Noah: Obviously remembering the baboon/vervet monkey incidents from South Africa, heard some roosters crowing outside our house in the Philippines and asked with great concern, "Can roosters open doors?"
N: I think that's where the Colts play.
W: No, that's Taco Bell.
N: Daddy, I spotted Taco Bell!
Mommy: What will we eat for dinner tonight?
Daddy: Who (are you asking)? Me?
Mommy: Anybody
Noah: Are we going to eat somebody?
Mommy: That's mine.
Noah: Mine who?
Noah, perfecting the art of optimism:
"These are the coolest potties I've ever seen!" (stainless steel, industrial style at a rest stop)
"This has been a great day!" (after throwing up and moping around feeling sick all morning, then riding in the car for a few hours and finally perking up a little at a rest stop)
"Wow! This is a wonderful highway!" (as we entered road construction and went down to one lane)
Aden: Finally I got a winter birthday card! (When asked for further clarification he said that meant he got a card that had been out in the snow and ice long enough to be cold.)
Aden: I need something really lunch-y today. I'm really hungry.
Noah (playing basketball up and down the living room): Tied up! That was amazing-grace!
Mommy: Oh, Noah, you're something else!
Noah: I'm not someone else. I'm Noah.
Noah (receiving 2 Oreos for dessert): God gave us Christmas, again!
Noah (as we drove through the hills of Missouri): What is this called?
Mommy: The Ozarks.
Noah: The Noah's-Arks?
Aden (in a hotel along the way): This is so cool! If we wake up early in the morning we can just crawl to the end of the bed, look out the window, and watch the road and say "This is so special." ... (then, almost interrupting his own sentence) Look! A semi!
Daddy: Don't pick your nose.
Noah: Daddy, but there's boogers in there!
Noah: I love you with all my heart. And I love you with all my wings when I kiss you.
Noah (at Christmas time), upon seeing a 'veiled' Mommy in one of her wedding photos: Was Mommy a shepherd?
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| Emma's drool |
At Christmas time, in the midst of transition, we didn't do a lot of decorating. To make do, Mommy put a bunch of dry twigs in a jar and tied red and green bows on them, calling it our "Christmas tree." The boys were less than impressed, so finally she borrowed a small, pre-lit, pre-decorated tree from Auntie Linda Braaten. When Noah came down and saw the "transformed" tree, he declared, "Now when I get next to it I need to sing "Hark the Herald Angels!" Apparently Mommy's efforts resembled Charlie Brown's more than she had intended.
Wiley (after walking home from the store in the rain): I'm as wet as a giraffe in the rain!
Aden (pointing to his left eye): This eye is still a little bit sleepy.At a local restaurant, Aden's food came last; while he was waiting, his friends offered him some of their food. Later, Aden explained to Mommy: Everybody else just offered me their germs before my food came.
Wiley: If I don't drink another cup (of milk) I'm gonna be thin and very small. (Perhaps that's his interpretation of our comments that milk will help him grow big and strong.)
Noah, in a panic: There's a rat in our crack! (The "crack" referred to the track for the trellidoor.) Mommy: What?!
Noah: Maybe it's just a ladybug. (Later, we realized it was a gecko.)
Mommy (watching Noah play outside): Noah, where are your shoes?
Noah: Uh . . . maybe it's a sock day.
Wiley (playing "park"): The porcupine just rolled over onto its feet. It was just digging a hole in the ground with its pines.
Wiley (with hopefulness): Next Thanksgiving, can we dress up like turkeys?
Noah (about the reflectors on his bicycle helmet): The flashlights are for when it's dark.
Wiley: They're not flashlights, they're headlights.
Noah: Wiley, can you nibble the football so that I can kick it? (I think he wanted Wiley to set it up and hold it for him.)
Wiley (watching Emma, lying on her back and moving her arms and legs): She looks like a turned-over bug.A couple weeks later . . .
Wiley: Watch out. There's a turned-over bug. It looks like a baby.
Random Question from Wiley: Who remembers when Daddy was cleaning up dust in Papua New Guinea?
Noah (in the midst of play): An ant!
Wiley: Get a shoe!
Mommy (taking a look): He's a big ant, isn't he?
Wiley: It's not a he, it's a she. . . . (after killing the ant) I want to go in the back. Seeing an ant reminds me of outside.
Aden: Mommy, are people born in Alaska?
Mommy: Yes.
Aden: But they don't have hospitals in Alaska, do they?
Mommy: They do.
Aden: Well, then I'm going to Alaska some day. It sounds like it's safe.
Daddy, to Aden (while Emma was crying in the backseat): Why don't you sing to her, Aden?
Aden: I can't. She's hungry.
Wiley to Noah (going to fetch Flags Book): Noah, I'm going to get the best book ever . . .
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| Playing church |
. . . and also the story of Noah's Ark, which included this little-known segment: . . . And the dove brought back an olive branch. And Noah fed it to the cow.
Wiley (fishing for something under the bed): Noah can't reach it because his arms are only three years old.
Wiley (closely examining Baby Emma): She has a booger in her nose that's shaped like a rocket!
Mommy: Do you know what comes after 999?
Aden (in a very matter-of-fact tone): Five hundred ninety eleven.
Mommy (seeing the boys carrying their chairs through the house): What are you doing?
Aden: We're going out front.
Mommy: For what?
Wiley: For speeches.
(Apparently Aden's speech also required a remote-control car and a homemade stoplight.)
Aden (defending why he could not stop watching the television): My eyes stick to whatever I like, and whenever I'm done they stick to whatever else.
