A Scout is always pre......what?

Since turning 8, Carter has now been going to scouts! Which he of course loves and can't wait for each week! Today when I picked him up he was rattling off some of the things he had learned and when we got home he flatly refused to take off his uniform. I was getting his dinner ready and had it nicely nuking away in the microwave. It beeped and I went to take it out, but was cut off by a scrambling Carter who informed me, "I'm a scout now, and we know how to take things out of the microwave safely!" I backed off and let him proceed. A bit later I was shredding some cheese and walked away to go change out the clothes in the laundry. Again when I came back I found Carter where I once was, happily grating away. I told him to be really careful since it's sharp and didn't want him to cut his finger. He again replied "mom, I already told you, a scout is aways careful and aways prepared!" I let him finish and sorta chuckled to myself, wondering how long it would be before he came and asked for a band aid. But in the middle of grating the cheese he suddenly sprinted out of the room. I called after to him and asked what was the matter? He yelled back that he needed to go to the bathroom really bad!!! About an hour later I was going to put Paige in the tub when I noticed the all to familiar smell of urine and a nice big puddle on the floor directly in front of the toilet! I told Carter he needed to come into the bathroom and bring some paper towels with him. He was not altogether happy with the fact that he was the one that would be cleaning up the ominous yellow puddle on the floor. He complained that he was not equipped to be cleaning this sorta thing up! So I smirked and said "I thought a scout was always prepared for anything?" He looked up from his unhappily crouched position on the floor and said, "Mom, they don't cover cleaning up pee in our handbook!"

I have something to say to the big yellow thing in the sky!

Paige has a very strong love-hate relationship with the sun! She loves to play outside and really enjoys a nice warm sunny day (although a cold, snowy one doesn't seem to dampen her that much either).  Every morning on the way back from dropping Carter at school, Paige and the sun have a showdown! It's always at the exact wrong place in the sky for her eye level, so no matter how I fix the shades in my car it won't ever quite block the sun for her.  This morning, because of traffic, we had to take a different way to school so while the sun is usually behind her on the way to school, today it was shining in from the side and blasting her in the face. I was alerted to this when all the sudden Paige lets out her usual cry of agony, (much like the Wicked Witch of the West when she gets doused with water).  At this point Paige lets out her usual stream of unpleasantries towards the sun.  I knew that if we could just make it to the end of the  street that the sun would drop back behind her again.  I kept telling her that we were almost there and the sun would be gone. Then I hear Paige in the back, "OK come on jussa few more minutes, we gonna make it and than u sun be gone, almost dare!" We turned right and phewww! Paige also let out a sigh of relief and then said "mommee we made it!" We then drop off Carter and head up the dreaded hill to return back home, which is where the sun usually peeks it's beams on us. It's was really funny, but also sorta pitiful because Paige thought she had already had her dose of blasting for the morning! She was singing "B-I-N-G-ohhhhhhh  NO! IT'S BACK! Mommeee, I don't fink I can do dis again!" I did my best to block as much as I could but it just wasn't enough.  "Sun, u get away, i don't wike u doday! u weeve me awone!" Finally as I turned back on our street where the suns relentless rays can no longer touch her, she quiet's back down. Then in a very small voice I hear, "Sun, we going to Tracie's house, but pwease don't come dere! Ok?!"

"Tails" from the petting zoo

Today Miss P and I went to the petting zoo down at Thanksgiving Point. Which just happens to be one of her favorite places to go! Thankfully the weather today has been gorgeous and we had a free afternoon, so off we went! It was one of those outings where I wish I had brought a tape recorder with me and just caught everything she said cause she was on a roll! So these are a few of the precious things Paige had to say! When we first checked in the lady at the counter gave us a couple of apples to go feed with horses, so we began our journey around the place. We stopped and talked to the goats and then over to the Llamas then came the gigantic Clydesdale horses, Paige walked straight up and started having a conversation with a very large buttercream colored horse. I'm not sure if they could smell the apples in our pockets but when we walked up it was sorta like when a really pretty girl walks by and all the men in the area break their necks trying to look at her. Well the horses did the same, they did an about face and came right up to the fences and started pawing the ground and butting there noses against their fences. I told Paige they were ready for the apples, and all she had to do was throw the apples onto the ground and they would pick them up. So she tossed the first one in for the buttercream horse and starting giggly watching the horse chomp it down. So during this the horse next door who was an even bigger black one starting trying to stick it's head into the others pen. Paige see's him doing this and jumps down off the fence marches over to the next horse and say's very politely, "Now horsey, if u wanna habe a apple, you gotta wait u turn like ebey body else!" It was really funny seeing this little 2 year old stare down a 12 foot horse, and remind him of his manners. The next area was the pigs, and as we started to walk over there Paige commented on the smell, "Mommee, dis don't smell bery good! why day so stinky?" I told her that it was from the pigs and it was because that was also where they went to the bathroom. So when we got up to their pen, Paige looks in and remarks, "mommee it's dat one, he need to change he bumm, he stinky! why don't he's momma change he bum?" We did a few other things and then when we were getting ready to leave we visited the cows, most of them were back in the shade, but one very pretty Jersey was standing up front working on her tan. Paige went running up to her and started to admire her. "Oh she a very bootiful cow, i wike her nose and he tail!" then she noticed the tag in her ear and got very excited, "Mommy wook she gots a earring wike you! Oh you beautiful cow I wove u earring, u wook so nice!"

Oh to be young and self reliant :)

Yesterday Rob, Carter and Paige were all in the car taking Carter to his Hip Hop lessons! (He told us he wanted to learn how to dance like Justin Bieber) They were listening to the "Pink Elephants" song from Dumbo, and when it was over Rob kept chanting "Pink elephants, pink elephants" over and over. Paige piped up from the back and asked "Daddy where da pink ellepants at? where arre dey at?" Rob respond and told her that they were in her imagination! Paige did not agree with his answer because she told him very sternly "No dey not, they to big to fit in dare!"


One of Carter's chores is to clean up his play room, he doesn't like it very much but most of the time he's pretty good at obliging Rob and I. However on Wednesday he had his cousin from WY. spend the night and they managed to pull out every single toy that Carter owns, and Paige's as well. (I really don't want to know what they were doing with the tutu's and princess crowns!) So when I discovered their  handy work I told him that he couldn't have any friends over until he cleaned the whole thing up! He was not happy about it but still went to work. About 2 hours later he came down and had a new Lego masterpiece, I knew from the looks of it that what had most likely happened was he started to pick up a Lego and decide it would be of better use to be put into a new creation of his, rather than going in it's box. I of course was not to thrilled at the progress he made so I threatened to throw away every Lego he had if he didn't get on it right then. That sent him into action, but when I went up to check on the progress he was cleaning but looking very pitiful! He then said "Mom, can you please help me clean the playroom?" I told him that i wouldn't because every other time I've "helped" him I've ended doing all the work and he sorta wonders around the room trying to look busy. He didn't like my response so he countered with "But mom, that's when I was only 7, now that I'm 8 I'm self reliant!" I said well that's great, now you can do it all by yourself with out any help since you are self reliant! He looked at me and scoffed "No mom, that means your suppose to help me!" I smiled and replied that actually self reliant means that you can do things all on your own and that he doesn't need help from other people. He looked at me very thoughtfully for a moment then said "really, that's what that means? Oh well, just forget what I said then!"

The "Dress" code

As anyone who has met Paige can attest to the fact that outside of church they have rarely seen her in anything other than some sort of princess dress, tutu or some frilly pink something or other! ( and possibly nothing but her diaper! I wish this wasn't the case! I know I'm from Georgia and all but the half naked child running around out front is a little cliche') Earlier she had fallen asleep in a pink ballerina dress that btw has pizza stains all over it that I have in fact been trying to wash for the last two days. Her solution to the stain problem on her dress is to simply turn it around, Out of sight...out of mind, Right? Well I talked her into taking it off so we could get some jammies on her. Not 10 mins later she was sitting on my bed very upset because she can't find her dress. Being very distraught, asked me "mommeee, I really need to find my beautiful dress. Can you please help me find my beautiful dress?" I told her that it was time for bed, and we don't wear our dresses to bed! This did not sit well, she hopped down off the bed and went on the hunt. Not to much later I can hear her in the laundry room "Were, can my beautiful dress be? oh no, where did it go, it's lost!!" Then singing, "oh where oh where can my beautiful dress be? Oh where oh where can it be?" I like that she configures the songs to fit her personal needs.

come on sleep is for babies!

My little sweet pea Paigey has a real problem with sleeping, as in she doesn't actually believe in it! Sure we'll get stretches of her pulling a full 8 hours but for the most part it's generally in 2-4 hour shifts! A couple of nights ago was more of the same. Most of the time I sleep on the couch so that I can intercept  her mid hallway so she doesn't wake up Rob since he has to get up so early. Well this evening I had fallen asleep in our bed which was very lovely and uncommon, when right around 4 am I feel two little hands pulling on my covers trying to get her sleepy self up onto our bed. She was being quite which was a welcomed change, because we are usually greeted with the cry of a banshee when she first wakes up during the night, but Miss P is a horrible bed buddy! Think Hulk Hogan in the ring meets a Jack Rabbit! I have never met a kid who kicks as hard or does a better flying buttress as she does! So around 4:32 am, I move out to my now all to familiar spot on the couch, exiled from my bed, willing to be demoted rather than wake the Kraken! When 7 am rolls around I pull my sorry, aching self up to get the kiddo's ready for school. I am greeted with a very smiley happy Paige! I lay down on the bed next to her and she cuddles her cute self up to me, and I ask her how she slept? "GREAT" was her reply, then she tilts her little face up to me and asks as sweet as a little angel descended from above..... " So, how was u couch mommee?"...................... REALLY!!!!!!!!

Stockton, Malone..... Young?

This evening we were at a friends house for a BBQ, they had this really great restored covered wagon in their backyard where Carter and Paige were having a good time playing and exploring in it. A little later it had started to get dark and Carter asked if someone would come out to the wagon with him. Rob said he didn't want to since it was haunted by Bringham Young's ghost. Carter wide eyed told Rob that there was no such thing as ghosts, Rob smirked and told him he was right then asked him if he knew who Bringham Young was? Carter's reply was "oh sure he was one of those guys who's with the Utah Jazz!"
I can't be sure but I think somewhere along the line we may have confused the kid a little.