Max likes to charge out onto the deck, barking madly. We figured it was her reasserting her dominance over the local squirrels and birds. Jeremy has another theory: she has to scare off all the critters so she can poop and pee in peace. She doesn’t like it if you watch her go to the bathroom and she’ll give you …
When we were volunteering at the Botanic garden recently, Ocean went over to a tree and asked me to take some pictures as he posed. The poses are all him 🤣 This one is my favorite, though. Such a cutie!
If River doesn’t want to do something, he’ll go boneless. We call it “noodling.” Here he’s noodled onto the ground and is veeeeery slowly dragging himself into the library, on his way to clean his room upstairs. Max doesn’t fully appreciate shenanigans such as crawling on the floor, so she had to get her two cents in (chewing her toy …
Sunshine sent me this picture she took of River. He’s sitting on the couch, practicing his mind control abilities.
Max really likes people food, but she doesn’t get it nearly as much as she’d like. She’s not above hovering while we’re eating, in hopes of us giving her food or dropping it (she’s not picky). She’ll stand under the dining table and put her chin in our laps and stare hopefully up at us from between our legs. In …
I don’t know why, but when River posed like this on the stump, it reminded me of a unicorn. A goth unicorn, but still a unicorn.
Sunshine was arguing with Jeremy about how to pronounce Pocky. (they’re chocolate dipped cookie sticks from Japan) Jeremy: “I know how it’s pronounced because I’m Japanese.” Sunshine: “No, you’re not.” Jeremy: “Where was I born?” Sunshine: “On an American military base in Japan.” Jeremy: “Yes, Japanese!” Sunshine pulled a tag off the shirt she was wearing, looked at it, and said: …
We were talking about a Halloween party Sunshine was going to. Ocean: “I want to go to the party!” Me: “You can’t, it’s just for Young Women.” Ocean: “Oh, so you can’t go either, because you’re not a young woman. You’re an old woman.” Me: “Thank you so much.” 🤦♀️
Ocean, “Look, I’m Scrooge McDuck!” (because he’s got a cane)
Someone brought in this inflatable to karate, and Ocean decided he needed to imitate it. He did a pretty good job!
While we were waiting for my brother’s wedding to start, the grownups were in the house or on the covered deck. There were a few kiddos and dogs running around, having a great time. At one point, I looked down into the yard and saw Ocean, just chilling on the grass. No idea why. Also, highly unusual, since being still …
Most nights River is sure to pray that his pectus excavatum will go away when he hits puberty. We won’t know if he’ll need surgery to correct it until he goes through puberty. At that time, his chest will grow normally, or it will continue to be caved in and potentially interfere with his lungs and heart and need surgery. …
River is convinced that only married people have cooties (ie, Mom and Dad). I asked, “So the cute girl from karate class doesn’t have cooties?” River, with a smile, “No.” Jeremy, “Wait, what cute girl at karate?” Me, “Last cycle the boys had to go up and introduce themselves to three people in class, and River was embarrassed to talk …
River thinks he’s too cool for a lot of things these days, including hugs, good smiles, and so on. Ocean doesn’t have a similar issue (yet, hopefully he holds off a few more years since River started this a lot younger than I expected) and is always up for giving his brother a hug. On many occasions at home River …
Ocean, sighing: “When I eat pork I’m tormented” Me, mystified: “Why?” Ocean: “Because pigs are my friends.” (he has a stuffed pig named Oink Oink that is his favorite stuffed animal)
Trying to get a picture of River smiling is a challenge these days. He either grimaces or plasters on an obviously fake smile. Ocean, on the other hand, is still willing to give an easy smile, and has taken it upon himself to “help” his brother smile (or help him off the tree, as in this case).
River, when I asked him which language he wanted to start learning for school: British. Me: Umm, there’s no such language. In Britain they speak English just like we do, just with a different accent and different slang. Him, not completely convinced: Hmmm.
During church a few months ago Ocean was drawing a picture of a teenage mutant ninja turtle on daddy’s phone while humming the theme song to TMNT. Unfortunately, he just doesn’t understand how/isn’t able to turn down the volume, so we had to keep shushing him since it was the middle of sacrament meeting. He’s done this with other characters as …
In April I had to do a 24 hour urine collection for my endocrinologist. The kids were all grossed out by the large container that I had to store in the fridge. As I carried the container upstairs for the last addition, Jeremy made a comment about it, then Ocean chimed in with his two cents. Jeremy then asked Ocean …
We’re fairly sure Ocean has some oppositional defiance stuff going on, and he’s currently struggling to respond appropriately when he gets upset when something doesn’t go how he wants it to. This is not helped when his older brother deliberately antagonizes him, as siblings frequently do. I was talking to River, asking him to support his brother as he tries …
