lost in translation

This morning Blaise was fussing a bit sitting beside me so I pulled him up onto my lap, facing me. I said,

Blaise! What is it, buddy? What do you need? Do you need a nap? Are you hungry?

Blaise just sat and stared at me.

Jude turned to look at me and said,

He said no. He doesn't need a nap. And yes. He's hungry.

I laughed and thanked Jude for translating.

apples

In the every day moments, I often feels as if I'll never forget the little mannerisms and sayings that my kids have. But inevitably I will. Not intentionally, but they'll gradually move onto something else and I'll forget how they used to say "ketchup" or "thank you". 

Right now when they want an apple they'll either say, "I want an apple. BIG!" or "In slices!" And then they ask if it's an apple core when they've eaten all the way to the core.

Jude will help himself to bananas and peel it all by himself.

Noah still likes help peeling bananas. 

Jude always, always, 50 million times a day says "Well, Mom?" or "Uh, Mom?" to tell me something or ask me something. 50 million times. A day.

time out for Mama

The other day the boys were driving me crazy with their constant fighting and bickering and I was about to lose it so I said that I was going to my room for a 5 minute time out because I was feeling angry with how unkind they were behaving toward each other.
When I came back out, they were gone. I sat down and relished the quiet for a minute (am I bad Mom?).
Then they came back in from outside.
Noah: Mom! We were running laps up and down the hill.
Me: Because I was in a time out?
Noah: Yeah. Because we weren't being kind to one another.

Ha. The self-directed discipline of running laps. I should take more time outs.

memories

Loud helicopter sounds coming from outside. Jude runs outside and then hollers:
HEY NOAH!! COME OUT HERE!
and Noah runs and they clamber up on top of the huge water bottles to stand and watch the helicopter together, pointing and watching it as it flies by our house in Kampala.

my bad

The boys were running around with those plastic whiffle ball catchers on their faces.

Jude: Hey Mom! How do ya like my horn?

Me: You look like Hannibal Lecter.

Jude: What's a Hannibal Lecter?

Whoops.

Noah said what?

Today after skyping with Jamie's Dad's side of the family Noah and Jamie were talking about Great-Grandpa.

Noah: Yeah, I forgot about Great-Grandpa.
Jamie: Yeah, he's an old, old man now.
Noah: Is he trying to stay alive?
Jamie and I: *laughter*

crazy parents = crazy kids

Jude came out of his bath and said,
"MOM! GUESS WHAT!??" with a huge smile on his face.
Me: WHAT?
J: Daddy dumped my bath water IN THE TOILET!!!
Me: NO WAY! Was that the craziest thing that ever happened to you?!
J: Yeeeeah. ...  It was.  (big smile)