the two people she had drawn inside were a priest and a deacon: Father Steve and "Poppa."

I think she's obsessed

I keep finding these drawings all over the house...

What can I say?  My girl loves spiders.

Impressionable young minds

Rosie came rushing through the dining room and into the kitchen.  As she yanked open the freezer door, I heard her saying, "I want the chill of peppermint!"  She what, now?  She was kind enough to clarify: "Rich, dark chocolate.  The chill of peppermint."  She wanted a York peppermint patty that my mother had stashed in the freezer.

I asked her where she heard that (because while she is clever, let's be honest, I knew she didn't come up with that herself), and she said, "Mickey's Christmas."  It seems that in her three dozen or so viewings of "Mickey's Christmas Carol" on our DVR, she has committed a few of the commercials to memory.

And this is why you should always know what your children are watching -- you never know when they'll request the "chill of peppermint."

My sweet little boy

Zack can't say Rosie's name, so he calls her "sister," but he can't really say that either, so it ends up sounding like "teetee."

This afternoon, I told Rosie it was quiet time while I put Zack down for her nap.  She got upset about that and closed herself in her room, pouting.

When Zack saw this, he said, "Teetee sad.  Knock knock," and went to go knock on her door to see if she was okay.

Christmas Carols a la Rosie

Rosie innocently sings her own versions of popular Christmas songs:

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.  Know what's fun?  It is to ride..."

"Shrek the halls with boughs of holly..."

And my personal favorite, a verse of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas":
"Oh, bring us some piggy pudding..."

WELL then!

This morning I dressed Zack, then I dressed Rosie, and then I (still in my pajamas) sat on my bed to fold some laundry.  Rosie lay on the bed watching me, and after a time she said to me with no particular expression, "Mommy, you need to take a shower; you're dirty."