The Boys

While driving around town we nearly hit a van that ran a red light. Ian was thrilled by the near miss -- "Mommy! Did you totally almost squashed that van?"

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Scott teaches Ian all kinds of Russian words. And Ian loves it when Scott prays at dinner time in Russian. Recently Ian has started to pray in "Russian" himself -- only it begins "Dear Heavenly Father", then shouting a bunch of Russian-sounding gibberish, and then closes the prayer in English. To a non Russian speaker like me, he actually sounds pretty convincing!

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Ian loves garbage trucks and thinks garbage men are all powerful. If you tell him he isn't allowed to do something he'll say "You can't say no to me! I'm the garbage man!" and proceeds to do what I told him not to.

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When I pulled a frozen pizza out of the oven tonight Joseph began jumping up and down and making a very intense little face, while shouting "Mommy! Mommy!" and scrambling toward his high chair. I have never seen a kid who loves food quite like Joseph does. He regularly eats 2 adult servings or more at dinner time, especially when rice or pasta is involved. Ian on the other hand has forsaken dinner all together.
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I explained to Ian that the center of a peach is called a pit, and we don't eat it. Now whenever he has eaten a few bites of something (pretzel stick, banana, sandwich) and then decides he is full (because he is a toddler and practically lives on air alone), he declares that the remainder is "The pit! I can't eat anymore because it's the pit!"
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When Scott went to Africa recently, Ian seemed a little insecure, especially when I left him at preschool. When I picked him up he met me at the door and excitedly told me, "I cried in the window when you were gone. I was crying about you!" It's nice to be cried about sometimes, especially when someone tells you about it so enthusiastically.

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Ian: "I want a potty treat marshmallow."

Me: "Okay, let's go put some potty in the toilet."

Ian: Appears to be weighing the pros and cons..."Never mind", and walks away.
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Today Ian recited the entire Pledge of Allegiance, including the word "indivisible". Our preschool class began "saying" the pledge while waving mini flags twice a week, about a month ago, but Ian had never uttered a word of it until today when he spit the whole thing out.

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When Ian gets into something he shouldn't, he tells me to go outside, or to another house, presumably so I won't be able to watch him while he commits the crime.

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Mosquitoes are out in abundance lately and the boys and I have quite a few bites. The boys have never seemed to notice them before, but this morning I found Ian sitting in his crib with his pjs' unzipped and scratching a large bite on his chest. He said "I am just scrubbing it and scrubbing it!

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Joseph is enthusiastic about food and has recently learned to say 'Eat! Eat!" while doing the sign for 'eating'. Until now I had no idea how frequently Joseph was hungry! He also says 'new-no' for noodle, and anything else that I cook in the noodle pot. He loves eating whole apples and bananas, but only if they still have the peel on and pulled back.

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At bedtime Scott says Joseph held a calculator up to his ear and said what sounded just like "Hey buddy! I love you!" He also frequently says "hey-o" while pretending to talk on the phone.
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We talked about forgiving others a few months ago and since then Ian will say out of the blue, "Mom do you forgive the gold car? I forgive the gold car." We drive a gold colored car, but I have no idea why it needs to be forgiven.
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I say "Oh!Yucky! Blech!" when Joseph touches something germy. Recently Joseph has been mimicking it. When he touches the garbage can or picks up food off the ground he shakes his head and makes a sound like he is clearing phlegm from his throat.

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Ian and Joseph have matching spaceship PJs. The first time they wore them I dressed Joseph in his room and then brought him into where Scott was dressing Ian. Ian looked at his PJs, then at Joseph's and then ran over next to Joseph and said "Cheers pajamas!" while he bumped Joseph's hip with his own hip.

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