all quotes from today

Today was a funny day for listening to the kids! It started off before 7 am. I was up before hte kids and I could hear them in there as they woke up. They started telling each other knock-knock jokes. Their current favorite is the "banana" over and over until "Orange you glad I didn't say banana again?" punchline. Carl is better at it than Gretchen, she often screws up the fruit at the end. So, that went on for a few rounds. Then, I heard Carl say, "Open the door". Gretchen has figured out the doorknob cover, but he hasn't. She usually lets them out and they come to wake us up. But, I have been telling her not to get up when there is a 6 on the clock. Then I set their clock back 30 minutes!! Hey, I'm still one step ahead of them, right? So, in their room, it wasn't 7 am yet! She was so matter of fact, informing and teaching him, "Carl (which she pronouces more like Guyer than Carl. Kind of a mix, "Cay-erl" Guyer is my maiden name so it is pretty funny to hear it a lot around here.) Do you see that six on our clock? That means we cannot get up yet."

I actually sneaked out to my photo scavenger hunt before they came out. I'll make that a separate post.

Later on, after nap, we went to Costco to shop. They have all their Christmas decorations up already. Gretchen & I were going one way, while Lew & Carl were ordering a pizza for dinner. She & I turned down the row with the lit up trees and she looked up and exclaimed, "It's the middle of Halloween!" I never made any mention to her that the decorations were very early. She just knows this stuff. I am grateful I can do things like mess with their clock and get away with it still.

I have been looking up a certain new cup for the kids. It's by a company called Contigo and it is marketed for kids ages 4+. They say it is a spill-proof cup for kids too old for sippy cups, but who still may spill. It kind of looks like a cross between an adult's travel coffee mug and a sippy cup. I saw the link in a parent magazine, then did a little online research adn was about to order the cups online. They were about $12 for 2. But, Costco had a 4 pack for $16! So, Gretchen picked the colors to buy and she was carrying the pack around throughout the store. She told several shoppers about them - I mean giving them a full blown description of how to drink from them and how she was going to have Mommy wash the cups and she could have some water to drink and so on and so on. The lady at the check out counter got the longest explanation. And of course, the guy draws a smiley face on our receipt when we leave and she loves that!!!

As we are pulling away from the store, Lew rolled through the stop sign and Carl piped up, "That stop was great!" Hmm, I think he may be developing sarcasm already. I think I am proud. Then he proceeds to tell us he wants pizza. (He doesn't like pizza) I asked him, "Do you like pizza?" and he replied, "Yes. Let's go eat one." After waiting so long for full sentences, it is funny to hear how the phrases from every day life come out of him. And - even cooler - he did try the pizza. He held the long skinny slice upside-down and grabbed it with both hands around the middle... but he did eat 3-4 bites of it. Yup, I am proud.

**Sunday**
Carl continues to crack us up with his new casual phrases. Tonight at dinner, he took one bite of strawberry yogurt and said, "Mmm, that's good stuff."

Lew asked him if he needed help or not ... and Carl said, "Not."

Gretchen asked Carl is he was hungry and thirsty. He said, "yes" and she told him, "Wow. You're in rough shape." She's pretty funny, too.

Any Parrotheads out there??? My favorite line of Jimmy Buffet's (for those of you who are asking, "what the heck is a Parrothead?"... his fans) is.... "if we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane."