72 posts tagged “kids stories”
Last weekend my dad took Strider camping, along with 80% of the Dreschers. Then, on Saturday, my mom brought Rayna up for the day, too. Needless to say, both kids LOVED it. I've been hearing stories about it all week. And just like I used to, Strider gets most excited about the food when camping. (When dads are in charge, we all know what kind of "meals" are made) My favorite quote from Strider, though, was "Then for breakfast, Uncle J. made pancakes, and then he drownded mine with 2% maple syrup"
"2% maple syrup? What's that?" I asked.
He said, "That's what it said on the bottle! The other 98% is all chemicals."
So there you go.
Here are a few pictures of them loving the outdoors this past weekend...
Last night around 8 pm, I got that scheming, gleeful glint in my eye as I told Pete I wanted to pull a classic April Fool's prank on our kids: moving them while they were sleeping so they would wake up in someone else's bed. Here's how our night ended up going:
10:00 pm: Feed Miles, then talk to my friend Jen on the phone until 11.
11:15 pm: Put Miles to bed. Put Rayna in Colsen's bed, Colsen in Strider's bed, Strider in Rayna's bed.
11:17 pm: Bring a screaming Colsen into our room and let him lie in our bed.
11:50 pm: Turn out the lights with Colsen still in our bed.
1:15 am: Rayna comes in our room crying because Strider's in her bed. We take Colsen back to his bed, Strider back to his bed, and Rayna back to her bed.
1:30 am: Colsen is screaming again.
4:00 am: Miles wakes up because he is a baby and he wants to eat.
5:30 am: Colsen is crying again.
7:10 am: Strider comes running in our room, throwing (single) socks all over our bed as his idea of an April Fool’s joke. Then he runs into Rayna's room.
7:11 am: Rayna is yelling, "STRI-DER!" in a pained voice
7:12 am: Colsen wakes up and comes in our room, crying.
Needless to say, my first prank of the day definitely backfired, and I learned more about who the real Fool is in this house. Undaunted, though, I am still planning to continue with my other plan for dinner tonight…
I am becoming increasingly convinced that Rayna is the live version of Curious George, and Colsen is Dennis the Menace incarnate. And the 2 of them together result in Bad Ideas Squared.
Inevitably, when I sit down to feed Miles, or am in some other way occupied, Colsen and Rayna will silently melt away into the nether regions of our house, so I find myself yelling "Colsen and Rayna, what are you guys doing??" every few minutes throughout the day. (I think I'm starting to yell it in my sleep now)
And sometimes I'll hear back, "Nothing!" which is not good, and sometimes I'll get no response at all, which is downright terrible. And then there are the classic responses like, "Colsen is brushing his teeth with your special lotion!" or "We just got glue everywhere!"
A few days ago, George and Dennis were upstairs while I was downstairs feeding Miles, and Dennis/Colsen yelled down to me in his I-think-something's-wrong-here voice:
C: Rayna gave me that!
Me: What??
C: Rayna gave me that.
Me: She gave you what?
C: THAT!
Me: What's that?
C: THAT!!
Me (finally realizing defeat on this front): Rayna, what did you give him?
R: I gave him THIS!
Not only do these two have mischievousness mastered, but they are becoming experts in the art of being elusive.
So Rayna is Curious George, Colsen is Dennis the Menace, and Strider is Calvin, (as in Calvin and Hobbes, but that is a whole other set of tales). I wonder who Miles will turn out to be....?
Life is definitely colorful around here!
We recently acquired a Flip video camera and Pete has been having fun taking videos. For some reason (probably having to do with the kids' desire to stall the actual going-to-bed part of the evening), most of the goofy things the kids do are after they've gotten their PJ's on at night. So here are a couple of scenes from our ragamuffin-looking group.
Ever since the kids saw the Plain White T's perform "Hey There Delilah" (here's the video if you're not familiar with the song), they've been intermittently breaking out into the chorus at random times. Here's some footage of that. Note how Colsen's hammer, which usually doubles as a leaf-blower or vacuum, is now both a guitar and a microphone. Note also how probably none of these kids are likely to end up on American Idol or any of the America-Can-Dance-type shows:
Strider and Rayna have been learning the first several verses of John 1 in Latin for school, and we were surprised one day when Colsen chimed in. Turns out he's actually learned quite a bit of it. Pete tried to capture it on film, but Cole decided to turn into a broken Latin record instead, repeating the same phrase over and over... so Rayna took over... Colsen decided to join in finally at the very end...
When I put Miles in this sling the other day, Rayna immediately said she needed one for her doll, Jelly. And as we were fashioning one for her out of a pillowcase, Colsen declared he needed one for his dog, Cos-Cos. (Where do the kids get these names?) Strider was watching all the proceedings so I asked him if he was going to want one, too.
"Mom!" he said, in obvious disdain, "I'm a BOY!" So he didn't want one apparently, but he did take this picture for us.
On Saturday, Strider and Rayna were playing upstairs.... and then came down looking like this.
Unfortunately, this was the scene in our backyard this morning:
Apparently, this is the first time our area has seen snow accumulate in March in a very long time. The average normal high temperature by now is supposed to be 60*.... Oh well. To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, WALSWIB (the 2nd "W" stands for "winter" here)
The good news is the forecast is saying it might be 70 by this weekend... so maybe the kids will get to pull out their summer outfits soon after all...
Is this something I should be concerned about?
Colsen loves to play with Miles... He always uses his high-pitched voice and says things like, "Hi, Baby Miles. I want to kiss him. He's so cute. He's so little..." etc. But several times now he's also thrown this in: "I I love his head. I want to take his head off." And in case I don't quite get his meaning, he adds, "I want to take him apart."
So, we'll just file this under, "More Reasons to Not Leave Colsen and Miles Alone Together."
Meanwhile, Cole's had his own concerns to deal with...
The first few times he saw us change Miles' diaper, he was very alarmed to see the umbilical cord/belly button on him. He kept pointing at it and asking in a distressed voice, "What's THAT?!" We tried to explain it to him, but he was never very satisfied with our explanations.
Then, the other day I had to change Colsen's diaper, and decided to just change him downstairs since I had a box of wipes we were using for Miles there anyway. Colsen started freaking out about it though, saying, "Don't use Miles' wipes! Don't use his wipes!"
I couldn't figure out what the big deal was -- wipes are wipes, right? -- until he said, "I don't have a Bilical Cord! I don't have a Bilical Cord!"... and apparently he was afraid they were contagious or something!
Poor little guy... so much to figure out in this world.
Colsen apparently thought Miles needed this... I found it later when I went to check on him.
This isn't just a sword either... According to Colsen it's a leaf blower, and he carries it with him all the time, blowing the leaves out of the living room, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. I'm not sure which is scarier -- that he gave Miles a sword, or a leaf blower.
This morning as we were heading out the door for church, Colsen was getting himself ready as well. Here are some of the things he asked me:
Can I take my phone to church? (Since his phone was just a folded-up baseball card, the answer was "Sure.")
Where's my iPod? ("You don't have one, sweetie")
Can I wear my Crocs? ("You don't own Crocs.")
Can I have a dog? ("Nice try".)
Can I have a cat? ("No.")
Can I have a monster? ("Ok.") He then proceeds to talk in a growly monster voice for the next few minutes.
Sometimes I think he thinks he's 26 years old, instead of 26 months old!
(Although then later at lunch, Strider tried to refer to him as a toddler and Cole said "I'm not a toddler! I'm a kid!".... so maybe he really doesn't think of himself as an adult yet... just a kid who should be surrounded by some brand-name things.)
This afternoon has been a fun time for all the kids... Strider and Pete have been outside practicing their secret football plays (with covert signals and everything) as they celebrate Super Bowl Sunday...
Meanwhile, Rayna has been scooterin' and dancing...
And after we re-located Colsen, he announced he was playing "hide-n-seek."
In other words, this has been one of those beautiful Sunday afternoons.... so much to be thankful for!
After our recent Boxing Day Auction that we had as a family, Strider has been contemplating some of the results. He was very eager to spend his own money that day and pick out the items he bid on, but now I think he has experienced some buyers' remorse, (or as we say in my marketing classes, "cognitive dissonance"). To try and turn that around, though, he recently announced that he had a new business idea:
S: Mom, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to start selling my stuff to other people for more than I paid for it. Then I'll make a lot of money.
Me: Well, honey, I don't know if people will be willing to pay extra for an item that they could just go to the store and get for cheaper.
S: Yeah, but they won't know how much it costs at the store.
Me: Hmmm.... I think people generally have a good handle on what things cost.
S: Well, maybe if they're economists or something, but not regular people!
So.... I guess the business lessons we're imparting here at the Frank house, unknowingly but perhaps not in error, are:
1.) Buy low and sell high
2.) Economists are really, really smart -- at least when it comes to market dealings.
Pete is pleased. :)
