I think I'd prefer butterscotch

Did I ever tell you about the time my grandma made my dad a peanut butter and butterscotch sandwich? Well, you may remember she was basically blind, and we had a Smucker's jar of butterscotch which looked a lot like a jar of jelly. So one day my grandma was making my dad lunch (which she insisted on doing) and she got out the butterscotch instead of the jelly. She realized partway through making it that it *wasn't* jelly but she served it to my dad anyway. And he ate it! Despite thinking it tasted funny. We've laughed it that story many times since then.

Fast forward to dinner time tonight. I asked Kalena if she'd like me to make her a sandwich and she told me she'd like a "peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich." Ahahaha! Yuck.

I guess he knows the rules?

Yesterday I was putting something away upstairs while the kids were playing downstairs (and Daniel was sleeping.) All of a sudden I hear Kalena start wailing. As I came down the stairs I asked what happened and she informed me that Will had thrown the egg (a wooden toy egg) at her face. So I continued toward the room they'd been playing in and in my best stern-mom voice I started, "Will..." At which point I heard his little toddler voice say from the dining room, "I sittin' in time out."

Yep, as soon as Kalena had started crying he'd trotted himself over to the time out chair and put himself in time out. That kid man. He always knows just when to be cute.

Kalena tidbits

Yesterday we talked about Will, so today we'll talk about Kalena.

One of my favorite things is that she has picked up the phrase, "Hey! What's the big idea?!" and uses it often.

A while back she started asking for "a big squishy hug" before bed (meaning a hug where you squish her) which was amusing on its own because she made squishing motions with her fingers and scrunched up her face when she did it. But THEN she started calling it "a big squishy pizza hug" and now it just makes me laugh. Also, sometimes after the hug she'll ask, "Was that a big pizza hug?"Why she added the word pizza in there I'll never know, but she does it every time.

She still says "last-er-day" for anything before today. I think I mentioned that before, but it's still one of my very favorites.

She calls her forehead her "fort-head." Always makes me imagine her having a fortress in her head.

And I'm sure I'll think of something else as soon as I publish this.

More of Will

A few more tidbits about Will.

He says many words as if they begin with an "F." Trucks are "frucks" his crib is his "frib" and, of course, his crab shirt is his "frab" shirt. Also, the other day he told me he was "just hiding in the floset." I never want this to stop.

If you ask him what a cat says he'll tell you, "Mee Mow"

He knows he's not a baby. (We already talked about that.) BUT. He also knows (um, maybe because we've been telling him this repeatedly) that "big boys" use a potty instead of diapers. Since he would like to never use the potty ever, thank you very much, he insists that he's a "little boy." We often have this conversation:
Me: Will, are you a baby?
Will (laughing): No, I not a baby!
Me: Oh, so you're a big boy then?
Will: No, I not a big boy; I a wittle boy!

He's pretty much the cutest.

No more Mr. Baby

As you probably already know, we have many nicknames for Will. Buster, Buster Brown, Mister Buster, just plain Mister, and the list goes on. My mom though, liked to call him Mister Baby.

While I was pregnant my sister Kari kept insisting that she needed to quit since there would be another baby around soon. But my mom kept saying that Will was always going to be Mister Baby to her. And for a while he was.

Then the other night when I put him to bed I said, "Goodnight Mister Baby." And Will grinned and said, "No, I not baby Daniel!" And that was that. He won't let anyone call him Mister Baby anymore.

And really, he's not a baby anymore.

Don't worry, Daniel wasn't in any danger of falling off the couch here. Will doesn't do the best job of holding him up, he mostly just lets Daniel lay across his lap. (That's Will's "I'm done" face, by the way.) It's a good thing Daniel is around to be the baby now.

Wide awake.

Kalena doesn't understand that when people are sleeping you should let them sleep. I think her life motto is: If I'm up, you should be up. It isn't so bad when she's waking up the adults, but she has recently taking to waking her brothers. On purpose. While I think it is adorable that she wants them to be up so she has playmates, it is bad news because these boys need their sleep! She woke Daniel up half an hour into his morning nap today. His morning nap which normally lasts at least 2 hours. I spent the rest of the day trying to get an overtired baby back onto his normal schedule.

Her reason for waking him up? "I just wanted to keep him comfy." That's her four-year-old version of "keep him company." Cute, yes, but maybe let's confine the cute to waking hours from now on, hmm?

Needy guy

Will has a new habit these days: needing things. Anytime he wants something he'll tell you he needs it. For instance, at breakfast in the morning he'll tell you, "NEED juice! NEED juice!" He does it with everything, even things he decidedly does NOT need. I hear a constant refrain of "NEED tandy!" "NEED soda!" "NEED cake!" Seriously, listening to this kid you'd think all we feed them is sugar. All he needs is to hear one of those words and he'll start up.

He also doesn't want to wait on any of his "needs." The other day he started telling me he needed cake and I told him he could have cake after dinner. He responded with, "No dinner! NEED cake!" Then when I told him he was going to have to eat some food before he had any sweets he replied, "No food! NEED cake!" It's a little obnoxious, but mostly it's funny. The pleading seriousness in his voice gets me every time.

He's been more needy with people too. I would blame this on having a new baby, but it actually started before Daniel was born so I don't think that's it. He's taken to insisting on having an adult come with him everywhere. He does this by grabbing your finger and saying, "Tum on! Tum on!" and if you ask where he'll say, "Ober here!" And if you're not moving quickly enough for him he'll get behind you and push on your butt while saying, "Tum on! Tum on!" Fortunately for me he mostly does this when other people are around, not when I'm home alone with the three kids. He's also gone back to wanting to be carried often so he runs around begging people, "Hold me!"

It's a good thing he's cute.

Some Kalena-isms

My dad finally got Kalena to start saying "knife" instead of "wife" but now she super-emphasizes the N sound.  So it's more like NNNNN-ife than just knife.  Anyway, here are some other things she says right now that I don't want to forget.

She says "last-er-day" instead of "yesterday"
My dad sometimes calls her "snicker-doodle" but Kalena says it "stinker-doodle"
I may have mentioned this already (I know I said it on twitter) but she calls ginger ale "gingerella"
She knows now that Will's name is William (and not actually Buster) so even though she still calls him Buster most of the time, she does sometimes call him Will-whem.
When Brian is working out she'll combine the phrases "doing his workout" and "working out" and tell me that he's "doing his working out."
She's getting better at saying prayers unassisted, but often when she starts saying things she's thankful for she'll open her eyes and just start listing stuff in the room until someone redirects her.
Okay, this one takes a little explanation.  You know how sometimes you'll finish a word or phrase with "what" to clarify something?  (For instance if I said "gestational diabetes" and someone responded with "gestational what?")  Well, Kalena has picked this up, only she just adds "what" in the middle.  So, if she asks what's for dinner and I tell her potato soup, she'll say, "Potato WHAT soup?"  And I don't know how funny this comes across on the old blog here, but it is hilarious, and she does it ALL THE TIME.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Although, I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I publish this.

See, I came up with another one.  She constantly asks, "What you guys talkin' bout?"  She wants to make sure she's included in the conversation