You Capture: Friends

This week’s theme of the You Capture blog carnival hosted by Beth over at I Should Be Folding Laundry is Friends.

The boys have been friends this week (well...mostly). Apparently it's easier to be friends while you're in trees. ;)

And what have they been doing in the trees? Nailing a poor little blue monkey to a branch

and, in their words, "torturing sock puppets."

Grace playing with friends at church:

And Grace with her most favorite friends, a stack of Henry and Mudge books.

Check out I Should Be Folding Laundry for more You Capture participants.

Wordless Wednesday: Sock puppet on a swing

My boys have a thing for sock puppets, so it should not have surprised me to look outside and see a sock puppet swinging on the playset.

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

Overheard

Josiah: By the time you are 13, Robert and I will be gone. We'll be in our own house.

Grace [shocked and dismayed at this thought]: And I will be so sad!

Josiah: Why will you be sad?

Grace: Because I don't want you and Robert to be gone!

Josiah assure her that she could come and visit them.

Grace: But who will drive me?!?

And, yes, he's a little off on his math. But (gulp!) not by much...

~~~~~

Robert: The Lake of Death actually froze all the way down! The poor sock puppets are probably like this... [he demonstrates with a grotesque pose]

~~~~~

Grace [yelling out the back door]: Josiah!! Get outta da water!!


The Little Momma...And, to be correct, Josiah wasn't playing in water. It was actually ice, seeing as it was 30 degrees when he was out there.

~~~~~

Josiah [suddenly appearing in the doorway]: Hey, Mom! I'm gonna ride my bike around the neighborhood!

Me: No, you're not.

I can't trust him in the front yard by himself...

Grace [suddenly appearing in the doorway]: Hey, Mom! I'm gonna ride...around the couch! And around the table!

Pete and Repeat were in a boat. Pete jumps out. Who is still in the boat?

~~~~~

Me: Thank you, sweetheart!

Josiah disappears from the room. Grace eyes me, the empty doorway, and me again suspiciously.

Grace: Who did you call "sweetheart"?

Me: Josiah.

Grace [upset]: But I your sweetheart! Not Josiah!

~~~~~

Last but not least, the following is "overheard" from other blogs.

Sophie, a.k.a. BooMama, and Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer have touching posts about the Compassion trip they went on one year ago. Please read them (here and here). And if you sponsor a Compassion child, please write to them...often. You are making a difference! (Go ahead and read that, too, while you're at it.)

~~~~~

And I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Overheard

Robert: What's "oregano"?

Me: It's a spice. We use it in spaghetti sauce, pizza, things like that.

Robert: Oh. Sounds like the name of a cat.

There you go, if you're needing to name a cat anytime soon...

~~~~~

Andrew [a three year old friend]: Where's Mr. (insert our last name here)?

Grace: My daddy's name is DAY-SON.

Well, that clears things up. She's big on enunciation; not quite there on pronunciation, though.

~~~~~

Me [to Jason]: What I'd like to know is what exactly could you be dreaming about to wake up with the song "American Pie" in your head?

Because I really can't remember my dream, and I bet it's been 10-15 years since I last heard the song. I almost always wake up with a song playing in my head, even in the middle of the night. The only time this is bad is when I don't know the lyrics.

~~~~~

Grace: I'm too full. I can't finish my burger.

Me: Then you won't get any of the fries I saved for you.

Grace: Do you know what "full" means? It means I'm gonna eat the rest of my burger!


And she did.

~~~~~

Emily [whispering into Jason's ear]: Grace needs some ice cream.

Jason: Grace needs water to go to sleep?

Grace [flustered]: No!!!

Emily [whispering into Jason's ear]: Grace needs some ice cream.

In case you have forgotten or didn't know, this is Emily...getting her diaper changed by Grace. Emily's clothes are sewn on at the neck because I don't have the patience Grace would take them off 5 or 50 times a day.

And, no, Grace didn't get any ice cream, despite her baby's attempts on her behalf.

~~~~~

Robert: I can't wait to see this! The Lake of Death froze!

Seconds before on this cold morning, Josiah had run into the house with the news that the "Lake of Death" (a.k.a., his sand box filled with water) had frozen over. This is where they drown the poor sock puppets before burying them.

~~~~~

Grace was running back and forth in the kitchen while we had this rather one-sided conversation:

Grace: You "Ma."

Grace: Daddy's "Pa."

Grace: I "Laura." [pronounced "LAW-ra"]

Grace: Ya know who's my sista Mary? [pronounced "MAY-ree"]

Me: No, I don't. Who's your sister Mary? [I know better than to remind her that she has two brothers...]

Grace: Miss Kathleen! [pronounced "Kaff-a-leen"...a.k.a. Grammy K]

...Because Grace doesn't merely have books read to her; rather, she absorbs them. Her most recent obsession has been a Little House in the Big Woods storybook where Laura got her rag doll Charlotte for Christmas. She has been officially introduced to Laura Ingalls Wilder and she's not even three years old yet! Oh, and if you read a book to her, you must read all of the pages...including the dedications. She will fuss at you if you try to skip it--just ask Robert!

~~~~~

Me: Where are the cookies? Because if I am going to feel this bad, I'm at least going to have chocolatey breath.

Jason: Now, I think that is blog-worthy!

I was sick with a cold but am feeling much better now--thanks for asking.

Paper Ninjas? Sock puppet graveyards?

What is going on around here?!?

A lot of serious playing between brothers, that's what.

Paper Ninjas has to be the least violent of their combat games so far, and I appreciate that immensely! (Josiah, being 5 years younger than Robert, appreciates it, too, I'm sure.)

The rules are simple: Try to knock both of the two mini daggers (paper footballs) or Ninja stars (paper spinners) out of your opponents right hand while staying on the front porch or front walk, without touching "anything green" (grass, flowerbed). The fights are timed and are between 5 to 15 minutes long...with infinite rematches. There is a lot of jumping but there is not a lot of yelling, because, so far, no one is getting hurt.

I can't say the same thing for the sock puppets around here, though--they are dropping like flies. And given proper burials (whatever that may be for sock puppets).

There was the one named Bill A. Sockpuppet who was allowed to wander into the street and was run over repeatedly by passing traffic. It was a very sad day.


The duct tape holding Bill in place on the road looks a little suspicious, but maybe that's just me...

There was also Pharaoh Bill who was buried with his arms drawn folded across his chest.

The graves are marked with gravestones...er, pieces of wood...with each sock puppet's name on it. They are buried at the back of our yard as well as in the woods behind our house, although some particularly unlucky "Bill's" have not been buried but rather are nailed to pine trees. (They are all named "Bill.")

I wonder what they will come up with next? I just hope it doesn't involve more digging!