Aquire

John: I am going to play Acquire with Daddy. [it is a board game]
Emma: Can I be in the choir too?
John: Sure!

Pumpkins Everywhere

John: My bum is like a pumpkin.
Me: Oh really? Why is it like a pumpkin?
John: Because there is this [pointing to his crack]. And then it is round.

Enough said.

Camping

Aaron took John camping in the backyard this weekend. John was in love. Fortunately he fell asleep right away but woke up at the crack of dawn, just after 6am. Aaron was kind enough to take the kids for an early walk in the forest. It was a cold morning and I think they complained on the hike that it was cold but they came home happy. I got to clean a toilet and believe it or not, it made me happy. Turns out cleaning toilets is a great time to think.

Blast Off

I had a nap today and it was glorious! While I was napping, Aaron gave the kids a choice between learning about space, muscles, or french. They chose space. He showed them some videos of rocket launches and the moon walk and discussed gravity and the atmosphere. I woke up rested and they were smarter.

Aaron and Emma left to go help some one rip up carpet and John turned to me and announced that he wanted an astronaut costume. Turns out I don't have one. He was very insistent so I figured we could conjure up something. We looked online and came up with footie jammies, a bike helmut and an amazon box covered in printer paper with duck tape straps and voila! We had an astronaut costume. The good thing is, John is pretty easy going so this costume totally worked for him. We played moon walk and blast off and all sorts of things. Then he wanted to be an astronaut that rode his bike so he put on his fireman rain boots because astronauts wear boots and we went outside in full gear and rode his motorcycle. He was beyond proud. He even wanted to wear his oxygen pack to the bathroom but I drew a line there.

Emma watched this for a while and then five minutes before bed time she decided she wanted to be an astronaut. So by the time I had finished her oxygen pack it was past her bedtime and she got to wear her bike helmut and footie jammies and oxygen pack up the stairs to her room and go to bed. I am sure tomorrow will hold more space exploration adventures for us.

Monkey Bars and Tag

Emma lived for the monkey bars. That is all she would do at recess at school. If ever we went to a park, we HAD to go to a park with monkey bars. Then, one fateful day, they tore out the monkey bars at school. Emma was devastated to say the least.

Shortly after this significant loss, she started to play tag at recess with a group of kids. Now she plays tag most days at recess and wants to go to the park to play tag. She also wants to play tag around the house. She is very good at tag. I am actually shocked at how good she is. She will even taunt whoever is "it". And she is sneaky and fast.

We went to the park today and there was a little 5 year old boy who wanted his grandpa to play tag with him and his grandpa didn't want to. Emma was asking me to play tag with her and so I suggested she play with him. The grandpa told Emma not to play tag with him because he essentially thought that Emma would be too timid or not take the game as serious as this boy. I told the grandpa she could hold her own. Sure enough, she did! She had that boy running in a full sprint for a long time. My favorite part was seeing her run in a full on sprint for about 20 minutes straight with the biggest smile on her face. She was loving it. And this was after playing tag at another park 5 minutes before. She seemed to have no concept of fatigue. The whole time the grandpa kept making comments on how impressive she was and that she was actually a match for his grandson. I admit it - she was good.

Eventually all the kids at the park left because everyone was heading home for dinner. I thought Emma would welcome the down time because she had essentially been playing tag for an hour wit very little break. Instead, she turned to me and asked me to play tag with her. I was gob smacked. So we played and I tagged her with a move that was quite impressive if I do say so myself! Emma was running down the stairs on the playground and yelled, "Ow!!" So she came up to me and showed me where she hurt her hand. I kissed it better and then she wanted a hug, then she walked off, turned back at me and said, "Ha! I tagged you! You're it!" She was sneaky alright! She wanted a hug so she could tag me! She knew my weakness for hugs! She was so proud of herself and I confess, I was proud of her too!

Oh and a few nights ago we went to the park as a family after dark and wore glow sticks and played tag in the dark. It was a ton of fun. The kids loved it. It was one of the funnest times at a park that I think we have ever had as a family.

This Week

John has been prolific with his interesting conversation this week:

John has been working on his Christmas list. So far it includes a wrecking ball and crane, a real stump grinder that will be parked in the garage (originally it was going in the house), and a jack hammer.

I rolled through a stop sign and John said, "I saw a stop sign. Did you stop?"

John held his arms up in a circle above his head and said, "This is everything that I know: paving, stump grinding, diabetes, 18, 21, you have to dig a lot and eat food." He was telling me he knew a lot of stuff.

John told me Aaron invented tickling. Just think of all those poor kids that didn't get tickled before Aaron came on the scene.

John came up with the following idea: "I know, we could take a fan to Antartica and fan the penguins and that would cheer them up! Then they would be happy with us and let us live with them!" He gets cold if the house is colder than 72 degrees. I don't think he would be fanning depressed penguins in Antartica.

John: "What happens when a worm saves your life? Is he a life guard?
Me: "No, he doesn't have to be a life guard." (I was thinking about a swimming life guard and that the worm could have any profession he wanted. This is what happens to your brain when you are home with a 3 year old all day long.)
John: "He could just be a pretty worm, a fun worm?
Me: "Yup." Because that is the alternative to a career as a life guard. I guess Aaron is just pretty an fun!

John: How does a bear hibernate?
Me: He goes in a hole and sleeps very deeply.
John: What happens if there is another bear?
Me: He goes in the hole and sleeps.
John: Then I guess they are married?
Me: Yup.
John: What if the other bear decides he doesn't like it? They get a divorce?
Me: Yup. [This is where I am not sure how much to explain and figure that at 3 years old it isn't the time to go into depth about the matter and figure he will learn about such things as he gets older.]

Emma: Do you know how to grow a tree?
John: Yes, you put lots of trunk in it.
Emma: You plant a seed and give it water.
John: And give it lots of faster and a lot of trunk.
Emma: Well, the trunk just grows.

We were in the car and John said, "I love driving so much. Maybe I could help you?" I responded, "Great, do you want to tell me which way to turn?"

John came home from preschool and wanted to be superman. I told him he had a "Super J" cape that we inherited from my sister Emily and her son Josh. He got excited and ran and got it. We put it on and immediately he wanted to fly. So I picked him up and we flew around the house until I got tired. Then he asked me to go upstairs and pretend to build a tower out of blocks and to need help and he would come help me. So I went upstairs and pretended I needed help building a tower and how I wished for Super John to come help me build a tower. He came "flying" up the stairs and helped me. Then he told me to go back down stairs and pretend that I needed someone to read to. I was cracking up. So I went down stairs and pretended that I needed someone to read to and wondered who on earth could there be that I could read to. Sure enough, Super John came flying down the stairs and was kind enough to sit by me and give me someone to read to.

Halloween

This Halloween Emma was Elsa from the movie Frozen and John was Iron Man. John knows nothing about Iron Man but loved the mask at Costco and so that is what he wanted to be. He didn't wear the mask trick or treating - Aaron carried it the whole time.

Emma got to wear her costume to school on Friday for the storybook parade and John got to wear his to preschool on Thursday. The kids loved dressing up.

On Friday night we had the ward trunk or treat. Emma didn't want to go around and get candy. She just wanted to pass out candy. John, however, wanted the candy. So Emma sat with a friend of mine and passed out candy. John and I went around for candy. Emma finally decided that she wanted to get some candy after everybody had already run out of candy. The rest of the evening was a bit challenging from there on out.

On Saturday, we took the kids trick or treating. The kids were excited but not as excited as they have been in years past. Once we got started though, Emma was particularly excited. They both would just stand there, silently at every door. I had to prompt them at every door to say, "trick or treat!" I thought they would get the hang of it.... but nope. We were curious to see if Emma would be willing to go to the shirtless wonder's house (we have a neighbor that NEVER wears a shirt - no matter what the weather). She was willing but they didn't have a light on this year.

We got home and they snarfed down about 5 pieces of candy each, which might not sound like a lot, but the first year Emma had not clue you could eat the things people handed to you.

I do confess that while I don't like the massive candy that is in my house afterwards, I do love to see cute kids dressed up and excited.