Kids say the darndest things...

Although most of these incidents were not recent, I decided to share a few of them as one of our first posts and hope they brighten your day, or make you smile like they did me.

For those of you who don't know, its like we have "two families". There is an 8 year age gap between Cinthanie ((the youngest of the "first family")) and Hinckley ((the oldest of the "second family")) with no one inbetween. So we have all ends of the spectrum going on in our home. Teenagers with dates and grades to be concerned about, and toddlers with letters and potty training to be concerned about. - Everyone always asks me ((as the oldest sibling)) if its weird having brothers that young. I can honestly say, I wouldn't trade them for anything else. Its incredible watching them grow up as if they were my own. I love experiencing the little things they do and lessons they learn. - Its GREAT preperation for when I have kids of my own and although I know I will never FULLY understand until I have kids of my own, I'm grateful for the smallest glimpse into motherhood that I have been given.

Having a 7 year old and a 4 year old around the house, bring many moments of laughter:
I was tucking Max ((4)) into bed one night and I was talking to him about a movie he likes. He was telling me all about the characters and what they do in the movie. He pointed to a particular character and said "he tells stories about all the other characters." I asked Max if he liked the stories that were told by the particular character. He said "yeah, but sometimes they are trashy." - I had to laugh.

A little bit ago it was finally "warm" enough to go outside and play ((so it was in the 50s...)) so I let the boys go play in the front yard as I can see them from my bedroom window. - While I was in my room, Hinck ((7)) came in to talk to me for a minute. - As I was talking to him, I wasn't looking outside and suddenly heard a "THWAP!" on my window. Something had hit it. I looked outside and saw Max standing there. I asked him what had hit my window and he said "I don't know maybe somebody threw a rock or something!" I did not have time to scold him because Hinckley was trying to talk to me and my mom was calling me outside so I let it go for a minute. - A few minutes later, Max rode his bike off the front porch backwards and of course crashed. I went outside to tend to his wounds and once he had calmed down a little, I confronted the "rock being thrown issue" again. I asked him "Max did you throw a rock at my window?" he told me no. So I asked him who it was, to which he replied "I think it was a neighbor!"

Lately I have been hanging out with Max a lot. I'm home not working and mom and Hinck are homeschooling so Max and I spend a lot of time together. - We recently moved into another house down the street from our "old" one and before we left, Max was completely potty trained. He never had accidents or anything. But ever since we moved into the new house, he hardly EVER uses the toilet unless I am constantly asking him if he has to go to the bathroom.
At first it was irritating, then I became sympathetic ((after learning that a friend of mine's nephew has been doing the same thing since also moving into a new house)) and so I began to make "deals" with him. I told him for every day he didn't go potty in his pants, he would get a sticker on his week chart. At the end of the week if he had 7 stickers, I promised to take him to the dollar store and let him pick out whatever he wanted. At first he was VERY excited about that, but he kept going in his pants, therefore never getting stickers, therefore seeing the 7 stickers as impossible to come by. After the sympathy wore off, I went back to being irritated which is where I stand now. - I can tell when he is going to go ((if he needs to pee he will dance around our walk around and if he needs to do the number 2 he will hide under something - a table, a chair, a shelf - to do the deed)) so I have been constantly asking him trying to HELP him earn the stickers so he knows he can do it.
Well tonight I was particularly irritated with him because I want him to admit he has to pee when I ask him but instead he lies about it. So he was dancing around the toy room and I asked if he needed to pee. He told me he didn't but I took him into the bathroom and made him sit on the toilet anyway ((he always goes when this happens)). He started peeing and looked up at me with a "surprised" face thinking I would be proud of him ((which I should have been)) but I was still a little irritated, so asked him "why can't you just do that everytime!" He said he didn't know. Then after a few seconds he looked up at me and said "you are getting very tricky at this." - Of course I couldn't help but laugh. - Its interesting that 4 year olds know exactly how to melt your heart.

Max and Hinck have a recent fascination with a computer game called Roller Coaster Tycoon. There are different theme parks you can put together and build your own roller coasters and all sorts of stuff like that. - Although Max doesn't really know what he is doing, he still likes to get on and try to play. - Well he has this Greek God theme park that he is really obsessed with that he calls his "God Park". - Today he was talking to my sister on the phone and she asked him how he was doing. He responded "I'm doing quite well in my God Park!"

A little bit ago, Hinckley and my dad were wrestling in the living room ((a favorite past time of theirs... until somebody... ususally dad, gets hurt)). We weren't in the same room and couldn't see what was going on, but we sure could hear them. Laughing, screaming, running, and then Hinckley, getting quite brave and sure of himself shouted "say sayanara dad!" - We think he meant "sianara", but it sure didn't come out that way. :)

I love some of the things kids say. It helps put sunshine into my everyday life.

Much love,

The Petralias
"...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" Alma 37:6