This morning Peter was telling Luke and me about how he wanted to play every type of sport there is including football, baseball, and golf. Then he said, “And I’ll leave my wife home to take care of the kids.”

Yesterday, when I walked into the boys’ room, they were playing a computer game called Deimos Rising. It didn’t take me long to discover that they weren’t actually playing. They were watching the demo and pushing buttons to pretend they were playing. When asked why they didn’t play the game, they responded with, “We can get farther this way.”

Language has been a big topic during the last several months because we have been trying to learn Chinese. Tonight at supper, our conversation went like this:

Anna: Mom, do you know what Maltome-el means?

Me: No. What.

Anna: it means ‘more’

Me: Where did you learn that one?

Anna: I see it all the time on the cereal bag. It says, “Maltome-el means more.”

This is where I couldn’t help but smile. She was talking about Malt-O-Meal cereal, which indeed advertises on the bag “Malt-O-Meal means more.”

Did you ever wonder how no-touch technology comes across to two year olds? Think about it. At home, they flush the potty themselves, they at least see the water turned on by an adult, and the hand dryers are something they don’t see at all (especially if mom or dad prefers paper towels over dryers)!

Then they walk into the bathroom at a store and feel like they’re in the twilight zone. The toilet noisily swallows anything that comes near it (or at least attempts to). The sink spits on anything that dares to move in front of it. The hand dryer blows hot air out its snout when someone walks underneath it (two year olds do walk under them, you know). They probably come out of the bathroom expecting the water fountain to stick out its leg to trip them!!

And we wonder why two year olds throw temper tantrums!! 🙂

While playing Twister tonight, Luke was explaining to Peter how to tell his left foot from his right foot. Luke said, “Peter, which hand do you write with?” After Peter figured this out, I told him to put the foot he doesn’t write with on the blue dot. Somehow this advice still left him confused! 🙂

The other day Anna found a zip tie on the floor at Wal-Mart and picked it up to play with. (Funny how such simple things are fun to play with when nothing else is available).

Toward the end of the shopping trip, I pushed the cart and jerked Anna with it. I looked at her a little baffled only to see her embarrassed look as she pointed out that she had zip-tied her belt loop to the shopping cart. I couldn’t help laughing, and she took it well and laughed along.

I had absolutely nothing to use to set her free, but there happened to be a friendly-looking employee close by. I kindly asked him if he has scissors or a knife, and he apologetically shook his head. After pointing out our situation, he remembered his box opener and set her free. We had a good laugh over it, and I think Anna was quite relieved not to have to walk across the store tied very tightly to the shopping cart!

Last Sunday, our church got together for a harvest party. We had a cookout, roasted marshmallows, a pinata, and pie baking contest. One very exciting thing is that I WON THE PIE BAKING CONTEST (thanks Mom & Rebekah for the recipe), and my friend Christy got 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places! Go Christy!!

There were 2 pinatas. Anna was in the older group, and Peter, Phillip, and Bethany were in the younger group. I didn’t figure Bethany would get much candy, but I gave her a bag anyway. I was shocked to see her picking it up by the hand full! It was so funny! She got more candy than the boys did!!

At one point I walked in the kitchen to find our pastor’s 11 year old daughter standing in the kitchen licking a mounded plate of whipped cream. Luke walked up and said, “I’ve wanted to do this to someone all my life,” and hit the bottom of the plate right into her face. She laughed and turned bright red. It was hilarious! By the way, this is the same girl Anna partnered with in a 3 legged race at the party. They made an interesting pair because there is about a foot and a half difference in their heights. Amazingly, they won! Anna tells me they practiced by walking around the house together. 🙂

We had fun at the Harvest party and came home with fuller stomachs than we probably should have! Wish you could have been there!! If you weren’t there, take a look at some pictures.

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