{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}

How Long is Long?

Carsten and I were driving in the car. I told him I was growing my hair out.
Me: Should I keep growing my hair long?
Carsten (age 5): Yes.
Me: How long should I grow it?
Carsten: About 9 days.
Me: 9 days?
Carsten: Yeah, in 9 days it will be really long!

Oh, Bummer!

Ethan (age 3) and I were walking into a Bruegger's Bagel shop and noticed a dog with his owner by some outdoor tables. On our way out...
Ethan (age 3): Where'd the dog go?
Me: Oh, bummer, I guess the dog went home!
Ethan: Bunner, the dog all gone!
Me: Bummer?
Ethan: Yeah, I said, "Bunner, dog all gone!"

Truth vs Fiction

I almost forgot this one but remembered during church - you'll see why...

I was trying to explain to Carsten the plot of the play Arsenic and Old Lace. Let me tell you, it was hard. How do you tell a 5 year old that two old ladies who were crazy were killing lonely old men, because they could - ?

We discussed if the poison was real and I was able to say that, "No, for the play it was pretend." I also explained that the whole play was not true. "It was fiction - like a story you would read in a book."

To that he said, "But the Bible is all true. It is true because it's God's Holy Word."

{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!

window to my work world

Conversation* with Male Co-Worker Today

CO-WORKER (via speakerphone): Could you come in here?

ME: Uh, what’s up?

CW: Could you just come in, so I can ask you something. I need your help…

ME (walking to his office): I’m not going to help you with your Facebook issues…

CW: No, it’s not that… I just want to know… My wife won a contest on this site (points to screen) and there are all these comments! What?! do people really spend all day commenting on websites?! Is this like another Facebook site? Do they really have to sign up and log in to comment on these things?! Do these people not have a life that they can sit around and make comments about my wife’s recipe?!

ME: [I couldn’t help it! I just laughed at him…]

Later that day…

CW: I just want you to know that [name redacted] agrees with me. After I spoke with him, I concluded that FB is a female thing. You made me feel like I didn't know about stuff, but he doesn't read blogs either. I know I’m right. He agrees with me.

ME: [no comment, just a smirk…what could I say?! It was two against one!]

*This conversation is not verbatim, nor is it transcribed in its entirety. Due to my memory skills, the essence of the conversation is given for your amusement.

Note to self: Remember when you read 5 Things to NEVER Do on Your Blog the other day? #2 was NEVER tell your employer you have a blog. I think this is wise advise... :0)