{conversations with littles}

V is 2 years old. He's kinda my favorite. Don't get me wrong, I love them all equally, but there's something about V...oh, and we share a birthday!

When we met him he was 15 months old, a little destroyer of all in his path, but oh, so cute. He's 2 1/2 now and cute as ever. He's a man of few words, but he knows how to communicate.

Here's a couple of my favorite V conversations:

Yes, Bekah

One of the first things I tried to teach him, of course, was my name. I've done it with all my nieces and nephews. (Lookout Ella, I'm going to start working on you next!)

It typically goes like this: I point to myself and say, "Say, Bekah" and then I point to them and say their name. I repeat this as often as I can. It's worked, so I go with it.

One night last year I was babysitting Jess & Luke's boys, and V was not obeying. I was holding Baby F so I didn't go over to V to deal with the situation as well as I should have. They had worked with the boys to answer, "Yes, Jess" when they were being disciplined so I was trying to get V to say, "Yes, Bekah."

I didn't hear anything so I assumed he wasn't answering me. I repeated "Yes, Bekah" and again didn't hear any response. I was getting a little irritated and then it dawned on me what was happening.

He was pointing to himself, tapping his chest. He was saying "Yes, Bekah" in his own little way. I felt kind of bad that I kept getting after him...

Sunday School

I often help Jess pick up the boys from nursery after church. I usually get V. This week when I went to get him he took off as I had turned around to get his coloring pages from the counter. When I finally caught up to him, he had found Luke.

Luke still needed to go get E, so he passed of V to me. I bent down to chat with him and asked him about his coloring pages. "What story did you learn today?" I asked. I saw a picture of people praying and someone standing at the door. "Did you learn about Peter getting out of jail?" V nodded his head and said, "Knock, knooooock. Knock, knoooooock!" He was also pretend knocking with his little fist.

I was cracking up at his version of the story. When Luke came back I told V, "Tell Luke about your story you learned today!" Luke bends down and takes a look a the paper. "Did you learn about Peter and Rhoda?" Luke asked. V answered with, "Knock, knooooock. Knock, knoooooock!" What a guy!

He got to repeat his story to Jess and then again to Uncle Jon and Aunt Cheryl. Jess said that his saying, "knock, knock" is one of his favorite things to say anyway. I can only imagine what he thinking while the teacher was telling the story. He must have been so excited to hear a story about his favorite phrase! :))

{Conversations with Littles}

If you're a regular reader, you probably know that my oldest sister has three littles who I spend a lot of time with. Last night I headed over there after work to play "catch up on Favorite Aunt status" since I hadn't seen them in a week or so. The reason I hadn't seen them was because they had taken a trip to Grandma & Grandpa's. They also saw Aunt Anna while they were there - she's my biggest competition, you know! I don't carry a gun or drive a car with lights & sirens...

So I asked Ethan about his trip:

Me: Did you go to Grandma & Grandpa's?!
E: Yes.
Me: What did you do?
E: I hit Tarsten [Carsten].

Apparently my "what did you do?" voice was a little too serious! Or he just automatically answers "I hit Tarsten" when he hears that question. :)  :)

Me: Oh. You were naughty then?
E: Yeah, I hit Tarsten.
Me: So, did you have fun with Grandma & Grandpa?
E: [I think he started rambling about how he didn't hit Grandma & Grandpa, just Carsten, but it was not clear. Then he started talking about his pig and cow he was playing with.]

Morgen, Ethan and I started to watch the of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers while Carsten went with Jen & Eric to Carsten's kindergarten open house. After almost an hour or so Morgen asks, "When is this going to be over so we can play?!" I'm not sure if that's a reflection of her opinion of the movie or if she really would just rather have been playing. She did get some new/used toys that same day so I think they were more exciting than a musical.

During the movie Ethan decided he wanted to cuddle with me so as he was coming over I asked him if we needed a blanket. I think it came across more like, "Where's my blanket?" though because he said, "My blanket up in my bed. Your blanket at your house." Yeah, he went up and got his blanket and shared it with me.

Part of the new/used toy collection was American Girl doll horse cards. As Morgen and I started to look through them I said, "I wonder if they have an Appaloosa horse in here?" Sure enough, we found one! We talked about how Grandma used to ride Appaloosas and how the info on the back of the card listed the height of the horses by hands. Oh, and I forgot to bring home the card she kept insisting that I could have...oops!

When Carsten returned from the open house he was excited, I could tell. He had his cute-little-Carsten-grin on his face and he was eager to show off his coloring pages. He told me he started kindergarten in the morning...uh, no. His mom had to break the news that he didn't start until after the summer...bummer! He took it all in stride, but I think he was a little crushed...

What are some of your favorite conversations with Littles?! Do share!

the boyz

The night that Jen & Eric moved to their new house in Plymouth, I kept the boys. Jess & Luke kept Morgen and Jess took her to school when she went to work. Since I had to work the next day too, I took the boys to day care...that was weird! :)

The pics were taken on my air mattress...I gave up my bed so the boys could have my room. Ethan just got the pack n' play, but Carsten got my comfy bed! He must be special!!

buBba

Yep, it's been a while so here's a start to updating my blog...

I'm not sure how it happened, but I got Bubba all by himself for a day & night. Jen dropped him off and we hung out for a while, then we headed to meet the Virginia Ave girls for brunch. I don't remember the name of the place, but it was yummy! Ethan liked the pancakes! The sausage, not so much. He still had his cast on from his broken arm which didn't seem to phase him at all. I think we both enjoyed our time without the older siblings... :)

weekends of MoCarEth

At My Place

My niece and nephews spent the evening with me while Jen & Eric went out to dinner for the evening. My small apartment got even smaller as the evening went on, but we had a good time hanging out and watching "noovies" :-)

Mo'gen & Carsten spent the night. The next morning I took them to a bakery down the street from me since Morgen requested donuts for breakfast (and as only a good aunt would do, I complied!). I didn't use the word "bakery" when we talked about going to get donuts and when we got there I asked if they knew where we were. Morgen said "Yes, a bakery." When I asked her how she knew that she pointed to a shop window and said that was how she knew it was a bakery. She was pointing to the barber shop pole! Gotta love 'em!!

MoCarEth Weekend

Sunday Dinner Out

For the sake of my sanity, I really try not to do this very much b/c of the quantity of kids, but one recent Sunday I decided to go to lunch after church with Markgrafs, Frenchs, & Emslies. Here's a few pics:

Qdoba

what are you tankbull-pore, bekah?

Recently I was visiting up in "canada" and was able to take part in the Markgraf's evening family devotion time. While this was my first time experience for me, it was soon clear that Morgen and Carsten knew the routine.

After a couple of Bible stories were read, Morgen went searching for the jar for everyone to draw a name out of. We were going to pray for the person whose name we had drawn after we each named someone or something thankful for.

Morgen, Carsten, Jen, and Eric all took their turns saying who or what they were thankful for. When it was my turn, Carsten looked at me without the slightest hesitation at all and asked me, "What are you tankbull-pore, Bekah? What are you tankbull-pore?" And because I was laughing through tears at the quick, but genuine question, he quickly asked two more times, "What are you tankbull-pore?! What are you tankbull-pore?!"

Because of his sincere quest, I replied in the only way I could, "I'm thankful for you, Carsten!" And before I could add to that, and from the other side of the couch, Morgen piped up, "What about me, Bekah?!" To which I also replied, "and you, too, Morgen!" (Ethan was already in bed sleeping so he couldn't ask why he was left out.)

Here's a few pics from a recent visit to Auntie Bek's:

Click to Enlarge

Not to leave little Bubba out, here's some pics of Ethan:

Click to Enlarge

sweet valentines

My Valentines weekend was spent with three little Valentines: Niece Morgen and Nephews Carsten & Ethan.

The beloveds were dropped off around 5:15 on Valentine's eve and we enjoyed a delicious favorite: hot dogs and mac & cheese (with sides of pickles and candy). Games and movies followed the gourmet dinner and soon it was time for bed. Eagerly books were selected and beds claimed. Instructions were issued and promises made. To bed, I said. Yes, Bekah, was replied. Ethan the only one who complied. Hours later lights and heads were off. (Ok, not the heads, but you get the idea...)

In the morning everyone was early to rise. Me in hopes that Morgen & Carsten would sleep a little longer while Ethan downed a morning slushie (it was milk, really). But the heads rose up and Morgen found the lights. Quick like a flash, I doused the bright sight--my desire that at least one would stay sleeping for me would not come true. Alas all were up by 30 past 7 and we shared a replay of the previous evening's movie of choice.

All in all a good time had--especially when they left by 10 and I went back to bed...to the sweet smell of roses! (Jen brought me a lovely bouquet and gift card.)

Was your Valentine's weekend this sweet?