Pondered In My Heart

Hey, I got one right

Five year old Kateri: "You know what, Mom? I was reading my prayer book in church the other day, and you were right."

She paused ever so briefly for dramatic effect, giving me a split second to wonder what on earth she was talking about.

Then she smiled as she leaned in to deliver her punch line in a whisper, pointing her finger knowingly at me for emphasis,

"Jesus is God."

The Yucky Thing

For the comic relief that's needed in life, it's hard to beat a three year old.

This girl just cracks me up. Here is Kateri doing her 'Yucky Thing practice.'

"I can go up and down the mountain like the Yucky Thing."

 

 For those of you who are not in the know, the 'Yucky Thing' is of course Gollum.
 

Love in the Little Things

After Mass the other day Father used his long hooked pole to fetch the dried out crown of baby's breath off of the statue of Our Lady, and on a whim he plunked the little wreath on Kateri's head. He muttered something about it looked like it belonged there on top of her mass of curls.

It made her day.

She went home and drew this self-portrait, including her crown of flowers. Look at this happy, happy picture- 

She beamed as she wore her crown all day. Look, Daddy, Father gave me a crown! The next morning when she woke up the first words out of her mouth were to ask who the priest would be that day. When I told her it was Father P. she rolled over to wake up her sister saying, Wake up, Eliza! Wake up! It's going to be Father P! That was over a week ago, but this morning on the way to Mass she again asked who the priest would be, and again she gushed her approval, Father P! He's the best priest! I'm sure dear Father P. has no idea what affection his little gesture has inspired.

I think he's made a friend for life.

Soup and Celery!

My gang greatly enjoyed reading Lissa's post on Book Quotes We Use a Lot. They all huddled around the computer to read the quotes and contemplate their sources, laughing out loud at the ones they recognized. They  harr-ed and ho ho-ed at the thought of someone else saying things like 'Reshpeckabiggle!' and 'Call in Mr. Pye!' And then of course they wanted to come up with our own family list.

I liked a lot of the quotes in Lissa's combox as we also like to practice with a string bean when we can. We often use For keeps and no backsies, And do you know what your job is?, Hello, is that you? This is me, I am sad and lonely here, eating prunes and rice, goodies- in-the-hamper time, along with a slew of others. One of my favorites is Some girls never do get tea sets, said in that knowing voice when faced with disappointments large and small.

More picture book favorites -

It's my mother!

Love to all, Lydia Grace.

Jewollopers! cried the Cook.

And some easies-

Feeling a little eleven-o'clockish

Gaity, song and dance, here we go round the mulberry bush.

When we can't hear each other Michael and I say, What! Isn't it?

And the very useful at times, We can't all and some of us don't.

My Ann-with-an-a calls everything from math to Brussels sprouts unromantic.

But if Lydia doesn't like something she is more likely to declare, Horrors and efreets!

 When someone is attempting to use persuasive speech we say, There is no sun, there is no overworld, thrum thrum thrum...

And when someone makes a particularly astute observation (not) we say, Well said, Chief. Powerful wet stuff.

Hoom, hoom, let's not be hasty, when patience is called for.

Fool of a Took, when the milk is spilled or the likes thereof..

Sing hey for a bath at the close of day, that washes the weary mud away, a loon is he who will not sing, O water hot is a noble thing..is often quoted in its entirety at shower time.

Also, What's taters, Precious? and Longbottom Leaf! Finest in the Shire! and Proper fourteen-twenty! are popular culinary remarks.

Here, take some candy!

If someone asks for a story someone else is likely to rattle off, Once there was a GIANT - he had THREE HEADS and he lived in a BRASS CASTLE. 

Or perhaps, Once there was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.

Whenever we run out of something someone can't help but say, What! No soap! So he died. And she very imprudently married the barber.

My swordsmen are likely to declare, The vorpal blade went snickersnack.

But when drawing a sword it's more appropriate to say, Shrive thyself, for thou wilt have no time for shriving when I am done with thee!

It was a short dagger with a very long hilt, is another boy's favorite.

After a good sermon or blog post, These Romish priests are deucedly sly.

I am likely to say in my best Pa voice, These things happen, but Mary Rose prefers, I dinna ken.

He forced a belch into the silence. It was a very gusty belch, and it was followed by another even louder. (No explanation for that one other than I have teenage boys.)

More random favorites:

Bake me a bannock and roast me a collop for I'm off to seek my fortune.

That odious boy with rose colored knickerbockers.

The little chickens run around rapidly, and stuff themselves full of green grass.

Over the misty moor came Grendel gross and grim, famished for flesh.

When the siege and the assault has ceased at Troy.

And one of Jonathan's: This is a whole note. See?  It's round like a doughnut... Ho hum, am I ever fatigued...Cut the comedy, drip, and play me the G-major scale. 

It looked doity and it choimed like a squoip.

It wath a joke.

Better drowned than duffers if not duffers won't drown.

Plumptrees Vitaminized Nerve Food and could it be made with distilled water.

And whenever we are making a slow and dragged out departure I am likely to say, Let us go then, you and I, when the evening sun is spread out against the sky, and Michael will finish, like a patient etherised upon a table.

And on that note I will stop this endless list. Do leave your guesses in the combox and let me know if you post your favorites!

Bottles and battledores!

Sniff sniff

So we're driving in the car and Kateri is being all chattery as usual, smiling and waving to everyone in turn.

'Hi, Anna! Hi, Mary Rose! Hi, Wydia! Hi, Eliza!'

Then Mary Rose asks her, 'Where's Jonathan?'

Kateri pauses just for a second before declaring rather solemnly, 'Jon-Jon's lost.'

The Peril of Teaching Politeness

Mother to bare-bottomed child: Come here and get a diaper on!

Aforementioned child: No, thank you!

Obsessed

 

 

Do your children do this sort of thing or is it just mine?

One Track Mind

Like her siblings before her, Kateri is learning to pray the rosary through the nightly immersion method. She's starting to join in on some of the prayers to the best of her ability. Of course she doesn't always get the vocabulary quite right. Last night she attempted some of the Fatima Prayer, said after each decade:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.

Only she changed it to most in need of Thy nursey.

Words, Words, Words

What has happened to my little babbling baby? Or even my spirited toddler who says "No!" to everything anyone says to her? Kateri is speaking in these giant grown up sounding sentences with ridiculous parts of speech. What does a two year old need articles and pronouns for? It's quite startling to hear this little person say-

Mom, I need a tissue.

I don't know where Eliza is.

Mom, I can't find it.

I need a diaper.

At least I have Eliza to console me with cute talk. She has caught on to her parents' first names and playfully calls my husband Dada Michael. But she still has a bit of trouble pronouncing my name.

She calls me Mama Broccoli.  :-)

Learning to Count

Today I learned to count using higher numbers. My children informed me that after million, billion, trillion, and zillion come Rilian, Caspian, Erlian, Tirian, and finally the most enormous number anyone can think of: Frank.