The Zaccheus you never knew

    For devotions tonight, Scott read the story of Zaccheus, which I though my children were pretty familiar with.  Wrong.  After the reading from our wonderful children's Bible, he asked a few questons, directed mainly at Levi and Tirzah.  First: Was Zaccheus a big man?  Levi says no, Tirzah says yes. 
    Second, "How did Zaccheus get to see Jesus, Tirzah?"  Blank look.  I rephrase the question.  "How did Zaccheus get high up enough to see Jesus?"  Her eyes lit up, and pointing to the sky, she cries, "A plane! He went up in the sky!" 
     Levi scornfully responds, "No, he climbed a tree!"  "Good, Levi.  What kind of tree?" continued Scott.  "A sperm tree!" he answers.  I nearly fell off my chair. Good thing my mouth wasn't full, I laughd so hard.  He tried again, "An oak tree?" 
     Seeing things were not going so smoothly, Scott turned to Caelin, who this entire time had been fixing himself some dessert and to all appearances was not paying any attention. He proceeded to answer everything, about quoting the story verbatim.  Seeing some reinforcement would be good, we closed with a couple renditions of "Zaccheus was a Wee Little Man."

What Tirzah hears

     Tirzah has taken to telling stories.  This morning she was telling me that she had heard snow falling.  Impressive.  A bit later I was telling the kids that we have to keep food picked up better because of mice.  Tirzah commences describing how she heard mice downstairs at night when she was in her bed.  Claimed they were tiptoeing across the table and she could hear their little teeny feet. 

Hazardous Chemicals

    Chemicals can be hazardous in more ways than one.  Tonight as I did the dishes, I heard a suspicious noise behind me.  Turning, I saw Aila with the can of apple-cinnamon air freshener, set on the floor in front of her, using both her thumbs to press the button.  Thankfully, it is drenching the floor in front of her instead of spraying in her face.  I dropped the dishcloth and ran over to grab the can, putting well out of reach, then went back for some paper towels.  Unfortunately, I hadn't reckoned on the floor being so slick.  Almost in slow motion, I slid sideways, landing on my left hip in apple-cinnamon slime.  If  I had to fall, at least I will smell like fall. 
    I would also like to record for posterity that today Aila has dumped the basket of markers, a couple glasses of water, food from her plate, a bunch of stuff from the camping equipment bin, a substantial amount of cat litter, and an entire container of BB's.  On a lighter note, she has started saying "Vi" for Levi which is very cute.  Her vocabulary includes: Mommy, Daddy (her favorite word), shoe, which sounds more like she, and is tied for favorite word, owie, wa for water, doggy, baby, go-gee for gentle (as she strokes my face) uggy for yucky, ah for hot, and a little sing-song routine when she wants to nurse.  She pulls at the neck of my shirt, rocks side to side, and sings, "Uh huh, uh huh"  The uh being a higher note and the huh being a lower note.  It's working for her so far. 

Levi's soup recipe

Levi made some soup yesterday.  By himself.  It was very yellow, but the children said it was yummy.  He came to me and handed me a piece of paper, announcing that it was his soup recipe.  It read as follows:
 ptatos anb peprs anb beens anb sethnins.
Which translated means: potatoes and peppers and beans and seasonings.
He pointed to the counter and said, "Those are the seasonings I used,"  There was garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and salt.  Hmm, not bad, I thought.  Besides the vegggies in his recipe, he had put in slices of tomato.  All of the vegetables were freshly picked from our garden.  He had simply boiled tham all in some water.  The yellow color, well, it wasn't natural, and it wasn't in the recipe, so I can't say for sure, but I did find an empty bottle of yellow food coloring in the pantry that afternoon.  :-)

     This afternoon, Levi came to me and announced when he grew up he was going to be a "plane conductor", and that when he was flying the plane to California, I could go for only one dollar.  "Wow!" I said, "That's really great!"  "Yeah, and anybody else in my family can go for two dollars.  For all the other people it costs 30 dollars, no, 100 dollars."  I told him he was sure to have a lot of business!

How she really feels

After we picked the kids up at Justin and Trish's, where they had spent the evening, I asked if they had had fun.  Tirzah replied, "It was fun when you were gone, but not when you got back!"

9/13/12  The girls and I went to Malone this evening to get the groceries for our Maine trip.  On the way home, Tirzah prattled on and on in the dark, asking all manner of questions and chatting about everything under the sun.  At one point she said, "When I grow up, I'm going to work at..." and paused.  I fully expected her to say "Chinese", which is her and Levi's standard answer for what they want to do when they grow up.  Instead, she finished, "at your house.  When I grow up, I want to live with you!"  So I told her OK, that would be great.  :-)
     She kept asking where we were and how long it would be till we got home.  She had asked about 5 times in a row, with me aswering, "North Bangor, 15 minutes" every time.  Finally I told her the next town was Brushton.  "Oh, the it's only six shots till we're home."  "Six shots?" I asked.  "What are six shots?"  Giggles.  "Um, they're six turns." 

9/27/12  While we were on vacation in Maine, we were eating supper at a Wendy's.  It was a bit late and Tirzah wasn't doing so well.  She was crying about her burger, "My sandwich is all crambly!"  OK.  She muddled through enough to get her Frosty, which she was happily sharing with Aila, then suddenly decided didn't suit her any more, crying, "Mine is getting lippy!"  Nobody knows.  Crabby four-year olds.  Who can figure them out?

Aila's First Words

     Aila has just really started saying a few words.  She says mama or mommy regularly.  She calls most any animal a doggy.  Owie is new this week.  Baby is also said frequently, as she gets a doll, wraps in it any cloth she finds, and will sit and rock back and forth, singing, "Baby, baby..." 
    One of the cutest things she does is imitate a gesture I do to her regularly.  When she is too rough, I take her hand and stroke my face with it, saying, "Gentle, gentle."  She will brush my face with her hand and say, "Gogee, gogee."  So sweet!

Summer Sayings

Here are some of this weeks gems: 

Scott told Levi to drink the milk out of his cereal bowl.  Levi complained he doesn't like milk, then added, "The only milk I like is frsh from the udder of a goat!"

In the gas station bathroom, Tirzah announced, "I poopeded a banana!"

Aila has been calling most any animal a woof.  Sunday she had a Carl book; I told her to look for the doggy.  She started saying over and over, "Doggy, woof, doggy, woof!" and actually pointing to the dogs.