The Kids Said…

Brooke:  “Mom, is it okay if I get things wrong on purpose at school?”

Me: “No. Why would you want to?”

Brooke: “Because if I get it right they make it harder, so can I just get some things wrong so they don’t make it too hard on me?”

Always strive for mediocrity there, Brooke. We’re so proud.

***

Madison was playing with one of Brooke’s Lego animals.  Upon noticing, Brooke snatched it out of her hands.  Madison’s entire body shook with rage as she shouted out the best insult her not-quite-two-year-old mind could come up with: “Na, na, na, boo, boo, I SEE YOU!”

***

One evening as we were reading scriptures Madison noticed that Dallas had turned his hat backwards and couldn’t get over it. She kept repeating, “Mom! Daddy’s cool!”

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This happened way back at the beginning of the school year. Brooke was in a bad mood about having to get into the routine of doing homework again. This was her finished paper:

Me: “Why are you making your lines so complicated?”

Brooke: “What? If my teacher is going to force ME to do work, I’m going to force HER to do work to find out my answers.”

***

After church one day, Caroline greeted us with this paper. Four kids and a very suspicious question mark there. For the record, there is no question. We are NOT expecting baby #5.

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Caroline:  “Mom, I love you from A to Z.”

(Contemplative pause)

“Actually, I just love you from A to B.”

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We had our Eight Is Great night for children turning eight this year and unbelievably, Brooke is one such child.  The Bishop was telling the kids that he’d interview them before their baptisms.  He said one question he would ask the kids is what their favorite thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is.  Brooke was not paying attention one bit to what he was saying.

Me: “Brooke!  Listen!  He’s going to ask you questions before your baptism.”

Brooke:  “Huh?

Me: “He’s going to want to know what your favorite part of church is.”

Brooke: “Oh.  The gym.”

(If Brooke flunks her baptism interview you’ll all know why.)

***

I only teach my babies two signs – more and all done.  So far, Madison has only mastered the “more” sign…and her use of it is as adorable as you might imagine.

A couple of months ago I was nursing Madison before bed.  She was happily nursing when all of a sudden she stopped eating, looked up at me, situated herself to a sitting position, enthusiastically signed “more!”, and then went right back to nursing.

In other words, she wanted to keep eating so she stopped eating just to tell me as much.  Love that little baby.

***

Me:  “Brooke, do you ever wish your first name was Brooklyn?”

Brooke: “No, because a tiger can’t change its stripes so I can’t change who I am.”

***

We were eating veggie soup for dinner.  It was really hot so Spencer had added ice to his to cool it.

Spencer:  “Ugh!  Why isn’t my ice melting?”

Me:  “Because that’s a potato.”

Spencer (bewildered): “My ice is a potato?!”

You probably had to be there for that one but I must document because now every time we have veggie soup we have to recount this conversation and the kids howl with laughter at the memory.