Have a what?

Well, Christmas is over, and all the kids had a good one. Kate got one of the things she asked for... a habikelly. That's right, a habikelly. Yeah, try to figure that one out. This is our 5-year-0ld's version of a Havoc Heli... a small rc helicopter. Let's just say she flies it better than she pronounces it.

Horn Crazy II

When Kate was just a toddler, she was rather easily frightened by a loud blaring car horn. Well, being a young creature, the flight or flight instinct was still very strong. Lacking a foe to fight, she would hear a horn, jump in startlement, and run away at full-speed. Direction and oncoming traffic were both afterthoughts (or more likely never-thoughts). You've never seen a child run so fast in such a random, terror-stricken way! It was absolutely hilarious! (Don't even go there... you would do it too! And laugh your butt off!)

Pair of Glubs

Yep, this one is Kate again. All winter this year she has worn "glubs" to keep her little fingers warm. No mittens, only "glubs".
:)

Polish Naming Torture

Kate is at that hilarious age where some words are simply too hard to say... our last name for example. Since she butchered it, I think it's safe to post her rendition... "Beskinshki". I think it's easier to say it correctly!

Oh, the Humanity...

This time, it was Kate riding in the car with Grandma Rachel... "Grandma, when I get big, I'm gonna be a normal human." ROFL!
Grandma's response: "You're not a normal human now?" to which Kate replies, "No, I'm a kid." Truth in innocence, eh?

Shapely Sauce

We have rediscovered barbecue sauce recently after years of alternate forms of seasoning (partially due to finding a bbq sauce that everyone likes). While having steak for dinner this evening, Kate would get a piece of pepper from the steak seasoning and rush off to get a drink. She assumed it was the steak sauce on her plate causing the spiciness in her mouth. Aleah was quick to argue that Baby Ray's (we like Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce) is not spicy. Kate didn't really care what was causing it. But when she ran out of sauce on her plate, she asked for more "barn-be-cube" sauce (after stumbling over the word a few times). Nevermind that she really wanted steak sauce and could have avoided that big, unfamiliar condiment. Good thing it wasn't worcestershire sauce we were using (and yes, I had to look up the spelling of worcestershire... wouldn't you?).

Hungry Yet?

Kate spent the day with Grandma Rachel picking blueberries and shucking corn. While sitting on the front porch swing at Grandma's house, passersby kept waving. Kate asked if these were her friends. Grandma said that some of them were. When someone went by that Grandma knew, she said that this woman was a friend, and her name is Edy. Kate laughed (ha ha... more of a chortle really) and asked if that was her name because she liked to eat alot. Out of the mouths of babes...

What the....

This one is about Kate... she has developed a rather interesting habit of expressing surprise by saying, "What the..." She doesn't finish the expression... just "What the..." but it is hilarious. She also uses "What" to start sentences when she's surprised and unsure of something. Example: "What. We're going to the store?" Text cannot get the inflections involved, and I assure you that they are key to getting just how funny this really is. Oh well.

Brand name down the tubes...

As a family (and thanks to Kate) we are gradually abolishing the propaganda perpetuated by the media marketing giants... Ok, not really. But we have taken the very popular new toys called Webkins (which our kids are very excited about right now), and reduced their name to Wilkins. That's what Kate calls them after all.

Phonics on the 4th

Holidays always bring out words that are not part of one's everyday vocabulary... Take, for instance, "fireworks." Sounds simple enough, but not for a 4-year-old. For several days leading up to the 4th, Kate would hear the explosions and tell us about the "fire shoots" or "fire pops". Of course, when she had finally gotten it correct on the 4th of July, she emphatically denied having ever called them "fire shoots".

Pain in the head...

Here's a good one... Aleah complained of having a headegg today. Might need to ask the doctor if that is worse than having a headiache (Aleah's version of headegg a couple of years ago).

Kate's baby brother... and sister...

Yes, Kate (our youngest) has a baby brother and a baby sister. They live in her cell phone. One day last summer, Kate was on the swing talking away on her toy cell phone. When I asked her who she was talking to, she said her baby brother.
"What's his name?" I asked.
Without missing a beat, Kate says, "Clayso. He's in my phone with his sister, Seeso."
"They live in your phone?"
"Yep. In my bakery."
"You have a bakery in your phone?"
"Yep. They make muffins for the bakery."

Since then, Clayso & Seeso have expanded their product line to cookies, cakes, and fruit. And as of last week, they still resided within Kate's phone.

Anonymously Tongue-Tied

This one was just too funny to leave out (even though it doesn't involve our kids.) Someone (who shall remain nameless) was talking about money being tight. This individual mentioned six dollars in clothing that didn't fit and could be returned. This person then proceeded to say that $6 was "a gallon of bread and 2 loaves of milk." ROFL!!!

Limb from Limb

Last night we were at my parents' house, sitting around the fire pit, and listening to Isaac tell stories. He was telling his version of a "scary" story about a dog named Spike. In the story, Isaac told about how, during a game of tug-of-war, Spike "broke his limb." When asked which limb he was referring to, Isaac patted his hip, and said, "You know... your limb."

Movie Mania

Kate is our movie buff... She has watched dvd's since she was very little. Everything from Blues Clues to Bob the Builder. Of course she does get a little confused about media... you know DDD's.

Farmer Who?

...and we mustn't forget that Kate & Aleah like "parma-john" cheese on her buzghetti. This is actually an improvement... Aleah used to call it "parmer-john" cheese. Sounded way too much like "farmer John"... whoever that is...

Practice, practice, practice...

Along the lines of another post about the word "breakfast", Aleah struggles with "practice". You know, like when she has to "praftice" her spelling, or "praftice" riding her bike...

McEnunciation

For the longest time now, Kate has mispronounced "McDonalds." You'd think with all the TV commercials, she'd have this word down by now, but she still called it "Meek-Donalds". Super-sized misnomer IMHO.

Clammy Hammy

Jen had an out-of-state friend come visit this weekend. The week leading up to her visit, Jen was telling Kate that they would be picking her up at the airport. Kate was excited to see some airplanes. As she was taking a bath, Jen had run to the store and Kate said, "Is mom getting hammy?"
"What?"
"Is mom getting hammy?"
"Ummmm. Not sure what you mean, Kate... Oh, do you mean Tammy?"
"Yeah."
This was so much fun, the next day I asked Kate who they were getting at the airport.
"I don't know."
"You don't remember her name?"
"No."
"You remembered yesterday."
"Yeah... was it Clammy? No, Hammy."
Funny, funny stuff. Good thing Tammy's name wasn't Tory...

Big Emotions, 3 y/o language skills

Kate is a very smart little girl. She has always spoken well and has a strong vocabulary for her age. She also has very strong emotions (particularly anger). Combine that with a stubborn sense of independence, and there is a recipe for disaster. One day a month or two ago, rather than unleash her wrath upon whatever had stirred her ire, she simply said, "I'm frusserated" (4 syllables). Unfortunately that level of control has yet to be repeated.

Pet Names

As with most kids, Kate went through a period where she liked calling me by my first name. She was around 2 or 3 when she learned there was more to my name than "Daddy", but she put her on little spin on things (as usual). For a few months, Kate would refer to me as "My Daddy, my Eric." Precious moments.

Bloody Confusing

Being the youngest of 3, Kate is around older kids all the time. In the last year, she was exposed to bloody noses... from poorly aimed snowballs (benefit of the doubt there), to dry membranes in the middle of the night, she has seen a few crimson gushers. So, every time she has had a runny nose (usually during a crying fit) she will say that she has a bloody nose.

Quack-head

Kate has had a thing for rubber duckies for the last year. Even our neighbors have fed the habit. She has about 15 or 20 different ducks for the bathtub. As much as she likes them, you'd think that pronunciation would not be a problem. Well think again. While driving past Pine Lake last week, I spotted some ducks on the water and pointed them out to Kate. She saw them and acknowledged that she saw the "duckalins".

Unconscience Negativism

Even as a toddler, Aleah had a streak of pessimism (see also the Charlie Brown reference below...) Around the age of 2, Aleah called my brother "Uh-Uh Luke".

The Amazin'

This one requires a photo. The picture you see is a token ring that Aleah got out of a gumball machine somewhere when she was about 3 or 4. It's one of the wierdest little pieces of jewelry we had ever seen. Naturally, though, Aleah loved it, and she called it her "Amazin'." Yes, the special ring had a special name. If she lost it (a frequent issue for a flighty, young girl) she would ask, "Where's my Amazin'?" We still have the thing (Jen plans on scrapbooking it.)

(I know there's no picture yet... I have to find the Amazin' to take a photo. I'll edit the post when I find it.)

Charlie Brown reincarnated?

After a week of several missteps on the stairs, Aleah (who is a sensitive soul and therefore tends toward extreme emotional expressiveness) reached her limit. This 4 year old fell again and declared, "I'm doomed" aloud to her mom.

Spaghetti

Ok, like all kids, ours have had difficulty pronouncing "spaghetti". Kate probably takes the prize with her rendition... "buzzgetti".

Horn Crazy

I think I mentioned in another post how all 3 of our kids when they were 1 or 2 would cry pretty much the entire car ride when I drove (not when Jen drove alone with them... just when I drove). Aleah was the worst of the 3. On a trip to Virginia when she was about 18 months old, she cried for the 1st hour of the 9 hour trip. Anyway, there was one thing we discovered that helped. When I honked the horn, she would squeal with delight and laugh say "A horn! A horn"... all the while looking outside the van for the horn to show itself.
Unfortunately that was not a very practical, long term solution for the crying situation.

Nouns, Verbs, Pronouns, Adverbs... they're all the same thing

Poor Kate evidently experienced acid reflux a few weeks ago. No problem though. After making a few strange noises and me asking if she was alright, she said, "Yeah, I just swallowed my choke."
Ok, then.

Cute as a what?

Aleah hates when I post about her, but she's just going to have to deal with it. She still has some rather odd quirks to her language skills. Every once in awhile she comes out with an unintentional Southern accent. I'm not sure if this fits into that category, but when she told me something a few weeks ago, I had to jot it down for this blog. I think she had used buttons to decorate an art project and was telling me about it. When she described it, she said that she used "buh-ins". You know, like "Buh-wheat". Where in the world does she come up with these things?

Mmmmm, Them's good eatin'

Even at the age of 3 Kate was a carnivore. She enjoys beef (which we buy annually from a local farmer... half a side of beef), sausage, chicken, etc.. I always enjoyeating steak with Kate. She loves steak. Of course there was a bit of confusion on her part (otherwise I wouldn't be posting about this). When the kids would ask what was for dinner and I replied "Steak," Kate would get excited and say "Snake?" And it was pretty inevitable that she would eventually ask, "Can I have more snake, please?"

McConfusion

When Aleah was around 3, she (like all children) loved McDonalds and would get really excited whenever we passed the McD in Westville on the way home from church or a church function. For awhile, she would see the Golden Arches and yell "Chicken pies! Chicken pies!" It took us several weeks to understand that she was really asking for a Happy Meal... you know... Chicken (McNuggets) and (French) Fries.

Wierd Little Piggies

A couple of weeks ago, Kate was doing the Little Piggy thing with her toes. Of course, it was her own version of the rhyme. And in her version, the last Little Piggy climbed the beanstalk. Much more ambitious than the traditional version.

Sthththufferin Sthththtucatash

Good ole cartoons... Kate, approaching her 4th birthday, still talks a bit like Sylvester the Cat. "S" sounds frequently come out as wet, sloppy "th"s. And in other cartoon news, when Kate was potty training, we tried the pull ups. She liked them because they had pictures of Tweety Bird on them. In her typical toddler twist, Kate ended up calling her pull-ups "Cutie Pies"... because of Tweety Bird. See? Ok, it seems a stretch, but that's still what she calls Tweety.

Couch Potato

Speaking of "videos" (last post)... Kate has always been a bit of a couch potato. She loves her videos. "Bob the Builder" was a favorite for a long time, and "Blue's Clues". When she wanted to watch one, she would ask to see a "B-ee-oh". As she has gotten older, that has changed a bit. Now she likes to watch "Bideos".

I Spy...

Kate has enjoyed "My Little Pony" stuff (videos and toys) for about a year... But her grasp on the possessive adjectives has only recently begun to develop. So what was once called "Little Eye Pony" has now become "My Little Eye Pony."

Little Bug...

We often call Kate "little bug"... don't really know why. During the summer when she was 3, she called all flying insects (and maybe some others) "bee-bugs". She wasn't afraid of them... actually Kate was always intrigued with bugs. She would spend hours outside with the neighbor boy, Sam, looking under rocks at the bugs.

"Shut up" is not alright!

There was a Bon Jovi song early in 2006 that was still playing on the radio later in the year. It's called "Who says you can't go home". There is a bridge toward the end of the song that repeats "It's alright" over and over. One day (November or December) we were on our way home in the van and this song was on the radio and the kids were singing along. One of them (I think it was Aleah) mentioned how the song was bad or had a bad word in it. Another kid (probably Isaac) chimed in and agreed. When we asked what they were talking about, they said (I'm paraphrasing), "You know, where he says 'Shut up, shut up, shut up'." We got a good laugh out of that one.

Dirty Money

Jen remembered one of Aleah's little quirks today. When she was still in diapers, Aleah loved pockets. However, she often ran around in a diaper, and even when dressed she rarely had clothing with real pockets (you know how baby clothes have all those fake pockets). Well this failed to daunt Aleah. She simply placed her posessions (usually loose change) in her "posh-posh" (pocket)... right down the front of her diaper. All of the change around our house belonged to Aleah for those months.... her "mennies" (money + pennies perhaps?)

Funny fridge

Here's another from when Isaac was little... his term for the fridge was a "fridge-a-frater". How adorable, eh?

Ten & Tongue-tied

Even our smart "pre-teen" Isaac still struggles with some words... A few months ago when trying to say "pneumonia", Isaac came up with "menonia". And just the other day (I think we were talking about Isaac's drooling problem) Isaac was trying to name the glands that make saliva... and his take was "saliva-larry glands." Nice to see that a "pre-teen" can still say the darndest things.

Fruit, a blender, and Kate...

This is funny, but not as funny as the title might imply. Jen has been trying to eat about 80% raw fruits and vegetables. In order to keep that interesting, she has been making smoothies in the blender. When I came home for lunch yesterday, Kate was geared up to have a smoothie for lunch until she saw I was eating leftover spaghetti. Naturally, Kate wanted what daddy was eating. So when Jen asked if she still wanted a smoothie, Kate said yes (naturally). More accurately, she said, "Yes, a schmoovie."

Big Girl

Kate has always been our biggest kid. She just has a differnt body type than her wiry brother and sister. When carrying her around the age of 2-3, it was natural to tell her how heavy she was getting... to which she would often reply, "Heaby?"

Kate in the car

Kate has (almost) always been entertaining in the car. As an infant and just like our other 2, Kate would frequently end up screaming on almost every car ride when I was driving. Evidently our kids did not scream when I was not in the car. I have never been able to figure out why (and I'm quite sure its not any of the things you are all thinking!) Last year, when Kate was 2, one way to distract her from screaming at Christmastime was to point out the lights. Because of our excitement in an attempt to redirect her attention, she got really excited about lights. She would yell "Lights!" every time she saw some. Of course this continued even after Christmas decorations were taken down. Any somewhat bright grouping of lights resulted in a shout. I'm not sure when it started, but Kate became intrigued by water towers. (I think it was the next means of distraction to keep her from screaming.) Soon she would point out every water tower she saw... and keep yelling "Water Tower!" until someone acknowledged her by finding it. She still will occasionally notice water towers as we are driving.

Giving softwood a whole new meaning

At the age of 3 or 4, Aleah loved pointing out all of the "sleeping pillow trees" that she saw. (I don't think that one requires an explanation.)

Sweet Aleah

My mom took Aleah to the beach in Feb (when she was 3?) because she didn't understand why we couldn't go to the beach in winter in Indiana! Needless to say she got cold. As she sat shivering in the car, she announced "I'm sugarin."

Yes, ma'am. No ma'am. I ma'am.

Kate had a little trouble with saying "I am" until she was about 3 1/2. If you told her, "Kate, you need to eat your dinner," and she felt that she was already doing what you told her to do, she would respond, "I ma'am". This was probably a mutation of "I am" and "Yes, ma'am". Regardless of where it came from, it was fun to hear.

Mow Down

Until Isaac was 5 or 6 (or maybe 7), he would see me getting ready to mow and ask if I was going to "lawn the grass".

Travesty of Justice

I love to use big words around little kids and hear how they try to say them. When Isaac was very little, and something terrible would happen (like a toy falling out of his reach or bedtime coming too early), I would say that it's a travisty of justice. His version sounded like a "tradegy of ju ju".

Isaac must've frequently ridden in the car when it was raining

When Isaac was little, windshield wipers were "shipers". I like it. Easier to say than "windshield wipers" and kind of makes sense.