2009 Kidisms

I have been writing down funny things that the kids say on the sidebar of my blog. I also wanted to keep them as a post so it will be in the blog archives. So here are the kidisms from when I began the blog (in August) until the end of the year.

December 2009
Tess, while listening to "Feliz Navidad" on the radio: "Mom, this Christmas song doesn't even have real words, does it?"
(update: Tess really enjoys this song now, and sings along whenever we hear it: "Ma-lease nobby-blah!")

Miles: "Peek-a-goop!"

November 2009
Miles, anytime something exciting happens: "Whoa, bye-o!" (translation is "Whoa, buddy!")

Tess, during prayer: "Please bless me and Miles so we can go to outer space soon."

I love the names that Tess gives to her babies (dolls or imaginary). Today, her daughter's name was Star-lippy.

Today we played at the park and then met Bryan for lunch. We all used hand sanitizer on the way to meet Daddy, and after Tess used it, she smelled her hands and said, "hmmm...my hands still smell like park." (And, you know, I knew exactly what she meant: equal parts "dirt" and "sweaty kid.")

October 2009
Tess was asking about snot, and where it comes from. I said that our bodies just make snot. She said, "but how? It's not like they have a recipe!" I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that...

In a restaurant, Tess noticed a family walk in and the two tween-age kids were wearing vests (the puffy kind). And just like Marty McFly's experience in the 1955 diner, she said "hey! Those kids are wearing swimming things!" (life jackets...)

September 2009
I was spraying sunblock on Tess and she said, "this must be made with fruit snacks. Cuz it's sticky."

Tess: "Mom, I'm in quite a bit of a predicament right now. I bet you don't know what that word means, do you?"

Tess was reading to Miles from his book about construction vehicles when she got to the page with the cement truck. She said, "and this one is called a sidewalk maker..."

August 2009
Tess, to Miles, while both were in the tub: "Miles, I have a vagina and you have a pa-genis." (Bryan's pretty embarrassed that I posted this...but I think it's funny, so it's stayin'!)

Tess (after Miles had just had a huge sneeze): "Mom, Miles just "bless you"ed all over his bib!"

From my "4 yr old-going on 24 yr old" Tess: She walked in holding an old ugly yellow hair scrunchee and said to Bryan, "Dad, I've come to a realization. I don't think I'm ever going to wear this spongee. I think I would like to give it to mom."

Tess: "Tonight is bath night, right? Because yesternight was not bath night."

Tess came in and told me that the dinner in the oven smelled really good. Then she said “Mom, can I just have ONE bite of that smell?”

Miles started saying "Hi, buddy!" to me today.

Tess is reading!

Tess and I were playing with Miles' new "fridge phonics" game and I started making cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words for her. We've done lots of "sounding out" for months now, but she hasn't really been able to blend the sounds together smoothly until today; something just clicked, and she can read any cvc word we try! One happy mama and one proud little girl!!! Yay Tess!

Miss Socialite vs. Mr. HomeBody

Tonight we went to the Ogden Christmas Village. It was pretty fun, but really, really cold. The little buildings in the village are always fun to peek in, and Tess loved it and was happy, as usual, but Miles was kind of grumpy and impatient, as he often is when we're away from home, doing something outside. So we cut our visit a little short, but I did get a few pictures.

It's funny to see the difference between my two kids; I think Tess loves doing new and interesting things, away from home, and she tends to be a stinker when we're at home and she gets bored. Miles loves to be home, doing our usual routine, and he tends to be a stinker when we're out doing something new and unfamiliar. Hmmm...I'm not sure what to do about this??

"A picture? You bet!" (big grin...)

"You want me to do WHAT for the camera? Look happy?! I don't think so!" (crusty face...)

7 Years with this guy...

On Monday we celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary. I can't believe that it's been 7 years already; the time really does fly by. Bryan surprised me with beautiful red roses on our actual anniversary, and then we had our annual over-nighter last night. We stay at a hotel every year on our anniversary and the best part is having no kids for 24 hours! This was our first time in 3 years that we were able to go; 2 years ago, Miles was only a week old and couldn't be left, and 1 year ago, we were moving to our new house and had already asked for babysitting help while we unpacked. So this year we were very excited to keep the tradition going. We took the kids to Bryan's parents' house and we just had a great time being together and relaxing. We ate out for lunch AND dinner (anyone who knows me knows how much I love to eat out!), and we saw a really good movie (Avatar--I thought it was really awesome; I highly recommend it.) Then we just hung out at the hotel, lounging in the hot tub, and eating ice cream and M&M's while watching TV in bed. It was great! The best part was going to bed late and sleeping in this morning!

Contagious??

Tess is generally really good in the car. She looks out the window, or reads books, or colors, or listens to stories on CD...usually she's no problem. But once she decides that she's had enough, she is DONE and if you don't get her out of the car immediately she will make the trip miserable for everyone in the van. She'll use anything as an excuse: "I have to go to the baaaaathrooooom!" "I'm hottttttttt!" or the most recent favorite "I have an iiiiiiiitchhhhhhhhhhhh that I can't scraaaaaaaaatch!" So yesterday after she had reached meltdown mode, whining about the iiiiiitchhhhh, she finally said--completely seriously--"Ohhhhh, I think I must have fleeeeeeeeeeeas!" I just about died laughing.

Home Improvements

Bryan just finished our first basement project in this house. He built shelves and wired an outlet for our freezer in the "fruit room" under the porch. He also added an insulated door to keep the fruit room cool and the rest of the basement warm.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a little bit of a neat freak* ("a place for everything and everything in it's place...") and so I am really excited to fill up those shelves with stuff that is currently just in piles on the floor in the basement. Here are some photos of the finished project.

*notice I didn't say "clean freak." I'm actually pretty lazy about cleaning. Yesterday I walked into the family room and noticed a little finger had written "Tess" in the dust on our TV screen. Good thing she doesn't know how to write "WASH ME" yet.

Our Favorite Little Boy

Miles had his 2nd birthday yesterday. We had a wonderful weekend, celebrating a little bit each day for 4 days. On Friday we went swimming as a family. Miles especially loved going down the big slide with Mom or Dad. On Saturday he got to visit and play with Gramma & Grampa Terry. On Sunday he got to visit and play with Papa, Charlotte, and Gramma & Grampa J. Then on Monday he opened his presents from Mom & Dad. He was definitely a spoiled boy! For his birthday cake I decided to make a DumpTruck. We have a lot of construction in our neighborhood and he loves to see all of the "bih-gucks!" (Big trucks!)

In keeping with Terry family tradition, I thought it would be fun to interview Miles and post his answers...but he's not quite old enough yet to understand, so I'll just post some things I know about Miles. His favorite food is probably crackers or bananas ("nanno"). He loves milk and cheese too. His least favorite food is green beans. I will try to sneak one tiny little green bean speck into a big bite of something else that he likes, and inevitably he'll chew away happily until he detects the green bean molecule and does the dreaded "tongue rake."

His favorite activities are: playing at the park, jumping on the couch with Tess, and of course, watching Signing Time. Miles is very good at entertaining himself and will go down in the basement playroom all by himself and just play for a long time (Tess still won't go down there alone...) He loves to sleep with 3 little stuffed friends: doggy, duck, and elephant. And he loves to have "blanky loves," which is something we started with Tess and continue with him where we just wrap him up like a baby in his blanky and snuggle with him. When he or Tess are really sad or frustrated, they'll go and grab their blankies for blanky loves.

Miles favorite toy varies from day to day. Today it's his new soccer ball, but it will probably change tomorrow. His favorite books are his ABC books and his construction vehicle book. His favorite color is yellow and his favorite letter is W.

We just love and adore Miles. He is a sweetie and brings a lot of joy and energy into our home.

Happy Birthday Bye-o! (buddy)

Here he is getting ready to blow out his "2" candle.

He loved licking the frosting off his fingers.
"Ooh!"

"Bih-guck!"

How big of morons are we??

In June we had a family reunion at a waterpark in Idaho. After swimming and driving home, we realized that we left both kids' lifejackets by the side of the pool. Luckily, when I called, they had them in Lost & Found and said they would mail them to us, using our own credit card (which I understand because it was our fault.) We needed them for a waterski trip and waited anxiously for them to arrive in the mail. Then, one day I got a call from the place in Idaho, and they had been returned to them because the address was copied down wrong! argh. So, they agreed to re-send them (at their cost this time), but they didn't get here in time for the waterski trip. (Fortunately my dad had some extra ones that were small enough to fit our kids.)

Fast forward to yesterday when Bryan & I took the kids swimming, to celebrate Miles' birthday (coming up on Monday!) This morning I was folding all the clean, dry swimming suits to put away in the swimming bag...when I noticed that--you guessed it--the lifejackets were nowhere to be found. ARGH!!! I cannot believe that we did it again! What would we do if we had more children? Leave one of THEM at the pool?

Unfortunately this time there were some very dishonest people at the Clearfield Aquatic Center, because nobody turned them in to Lost & Found and the lifeguard staff has not seen them. Maybe this time we'll learn our lesson and take better care of our new ones...when we get some.

What would I do without Alex & Leah?

Signing Time saved me again! When Tess was little, she loved Signing Time and knew a lot of signs, but she also spoke very early and very clearly. Miles is a total Signing Time addict and I'm lucky that he is because he does NOT speak very clearly. He jabbers long sentences and I usually only understand a word or two. This morning after breakfast he kept pointing to a kitchen cabinet and repeating the word "daw!" I had no idea what he was talking about, so I asked him the sign. He did a sign and I still couldn't figure out what the sign was...finally I realized he was doing the sign for "draw" and the cupboard he was pointing to was where we keep the "straws." He wanted a straw to drink the milk from his cereal bowl. (Whew!)

Success!

Growing up, we would always eat Thanksgiving dinner with grandparents and cousins on Thursday and then my mom would always make a Thanksgiving dinner for our own little family on Sunday, just so we could enjoy all the leftovers. The year that my mom died, I decided to try to follow her tradition and I made the whole meal. It went well but I just decided to leave it to the grandmas every year after that. Well, this year I thought that I'd start up the tradition again with my own little family. I am really not a good cook, and I don't really enjoy cooking very much. (I've always followed the motto that "quick, cheap, & easy" is the best way to cook/eat.) Anyway, I just followed a recipe in my good old red&white checkered cookbook (the classic one that we all have...) and the turkey turned out so yummy! Tess said "this is the goodest turkey I have ever had!" So, I consider that a success. And now we have enough turkey leftovers to get us through Christmas!

(Bryan wants me to add that I forgot to take the gizzard and giblets out of the bird, so they sat in there the whole time it cooked. Oops. I told you I'm not a good cook!)

Jolly

During October, Tess liked looking at all the spooky houses. Near our house there were 3 in a row that were very decked out with monsters, headstones, etc. We would reference them to help her know when we were close to home ("We're almost home; look, there are the spooky houses.") So, now that Halloween decorations are gone and Christmas ones are going up, Tess has been asking about the spooky houses again. We had to explain that they're not spooky anymore. She asked "if they're not spooky, then what are they?" And Bryan replied, "They're jolly." So now cute Tess is always commenting as we drive: "look! There's a jolly house! Oh, look, another jolly one. Hey-that one's really jolly!" It's very sweet.

Tonight we had our monthly "Family Date." (Bryan & I have dates 2 weekends a month and then we all go together for a family date once a month.) We went down to Temple Square (while listening to the tragic end to the UofU/BYU game on the radio. Poor Utes--it was SO close!). Anyway we drove to Salt Lake and had a really great time looking at the jolly lights. My favorite part is seeing the international Nativity scenes. (They're quite jolly!) Tomorrow we will put up all our Christmas decorations and I'm really excited to figure out where to put everything in our new house. (Last year we moved in on December 20, and I just didn't have the motivation to unpack AND re-decorate for Christmas...I guess our house was not very jolly last year!)

And on a tangent: Miles has started talking a lot, and it's really fun to hear him. He's been saying "Hey, buddy" for a while now, and it has always sounded like "Hey, bubby!" But now for some reason it has changed into another, equally cute (if not more so!) mispronunciation: "Whoa, buddy!" is now "Whoa, bye-o!" I love it.

"I love brother, he loves me"

My kids are at a really fun age. Tess is definitely the ring leader and tells Miles what to do all the time, but Miles is little enough that he doesn't mind and big enough that he can actually DO the things Tess wants to do (usually.) It is so much fun to see the two of them play together and actually really enjoy each other.

Their two favorite games are: 1-pulling all 6 pillows off the couch and pretending the couch is their trampoline/gymnastics mat. They do flips and somersaults and belly-flops onto cushions and occasionally crash into each other. The other day, within a time span of about 3-4 minutes, each of them had fallen off an arm of the couch onto their heads on the floor. But, they're tough, and they have fun, and I love it. 2-running through the family room, into the kitchen, around the island, around the kitchen table, and over to our bedroom door. Rest, repeat. (about 100 times.) They usually choose this one when I'm making dinner/setting the table, which makes it exciting for me, and it works out great because they're usually pooped enough that they sit still and actually eat a pretty good dinner! :)

Frosty

We made our first snowman of the year on Saturday. Last year we really didn't let the kids play in the snow, because we just had dirt in our yard and I didn't want to see the kids make "mud angels." So they were very excited to go out and build a snowman and make snow angels.

Miles' coat is really big because we're hoping he can wear it for 2 years. The hood seems extremely big and it looks really funny on him. It would look a lot better if he'd let us velcro the bottom part of his hood under his chin, but he doesn't like it...so he just looks kind of dorky (but cute!)

Miles' ABCs

OK, so this post is just me bragging about my 1-yr-old kiddo Miles. He knows all of his ABCs--not the song, but actually putting a letter name with its correct symbol. I'm pretty amazed. I wish I could say that Bryan or I taught him that, but, nope--I owe it all to Alex & Leah. Here's a video of it.

Halloween fun

We did all the usual Halloween festivities last week: pumpkin carving for Family Home Evening, costume party at school, and of course Trick or Treating. We had a lot of fun in our new neighborhood. Tess was dressed as a cheerleader and Miles was a firefighter. Tess literally ran from house to house with her two cute neighbor buddies, Jaxsen and Forrest. Miles toddled along with me for the first 10 or so houses, and then he was content to just ride along in the wagon, holding his pumpkin bucket on his lap. I don't even know if he realized there was candy in it!(on a tangent, Miles has become completely obsessed with "Signing Time." He would watch 4 or 5 hours a day if I'd let him. It's like his new binky or comfort object; if he falls down or gets hurt, he'll tearfully ask for "Sigh-nimuh." Anyway, in this picture he and Tess are showing the ASL sign for "scared.")

Halloween 2009 JibJab

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My Manly Man and Brave Girl...

Bryan has been in pursuit of a big deer for three years now. In 2007, he got a deer that was a fairly small two-point and it has been the subject of much joking ("Hey Bryan, did you have to rent a separate moving van to move your monster antlers when you moved?"... etc.) In 2008, they didn't have any luck at all. So this year he was determined to get something bigger than the "monster" of 2007. On Friday they scoped out the best spots and on Saturday they hunted all day long, with no luck. Sunday morning they packed up and were driving down the road to head home...about 1 mile from camp they spotted two big bucks! So they pulled over and dug out the rifles and luckily Bryan was able to get a good shot at one of them. He is proud to say that he now has two "monsters." This one is definitely bigger (a 3x2 point) than the other. I think he mostly just enjoys being away with the guys for a weekend. (Call it "craft night," only with testosterone, it's stinky, and it lasts for 4 days.) We debated about keeping the meat or donating it to "Hunters feeding the Hungry," like we did with the "monster." In the end, Bryan decided to donate it. So our freezer is still deer-free.

(If you look closely in this picture you'll see that Bryan is carefully removing from his foot pieces of a cactus that he stepped on Saturday afternoon. He still finds a little piece every so often at home.)

In other news, Tess had her Primary Sacrament Program last Sunday and did a great job saying her part in the microphone. She really likes to be in the spotlight and she doesn't get stagefright at all (yet...maybe that will change when she's older?) And today we decided to try riding her bike without training wheels. We loaded her up with knee pads, elbow pads, and gloves and she did a great job! We'll keep practicing, but I think she's got her dad's biking blood in her.

The Scream

Often people tell us that Miles is so good, so mild-mannered. His nursery leaders tell us that he's never any problem, never makes a fuss. And in groups, he always just minds his own business and entertains himself pretty well (unless we're camping, then he's a pill.) But in our own home, he can have quite the temper. When we tell people about the screams I sometimes think that they think we're exaggerating. Well, this morning he started in on the screaming and I quickly grabbed the camera, hoping to record it. I figured Murphy's Law would kick in and he would not do it on camera, but I was wrong...he didn't disappoint. Here, for your viewing and listening pleasure, is Miles when he has reached the end of his very short fuse.

"A guy!"

We went for a drive up Logan Canyon today to see the changing colors; unfortunately the cold, snowy weather last week did a number on the trees and the colors are not as spectacular as they usually are. Regardless (or "irregardless" if you're a true Utahn), we did have a great time and took a small hike at Third Dam. Bryan was trying to point out to the kids any fish he saw in the river and he mentioned to Miles, "Look right there! See that little guy? That's a fish!" So, after that Miles thought the fish were called "guys" and kept saying "Guy, guy, a guy? Guy!?"

(As a funny, or actually embarassing, sidenote: Before we left today I happened to notice that Bryan & I were both wearing the same shirts that we wore for our engagement pictures--in October of 2002. Either we're really out of style, way too cheap to buy new clothes, or just have a timeless look that's always in style--yeah, right. Now we just have a few more pounds and a little less hair. I'm talking, of course, about my new, shorter hairstyle...that comment had nothing to do with Bryan's hairline! :)

Not the fierce eyes!!!

Tess started doing this crazy thing about 6 months ago. She pulls her fingers into a funny shape and puts them by her eyes and calls them her "fierce eyes." I don't know where it came from, but it's really funny and she does it when she's mad at us. If we tell her to do something that she doesn't want to do, she'll pull the fierce eyes out (along with the scowling mouth); our response is always, "Noooo!!! Not the fierce eyes!" Funny kid.

And Miles.... Here he is happily coloring with markers in his high chair. I noticed, though, that he had something orange on his lip, so I asked what it was. He stuck out his tongue and I realized that he had been coloring all over his tongue! I hope the markers really are non-toxic!

Sweet innocence...

You know what's pretty sweet? How innocent children are when they try to think of something bad...Let me back up...tonight at dinner Bryan & I were talking about someone we know who is a pretty horrible person (I won't go into details but I'll just say he's terribly dishonest and charms his way into people's lives before preceding to use them and steal from them.) Anyway, Tess (who's becoming much more receptive to our conversations; we need to be more careful!) wanted more specifics about the bad things this guy does. Then she said in a whisper voice (I guess because it's so bad she couldn't say it out loud), "maybe he puts his finger in his nose and gets a booger on it, and then doesn't wash his hands!" Classic.

New (to us)...

We have been casually looking for a new kitchen table since we moved to this house. We didn't really like the look of our old table (white, with medium oak top; very "country kitchen") in our new kitchen (dark brown cabinets and floors with black accents; much more "contemporary"). So we have been looking and found one that we really liked on KSL on Friday; Saturday morning we brought it home. It is counter height with dark wood. It looks so much better in our kitchen, and it's a little bit bigger than our old table too (can seat up to 8 people).

I really love it, although I have to admit that I have to get used to the taller chairs...when we first sat down to eat lunch at it yesterday, Bryan & I both looked at each other and said, "I can't get my chair to scoot in..." Then, after lunch we both couldn't scoot OUT! So, there's a little learning curve to scoot in and out when your feet don't touch the ground, but I think we've got it figured out now!

A few friends have asked for pictures of our house and I haven't done it yet because our yard was just dirt for so long; but here are finally some photos of the house and yard. (In the backyard you'll see our newly "walled around" garden area; Bryan just put that little garden wall in on Friday. We didn't have a garden this year, so you can see where the grass grew into the garden area, but we'll be all ready to go next year!)