snippets

Me: Claire, what did you work on at school today?
Claire: Well, I did the appaloosas. You know? Where you have a picture of the horse, and you color it, you know? The appaloosas?
Me: So you colored in a picture of an appaloosa?
Claire: No.
Me: ...

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Ben is currently at a stage where he wants to do everything right! now! His conversations are peppered with questions designed to get me to say whatever it is he wants.

Ben: We go play with J.
Me: Yes, after rest time. If you take a good rest, we'll play with J.
Ben: We go play with J. Walk or drive?
Me: What?
Ben: WALK? Or DRIVE? Play with Jake! Walk or drive!
Me: (finally catching up again with the conversation) Not now, after rest time.
Ben: No rest time! No like rest time! WALK OR DRIVE????

It's a lose/lose people. If I tell him we're walking he's out the door, if I tell him he has to rest first then I get to listen to him scream for the first half hour of his rest.

The boy has a hard life, really. This morning he got to sit in our double stroller next to one of his favorite friends, and fed banana bread and bunny grahams while I walked 4 miles, then he got to run around and play tag and hide-and-seek while I stretched. Then a trip to the library after we picked up Claire, and this afternoon a playdate at the caboose. But oh yeah, he has to rest first. I am such a terrible mother to torture him like that.

Speaking of hide-and-seek these two kids were too cute. One would hide their face on a tree and count, and the other would always hide in the exact same spot, facing a bush, but completely out in the open. The seeker would count, and then say "here I come!" Then they would turn around, and yell excitedly, "I found you!" Each time they were equally thrilled and surprised when they "found" the other, and they would both laugh, and then the hider would run to the tree to become the seeker. Rinse and repeat.