Humor

Gracie’s stages: Whasfodinnuh?

~ Christie ~ 3 Comments
Sweet baby Gracie
Sweet baby Gracie

It’s time for the next installment of Gracie’s stages!! And it is a good one!

This stage was definitely my sister’s favorite ever. It got to the point where she would text me every morning saying, “Did she say it?” But I give too much away.

We love two-year old’s around here!! I think it’s my favorite age. You can read about why here. After that post, I started writing down all of Gracie’s fun two-year old stages. You can read about some of those here and here.

A little background before I dive in to the story of this stage. Gracie lost weight from the age of six to nine months (I really took that hard) and it was a while before she got back to where she needed to be.

But now?

She’s definitely making up for lost time.

Plainly stated… the child LOVES to eat. And I’m so thankful every time I look at her chubby little body.

At some point this fall, she realized that I pretty much knew what I was going to make for dinner that night; and that if she asked me I would share that information with her. (The other girls will frequently ask about the dinner plan at some point during the day)

Gracie began to ask me, “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?”

And I would reply with whatever the choice was for that night.

To which she would reply, “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

It was great. But it got even greater.

That question became literally the first thing she said to me every morning! For at least a month, probably longer!

I’d walk into her room in the morning, “Good morning, Gracie! How are you?”

She’d stand up (always with the most hideous case of bedhead you’ve ever seen), rub her sleepy eyes and say in a soft, morning voice, “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?”

And I would reply, and she would say, “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

Every. single. morning.

(See how I just. did. that.? It’s a very bloggy thing to do.)

Even though she had already asked first thing in the morning, she would still ask six or seven times during the day. Just randomly walk up to me and say, “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?”

And I would reply and she would say, “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

Didn’t matter what it was. Spaghetti? Tilapia? Chicken and dumplins? Breakfast?

“Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

Of course, I would tell Laurie about this during our daily phone conversations; so she began texting me in the morning, “Did she say it?”

It was her idea for me to ask Gracie, “What do you want for dinner?” Awesome idea. “I’ll try it tomorrow!”

So the next morning after “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?” and my reply and “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face; I asked:

“What do you want for dinner, Gracie”

“Chicken and dumplins!”

She said that for at least a week; but after she said it, I would tell her what we were actually having and she would say…

“Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

I love that girl.

What the fly on the wall heard

~ Christie ~ 4 Comments

Welcome to “What the fly on the wall heard”! This is where I keep track of all the silly things said around here as we go through our life with four girls five and under.

Sophia quickly shoved a bunch of newly picked grass in my hand so she could run down the sidewalk as we were on our way home from playing outside, “Mom, can you hold these for me? It’s my fresh garlic!”

****

This afternoon at lunch, Paul and I were conversing about ranching life, how it’s dusk to dawn, day in and day out; how there’s so much work to be done; how it must help people to avoid the pitfalls of idleness to be so busy…

Sophia chimed in (with very excited tones), “And because they live on a farm, they don’t even have to stop to eat breakfast if they’re really busy; they can just go to work, grab one of the animals, kill it and eat it!!”

Gracie had a little something to add, “And they probably get a kitty-cat, and they’d kill it and eat it, and then put it inside the fence. And that makes perfect sense.”

I’m not lying! That’s what she said!

So just to review, they’d kill a cat, eat it, and put it inside a fence. All that would make perfect sense.

Got that?

Gracie’s stages: I don’t like bugths!

~ Christie ~ 1 Comment
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photo credit

Gracie is, or can be… a little contrary. Let’s just say she seems to enjoy not liking things more than she does liking things. Bubble bath? The other girls can’t get enough of it. But Gracie shakes her head and says, “I don’t like bubblths.”

Perhaps if you’ve read much here, you’ve caught on that Gracie and I have a special time of mother/daughter conversation while she uses the restroom before her nap. Strange as it might sound, it’s one of the most entertaining, (dare I say, favorite?) times of my day. This conversation basically consists of her monologue-ing and me just saying something every now and then to keep her going. One day, early on in the two year old stage, she began to tell about things she didn’t like.

“Mommy…”

“Yes, Gracie?”

“I don’t like bugths!”

“I don’t like bugs either, Gracie.”

“Yeah, them gwoss!”

But it was cuter than that. Imagine her scrunching up her nose and shaking her head when she says, “Bugths.” It continued.

“I don’t like beeths.”

“I don’t like waspths. ”

“I don’t like anths.”

“I don’t like ca-ta-pil-wa-ths.”

“I don’t like butterflieths.”

I had to disagree here. “You don’t like butterflies? I like butterflies.”

“Mm…no, I don’t like butterflieths.” And the nose scrunches and the head shakes.

It was too much.

I don’t know how long we would ask her, “Gracie, do you like bugs?”

And she would tell us.

I’m trying to keep track of the funny stages Gracie goes through as a two year old. Last time I wrote about “Birthday Woo!” and “Boy run!”

What the fly on the wall heard

~ Christie ~ 1 Comment

Oh boy, was it a good week for funny things said around here! I started these posts so I could remember the silly and ridiculous things that come out of our mouths. This week there’s even a guest appearance from one of Paul’s sixth grade students!

****

First up…

Sophia leans over to Hope at the dinner table, “I want to tell ya somethin’…” she says excitedly.

Hope leans over to listen.

“Have to wait ’til next year!”

****

“Hope, while you’re supposed to be picking up toys is not a good time to pretend that you’re blind.” (me; and thank you Helen Keller book)

****

Paul was having a conversation with some of his middle school students regarding middle school smells. = ) I guess one of the guys started feeling a little in the hot seat so he blurted out, “Hey! I put deodorant on yesterday!”

It got better.

Later he defended himself, “Hey, cologne covers a multitude of scents.”

****

And… in my opinion, one of the funniest things I’ve heard around here in a long time.

To set it up, I have to give you a little background. We have this Curious George book about writing thank-you notes. On the back of the book, it shows how to pronounce “thank you” in several languages. The girls learned “Merci!” and get a great kick out of using it on me every now and then. We have said several times that I need to learn how to say “Your welcome” in French so I can respond to them.

All that to say, we were sitting at dinner one night (just the girls and I) and Sophia asked how to say “eye” in French. (Sometimes we get a little bored and crazy after being in the house all day together without Paul)

My computer happened to be on in the kitchen so I said, “I’ll go check for you.”

I googled it and listened to the pronunciation several times. Apparently, I don’t have an ear for the French language. To me, it sounded like, “Oh-ay?” “Oh-i?”

I told Sophia as best as I could and all the girls said it several times.

We finished dinner and I was just clearing the table when I saw Sophia go up to Hope and say, “Oh-ay!”

Hope’s response made me laugh out loud.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t understand you, I’m English.”

Seriously?

Then Sophia proceeded to follow her around the table pointing at her eye, blinking, and saying, “Oh-ay? Oh-ay? Oh-ay?”

****

The next night, the girls were repeating the aforementioned joke because they knew it made me laugh.

Hope had just finished saying, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t understand you, I’m English,” when Gracie chimed in…

“I can’t stand you, ma’am! I’m anguish!”

****

Ohhhh, I love living with little kids! First-class entertainment.

Gracie’s stages: Birthday Woo! and Boy run!

~ Christie ~ 4 Comments
Gracie riding a seesaw on her second birthday
Gracie riding a seesaw on her second birthday

In my recent post about why every house should have a two-year old, I said that one of the best things about this time is the stages that they go through. I thought it would be fun to chronicle the different stages that our dear Gracie has had. It started out with them all in one post, but that was way too long. So, I’ll just break it up and do a couple every now and then. There are two for today; hope you enjoy!

Birthday Woo!

Gracie’s first stage that relates to being two started a few weeks before her second birthday. Her sisters had been in the habit of singing “Happy Birthday” with an enthusiastic “Woo!” for an ending.

Of course, Gracie was quite small still, but for fun we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday. At first she would smile and think and then say, “Birthday Woo!” We thought this was adorable, so like any good family we kept asking her and asking her and asking her. Her response would grow in excitement. To accompany the “Birthday” she would shake her arms twice in a typing position, then raise them up high over her head when she said, “Woo!” It got to where you could ask her at any point in the day, in the middle of any occasion, we would ask, “Gracie, what do you want for your birthday?” and she would adorably reply, “Birthday Woo!”

I so wish that I would have caught this little antic on video; but as all stages do, it came to an end before I did. Poor thing, her arms must have gotten tired.

Boy run!

This next stage was a weirdy. I sort of hate to include it because it wasn’t all that funny and didn’t make sense, but then again, who says that two year old stages by requirement must be sensical?

Gracie would say to me, “Mommy, when I was a little boy… I would say, ‘Boy run!'”

Yep. That’s it.

Every now and then it would be, “Mommy, when I was little boy… I said, ‘Boy preach!'”

I have absolutely no idea where this one came from, but I do know that she would say it at least once at every meal.

Sometimes we would interrupt her and say, “Gracie, you never were a little boy…”

And she would continue, “…I said, ‘Boy run!'”

Like I said, a weirdy.

Until next time…

What are some of the funny stages your two-year olds have been through? Do tell, I love these kinds of stories. = ) 

Can you say “hermeneutics”?

~ Christie ~ Leave a comment

Hope is intelligent, articulate and exact. Sophia is funny, crazy and mischievous.

They were sitting at the table, coloring. I was in the living room folding clothes. Which seminary class their father would attend that night was the topic of their conversation.

Sophia asks, “What class does Daddy have tonight?”

“Hermeneutics,” Hope replies.

“Oh…” and Sophia repeats hermeneutics. Except…she didn’t say it quite right. Almost, but not quite.

“No,” Hope corrects her, “her-me-noooo-tics.”

“Hermejetics.”

“Hermeneutics.”

“Herbejuckus?”

“Say ‘herm-”

“Herm-”

“-men-”

“-men-”

“-noo-”

“-noo-”

“-tics.”

“-tics.”

Hope is very happy with this. “That’s it! Now say hermeneutics.”

“Hermalexa.”

This went on and on. Sophia never cracked a smile, never changed her voice at all. Honestly, I didn’t know she had such creative, verbal-convoluting abilities in her.

Hope never caught on. Okay, she caught on when Sophia digressed into using bathroom word endings. Ay-yay-yay. That’s when I stepped in between peals of laughter, “Okay, okay.”

Was that really my three and four year old? Yep. Thanks for the reminder that my husband’s stellar sense of humor …has definitely been passed down.

Can you say “hermeneutics”?

Apple sauce? Apple rock!

~ Christie ~ 4 Comments
the unfortunates
the unfortunates

So today I’m going to tell you about how I made this totally disgusting, inedible attempt at applesauce. It was so easy! Literally, it took less than ten minutes and we had awful aromas and puzzled children. All the ingredients were right on hand, just waiting to be sacrificed. Here’s the recipe: you’re going to love it!

First, randomly decide to make it (in the middle of lunch) and don’t bother to look at the recipe; I’m sure your memory is as reliable as mine.

1 chopped apple

a few tablespoons of water

squirt of honey

spoonful of brown sugar

cinnamon (optional) because I couldn’t find mine

Dump all ingredients in a small microwave safe bowl. Don’t bother to stir or cover; everything will be just fine.

Microwave on high for five minutes. (Small note: I did remember exactly that the original recipe said ten minutes, but I knew I was doing a smaller amount so I cut the time in half. Didn’t want it to burn or anything.)

Remove from microwave; groan; fill with dish detergent and let soak until washable; continue groaning.

(Yeah, I was feeding Mckayla these little chopped apples. She had enough teeth to do it, but I thought, “This is going to take a while, why don’t I just make them into applesauce real quick?”) Think again, genius.

you know you want to try it
you know you want to try it

The smoky, steamy, apple-y, s’mores-y gas that covered me when I opened the microwave was wretched. NOT what I was looking for! The apples? Completely burnt and black – like a rock! To further my lapse in judgment, I tasted them. Moron! …gag… basically charcoal.

Will my aptitude for disaster in the kitchen ever come to an end?