Cereal

All the boys in my house who are old enough to have an opinion are huge University of Miami fans.  I am not. (I'm still holding out for Owen.)  As a matter of fact, I'll be happy no matter who UM loses against, just as long as they lose.

Apparently, they are now making and marketing a new cereal at the grocery store down here.  There is a UM cereal and a UF cereal.  Maybe there's more, but they cater to those two teams down here. 

The boys saw this cereal this morning when they were at the store with Daddy.  They reported to me that there is a UM cereal, and they want to buy it.  They also told me there is a Gator's cereal and Nathan said, "I'm going to throw up if I eat that one!"

That kid....

How to Have a Lot of Money

We were driving home from football practice tonight when a brand new shiny silver Mustang pulled up next to us. We were going about the same speed.

Nathan asked, "Which car's faster, Mommy? Our car or that shiny car?"

I didn't even have to answer because Rylan chimed in, "That car, Nathan, because it's one of those cars that has the horse on it."

Nathan then asked, "Do you think we can get a shiny new car like that one?"

I answered, "We could, but then we wouldn't have any money to buy food or anything else." Then I had to explain that those cars are very expensive and we don't have money to buy a brand new car and pay for the other things we need.

Nathan thought about that for a few seconds and asked if that man had a lot of money and we only had a little bit of money.  I replied that we have enough money for the things that we need, because God always provides for us and we never go without the things we need.

Then Nathan said, "Maybe that man eats lunch at home all day and that's why he has a lot of money."

I figured where he was going with this, but asked him why that would make him have a lot of money.

He replied matter-of-factly, "Because if he eats at home, then he saves money."

So there you have it, money saving principles from a 3-year-old!

Hanging on Every Word

Nathan and the things he says.

They can make you nervous:
As the elevator door opened, two rather large ladies were waiting to walk out.  We were waiting to get on. Nathan was the first in line. He said, "That's a huuuuuggggeee.....(he paused for a second while I was dying inside, praying that the next words out of his mouth would ease my fears).....elevator!"

They can make others laugh:
While he was in the men's bathroom at church, he said to a young man, "I drank so much chocolate milk, I think my pee is chocolate." After he passed gas he said in all seriousness, "I'm the fart master."

They can surprise others (usually while embarrassing the mother):
Playing at a friend's house, he declared to their group of three boys, "We're the fart team!"

They can be so sweet:
Waiting to see his new baby cousin, he asked, "Mommy? Will baby Hannah be so pretty?" After I said yes, he said, "And she's going to be so cute."

I'm hanging on your every word, my Nathan.

Armpits

I feel like I am entering a new phase of mothering boys. I think this is the phase that I've been the most nervous about. It's about that time when other things at school and play are beginning to influence some of Rylan's perceptions. Right now, it's no big deal. I can handle this, for example:

I was putting Nathan's seat belt on in the car, and I have to reach over Rylan to do it. I was wearing a sleeveless top today.
Rylan: Eww, Mom! You have hair under your armpits!
Me: I know honey, everyone does. Once you get old enough, it starts to grow.
Rylan: No they don't, Mom! Girls don't have hair in their armpits!
Me: Yes they do, honey. Trust me. They just shave it, like Daddy shaves his face.
Rylan: No, Mom. No they do not. Girls do not have hair.
Me: Everyone gets hair under their arms when they get old enough. Just don't worry about it.
Rylan: No they don't, and your armpits stink, too. (After wearing a sleeveless top and running around South Florida all day.... at the end of the day, I'll give it to him, he had me there.)

Like I said, I can handle this conversation, but I know there are many more conversations on the horizon about what girls have/don't have, do/don't do, etc. There's so much info out there for them to glean, and they are, that it will be interesting where our conversations go. 

What, Mom?

The boys and I were outside today enjoying the beautiful weather. The neighbor boy from across the street joined in and the three were playing soccer in the front yard.

So here we have a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and a 3-year-old (almost 6 and 4).

Along comes young neighbor who is in her early 20's and apparently has just returned from the beach, as she is still in full beach attire, a string bikini.  She gets out of the car and I see Rylan and the neighbor boy whispering something, covering their mouths while they talk because they know they probably shouldn't be talking about the girl wearing her bathing suit, although they probably do not understand why.  A quick, "Rylan" in the mommy-tone takes care of that and brings those two back down to earth where playing soccer is more important.

A minute later I realized Nathan was no longer playing soccer and I don't see him.

(Meanwhile, bikini girl is still getting things out of the car, but she has at least put a shirt on now.)

"Nathan?"

Nathan's head pops up from behind the car, where he can get a full view of what's going on in the yard next door.

"What, Mom? I was just....(looks around for something to say)....I was just looking at Junior's house across the street."

I'm totally not buying it, because the look on his face tells me exactly what he was doing!

Conversations in the Dark

I was at my friend's house today. She had her 20 month old there and I brought Owen. All the older brothers were at schools or with Daddy, so it was just the two little ones. They're really getting along together quite well without all of the interruptions from the older boys.

The two of us girls were chatting it up. We each thought the other had an eye on the boys. We could hear them babbling, but realized that we didn't quite know where they were. We followed the talking noises and wound up outside of the bathroom door.  That's Owen's favorite place, so I made sure that door was closed, but older friend knows how to open it. I wonder who's idea it was?

Anyway, as we opened the door, first the smell of Airwick Automatic Air Sanitizer hit us in the face. It is motion activated and will spray every two minutes. Second, we noticed the lack of light. My friend and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Owen was sitting on the floor and older friend was sitting on the (closed) toilet. They were talking away with each other, in the dark, in an overly scented bathroom.

When they saw us open the door, Owen jumped right up and almost ran out of the room, but older friend was happy to sit there on the throne a while longer.

This was one of those rare sights that really cracked me up. I wonder what their conversation was about?

Weird vs. Different

This is how a 3-year-old explains how to use the words weird and different:

You can say weird when you are talking about something. 

You can say different when you're talking about people.

Old Lady

This is how a 3-year-old edits himself:
 On the car ride home today, Nathan said to me, "Mom, you know _____________ is getting ready to be an old lady." And since he talks so much and does not allow you to get a word in, he repeated himself and said, "_____________________'s getting ready to be an old lady."
As I was trying to ask him what he meant, he said, "Never mind, Mom. Never mind."
Then I was finally able to get a word in.
"Nathan, what do you mean?"
"I said never mind, Mom. Never mind."
"I know, but why did you say never mind?"
"Because I don't want to hurt __________________'s feelings.  So I'm just going to keep it in my head for the whole day."
"Okay, that's probably better that way. I'm very proud of you for making that choice and not saying that. You're right, it might hurt someone's feelings."

(I took the name out when I was writing this so I would make sure no one's feelings were hurt, since that was Nathan's wish!)

Cool

Nathan is very in tune with what he's wearing lately. He likes to pick out his clothes and make sure they match. This morning he came to me, after getting dressed, and asked, "Mommy, do I look cool in this?"  I told him that yes, he does look cool, but wanted him to understand that looking or being cool doesn't depend on what he is wearing at the moment. I told him, "You know what Nathan? You would be cool even if you had your pajamas on. Even if you wore a dirty shirt, you would still be cool, because do you know what makes you cool? Just being Nathan makes you cool!" He smiled and said, "Even if I was naked I'd be cool?" (Where does he come up with this stuff?)  "Well, yes, because you would still be Nathan, but that is not something you can wear out of this house!" He laughed and thought that was so funny. But I really want him to understand that cool isn't something you put on.  It's just being who God made you to be!