2011 Kidisms

Once again, here is a post of the whole year's worth of my sidebar "Kidisms"--things my kids say. Most are funny, some are very sweet, and each one is something that I never want to forget about my little kids.

January 2011
For a while now, Miles has been pronouncing "carry" as "care-you." I just recently realized that he probably does it because he's heard me say so many times, "do you want me to carry you?" So, now he'll say things like, "I need to care-you it." It's cute.

Miles' choice for the baby's name: Rock Star.

This morning Miles was asking about the flavors in his Froot Loops, by color. Tess was telling him that yellow is lemon, orange is orange, etc. When he asked what flavor green was she said "it must be pea, or maybe green pepper."

A few Tessisms: she really loves to watch the movie "The Spickable Me." (She has also called it "Inspicable Me.")

Today in the van she was writing something in her notebook and Miles was making an annoying sound. She said, "argh--when you do that noise I can't complicate!"

February 2011
Miles: "3-2-1...Blast on!"

Tonight on our way home we passed the Bountiful Temple. Tess pointed it out and we were talking about how pretty it is. Miles said, "when I'm 12, I can go there and get married to a princess."

When Miles motions for us to "come here" with his one bent index finger, he always holds his hand and finger upside down, so it kind of looks like a funny one-finger-wave. (Hard to describe, but it's cute and I want to remember it.)

Bryan read a book called "America the Beautiful" to the kids...when he asked Tess if she knew the name of the Statue of Liberty, she said "American Idol?"

March 2011
Miles, while riding in the van and listening to a CD: "This song is not silly. This song rocks. It rocks the beat. Rock on, dude."

The other day, totally out of the blue, Miles said, "Mom, I know what the SUN is...but what is a BEAM??"

Miles' favorite superheroes are SpiderMan and EnoMan. What? You've never heard of EnoMan? He's IronMan, according to Miles.

April 2011
Yesterday (Easter) I took Miles to the bathroom to make sure he would potty. After a minute I said, "did the pee-pee come?" to which he replied, "Yes! Easter pee-pee!"

How's this for disturbing? I overheard Tess playing and she said, "pretend that our Mom died...but we got her cell phone, so that's OK." (And I don't even have a cool cell phone--yikes!)

Miles, at naptime, told me "I want my blankie spread-outed."

July 2011
While listening to "Thriller" (by Michael Jackson, of course), Miles said, "why'd he say 'ow!' Did he hurt something on his body?"

Out of the blue, Miles said, "Mama, you should give me loves and smooches every day. Then I will stay little." (OH, how that melted my heart! I adore that boy.)

Tonight we had "zalagna" for dinner. (Miles)

Miles has a hard time saying "wasp." Did you know we have a "wopps nest" outside?

Miles said "I smell something weird. It smells like bugs...on top of a cookie." ???

Tess was bugging Miles, so Miles said "Knock it ... down!" (pause...pause....) "Knock it out! Tess, knock it out!" (I wonder when he'll figure out that it's supposed to be "knock it off!")

August 2011
We have a cute stray cat at our house and Tess said,
"Oh, I hope she lays kittens!"

September 2011
More Miles-isms: Pixy Stix are "pisky sticks." Color is "ka-woo."

Miles: "Bree is such a little cutie pie. She's also a cutie cake."

We saw a woman today who had one leg amputated just below the knee. Miles said "Mom! That lady is in a wheelchair, so her leg is broken.... But mom! I can't SEE her foot! How come I can't SEE it??"

Miles was looking at a book of construction vehicles and on the page with the roller he said, "look! Here's a smasher...I mean a flatter."

Neighbor kid to Tess:"That's not how you do it...Der!"
Tess: "Hellooo...it's pronounced DUH!"

November 2011
Miles calls car bumpers "hitters." On his toy cars, he'll point out "hitters" that are interesting.

December 2011
Miles: "Mom, do you actually HOP when you're in the shower?"

Lazy-Man's Christmas Card

For our Christmas card this year, I'm being very lazy and just doing a blog post.  (For those of you who read the blog regularly, you already know what we've been up to anyway!)  So, I just decided to list the top 5 words or phrases that describe each of us this year--the things we liked, the things we did, how we mostly spent our time in 2011.  Here goes:

Bryan

1-finish basement

2-motorcycle rides

3-new daddy

4-ES3

5-Words with Friends

Michonne

1-pregnant

2-Young Women

3-new mommy

4-sleep deprived

5-scrapbooking

Tess

1-lost teeth

2-new room

3-helpful big sister

4-tumbling

5-Mari

Miles

1-preschool

2-helpful big brother

3-bike & scooter

4-Wii

5-Gabe

Bree

1-welcome!

2-baby of the family

3-lots of grins

4-lots of hair

5-rolling over

So there you have it...a quick overview of the Terrys this year.  Merry Christmas!

New pics

Today I took Miles to get his 4-year-old pictures taken and Bree to get her 6-month-old pictures taken.  (Can you believe that she'll be 6 months old on Sunday?  I can't either!)

Miles:  I love the grin.  The mischievous eyes.  So cute.

 This one is my favorite.  What a sweetheart.

 Bree was not so sure about getting her pics taken.  She was tired and a little grumpy (I mentioned the "I must be held or I will cry" phase before.  Yeah, it's still hanging on.  Good thing I love to hold her and give her snuggles!)

That hair!  Those cheeks!  Aack--the cuteness!

 "OK, Mom, I'm done.  Get me outta here!"

Happy Birthday to Miles!

Our sweet boy turned 4 on Wednesday.  He has been looking forward to his birthday for a long time.  I have also been excited to see another 3-year-old graduate to 4.  (Yes, the tantrums are definitely worse at 3 than at age 2.  However, I need to mention that Miles has been MUCH easier at 3 than Tess was....it might be that her personality is just more dramatic, or maybe I'm just more relaxed this time around, but 3 really hasn't been too bad with him.)

I think that 3 is the best of times and the worst of times for kids...they are trying so hard to be independent and do everything for themselves, but when they are incapable of doing some things alone, beware of the gigantic wig-outs. The yelling!  The screaming!  The hitting & kicking!  The throwing of items!  Yowza!  But 3 is also, in some ways, the very best of times...Mom is still their very best friend and favorite playmate, they love to give loves and smooches and snuggles, and my favorite part is their budding language skills.  Almost all of our "kidisms" from this year (posted on the side of our blog) are things that Miles has said--mispronunciations, grammatical errors, etc. that are so dang cute and funny!

Miles got spoiled with lots of wonderful presents this year.  Here he is on his new bike: 

Miles wanted a Spiderman cake this year.  I learned how to make fondant a few months ago, so I thought that I would try it out.  I didn't do anything too hard, just a simple oval-shaped Spiderman head.  But I was still stressed out about it, since I'm so new to the fondant scene.  In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out:

Miles' birthday interview:
Favorite Movie: Despicable Me
Favorite thing to do:  play games with you
Favorite Wii game:  Sonic Colors
Special friend:  Gabe
Favorite food:  pizza
Favorite treat: M&Ms
Favorite book:  a winter magazine (??)
What makes you laugh?  tickling
What makes you sad?  hitting and kicking
What is your favorite part of school?  coloring
What is your favorite song?  Kiss Your Brain
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Garbage man
Does anything make you scared?  Really, really dark stuff
What makes you feel better when you're scared?  Light
What's your favorite toy?  Racetracks
What do you like to play with Tess?  Beanbags
What do you like to play with Bree?  sing songs to Bree and play with her.
Favorite vegetable: carrots
Favorite fruit: apple
Favorite dinner:  Meatballs & rice
I am so thankful that Miles is in our family.  He is my little buddy.  I love to play with him each morning while Tess is at school and Bree is napping.  We play CandyLand, Go Fish, Dominos, and War.  We build with blocks and drive trains.  He is super smart--he's reading cvc words and doing some blends.  I am also amazed by his memory.  He knows what types of cars all our neighbors drive and can point out weird, specific things that I don't even care about or notice, (for example, we'll be driving along and he'll mention that a certain truck has rims on its tires like the rims on our truck!  He's like his daddy.)  He is helpful and happily does his chore of putting the clean silverware away.  He is a really good minder--he truly wants to follow the rules and be obedient to us.  He is quick to say sorry and give loves when he's done the things I mentioned above ("The yelling!  The screaming!"  etc.)  I love him very, very much.  Happy Birthday, Mr. Miles!

Snowbird, Carrots, and Christmas Village

A few random goings-on for our family... 

First was Bryan's work Christmas party.  Each year ES3 gets a hotel room for all of their employees and spouses.  This year we got to stay at Snowbird.  We checked Tess out of school a bit early on Friday and drove the kiddos down to spend the night with Gramma & Grampa Terry.  They had a wonderful time getting spoiled by their grandparents (that's what grandparents are for, right?), and Bryan & I had a wonderful time being kid-free!  Bree did really well, although poor Gma and Gpa got to experience the "I have to be held every second or I'll cry" phase that she is in right now.  She's old enough to WANT to be in on the action, but not coordinated enough to actually sit and play on her own yet.

At the party, they served us a yummy dinner and dessert and then the entertainment this year was "Minute to Win It."  (They do a "game show" competition each year...2 years ago was "ES3 Idol," and last year was "ES3's Got Talent.")  Bryan, being the introvert that he is, has never had any desire whatsoever to enter the talent show.  But this year it was just a random drawing on who got to come up on stage and compete in the challenges to win prize money.  He was sweating all night long, hoping he wouldn't get called up, and I was secretly hoping he would, just for the enjoyment of seeing him squirm in embarrassment up on stage.  But, alas, his name did not get called.  It was a lot of fun to see his co-workers doing their challenges though.  Saturday morning we got to sleep in and then enjoy a quiet, relaxing brunch before picking up the kids.  (Thanks again to gma and gpa!!!)

Saturday night I decided to make some homemade baby food.  We have lots of carrots out in the garden still, so Bryan picked a bunch and I got to work steaming and pureeing them for Bree.  We discovered quite a few strangely-shaped carrots.  Here are a few:

 This lady-like carrot sits with her legs crossed:

For Miles' Joy School today, we went on a field trip to the Christmas Village in Ogden.  For those who don't know what that is, it's just a bunch of miniature houses/cabins/shops that are decorated in Christmas themes.  Some are based on Christmas carols, some are based on fairy tales, some are just Christmasy in general (snow, elves, presents, etc.)  Mrs. Claus was our tour guide, and the kids got to sit on her lap at the end.  It's kind of a fun change...I don't think kids are nearly as scared to sit on her lap as they are Santa's.  Something about that big beard sure scares little kids!