Chatterboxes

I am amazed at how these boys' speech has just exploded in the past few months -- from words to 3- to 4-word phrases to full-on sentences now. Of course, everything they say is adorable (except for "NO, MOMMY!"), so I wanted to take a minute to record some of my favorite funny words and phrases that we hear all the time:

• Fafoom tenner / bapoom tenner -- vacuum cleaner
• Bit-tee (Reid) -- blankie
• Ree / Dant -- what they call each other/themselves
• Tim-up time -- They sing this song every time they clean up. The words are supposed to be "Clean-up time, clean-up time, everybody everywhere; clean-up time, clean-up time, everybody do your share" -- except it comes out like "Tim-up time, tim-up time, anybody errrrrwhere; tim-up time, tim-up time, anybody SHARE!" You can hear part of it at the 1:10 mark of this video:

• Maner -- Mater (from Cars)
• Mihner -- Miller the dog
• Toby -- Colbie the dog
• Soamy -- Smokey the dog
• Wizard / yizard -- lizard
• Serry -- scary; pretty much everything is SERRRRRRRY these days ("Mommy, yook -- SERRY disaurs!" Or serry bathtub, serry potty, serry boy, etc.)
• Awesome -- If something isn't serry, there's a good chance it's AWESOME -- especially the papier mache deer bust hanging in their bedroom.
• Noonles -- noodles
• Tarrots -- carrots
• Manna -- banana
• Tahdo -- avocado
• Tahto -- taco (as in breakfast tacos, their very favorite meal -- they come by that honestly!)
• Totchi -- kolache 
• Peppernoni (Reid) -- pepperoni (one of my very favorites)
• Rat-ROON (Reid) / ra-tuna (Grant) -- raccoon 
• Tuddle me -- "Cuddle me" -- melts my heart every single time
• Sipper -- spritzer; a drink their Daddy invented (lemonade and sparkling water) 
• Femade (Grant) / menade (Reid) -- lemonade 
• Tieyoo -- Caillou; their favorite show, and probably the word we hear more than any other. 
• Hi-tot-ter / heh-tot-ter -- helicopter 
• Hum-mum -- Hook'em (what they call Bevo)
• Bi-sull -- bicycle
• Misser Tato Head -- Mr. Potato Head
• Waddermennon -- watermelon
• Packpack -- backpack
• Strawbies -- strawberries
• Tractor Barrel -- Cracker Barrel (their favorite restaurant)
• Sotter ball -- soccer ball; they also call lollipops "sotter balls" instead of suckers.
• "What's DAT noise?" -- We also hear this 20 times a day, because nothing gets by these kids.

Lately they've been loving hide-and-seek. They always hide one of two places: either under the dining room table or behind the dining room curtains. When we finish counting and go look for them, we'll say things like, "Hmmm, are they in the laundry room??" and without fail one of them will answer "NO! In here!" with an explosion of giggles. Clearly their hiding strategy needs a little work.

Earlier this summer we had a three-week stretch where the boys were getting up obscenely early (like 4:45-5 a.m.) every morning, walking down the stairs, and coming into our room raring to go. After a few nights of it, we had a talk with them and explained that when it's still dark outside, you have to stay in your bed. Now every night, before they get in bed, they will say "Dark i-side, STAY BED"... and then in the morning they say it again, I guess to tell us "Look, we did it!" I'm not sure what we'll do when Daylight Savings Time expires and the sun rises an hour earlier, but it works for now!

Grant has been on a really opinionated kick here recently, and he feels the need to tell me whenever he likes or doesn't like something. I hear a lot of "Mommy, I yike potatoes!" and "Mommy, NO yike brocky (broccoli)" and "Mommy, NO yike bath time."

They've been pretty bossy during our nightly prayer time for a while now. Whenever I finish praying, they're quick to remind me of all the people/things I left out -- with Sam's horse typically at the top of the list. Now Reid has just started taking things in his own hands, and as soon as they've finished brushing their teeth, he starts saying "Dear Dod" (Dear God) to let me know he's ready to get the show on the road.

Reid also likes to take manners to a new level. Whenever I ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do, he politely responds "No ma'am." I can't do the tone justice -- it's very much like "Umm, thank you for asking, but I think I'll pass on that."

And since no post is complete without photos, here are some recent ones from my phone.

Popsicles help cure the nap-wake-up-grouchies:

{Reid L, Grant R}

This is how you get every last ounce of chocolate pudding out of the cup (Grant's in the first three pictures, then Reid):

 

Some end-of-summer fun (even though it will still be over 90 degrees for the next six weeks...):

{Grant L, Reid R}

Dinner, dessert, and playground time at Chick-fil-a one day week before last:

{Grant L, Reid R}

I treated myself to Starbucks on a recent trip to Target, and R&G got to enjoy some (decaffeinated) yumminess as well:

{Grant L, Reid R}

For some reason, wearing the oven mitt makes them want to hold hands:

{Reid L, Grant R}

And lastly, our favorite weekday evening activity -- riding bikes to the mailbox:

{Reid L, Grant R}