the window - the window

Sometime during this last half of the year, Bryson Jr. learned a song in his music class that he thought was hilarious.  It takes nursery rhymes and sets them to song - but then the ending has quite a twist to it!  For example - he came home singing... 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall 

All the King's horses and all the King's men...

THREW HIM OUT THE WINDOW! 

The window, the window

The 2nd story window! 

He will sing this every so often & still laughs about how funny the ending is. 

On Monday when we got back from our morning swimming lessons, I told the kiddos to run inside and change as the Thiriot boy cousins were coming up to play.  I was on the phone talking to my sister-in-law when suddenly Madeleine let out a cry and I looked over and she had fallen down the window well!  One of her legs was sticking out and her arms were above her head and I quickly ended the phone call and ran to help her.  It turns out she had wanted to help out by watering the plants first, and had gone to turn on the hose - which is located right by the window well - and she lost her footing and fell down.  She was shaken up & had a few scrapes on her arms.  Thankfully the towel around her waist had helped cover her below and she didn't get injured, but we had a talk about when I ask them (the children) to do something, they need to obey.  We have a lot of experiences when they don't listen and inevitably they get hurt.  Hmmmm....you'd think they would see the connection and just obey - but it seems to be part of the lessons of life that they must try this out again and again. 

The good news is that Madeleine wasn't hurt in any major way & she even smiled later that night when we were talking about the experience and I suddenly started to sing the song that Bryson Jr. had learned - changing the words about how Madeleine fell down the window well.  

Hopefully this is a sign that this life lesson was learned & that with age comes the ability to laugh at ourselves...even just a little bit :) 

what is sounds like

While we were in the car a few weeks ago picking Jacob up from school, the kiddos were talking in the back seat and I was casually listening to their conversation.  It seemed harmless for awhile, but then as boys do they started to use words that rhyme or went from one word to the next - with each word getting sillier and more along the lines of "potty" language (words that creep to the dirty diaper stage...why boys think those words are so funny to say I have no idea!  Maybe once we have dirty diapers to change in the house, they'll want to talk about flowering violets.  One can wish!).

Suddenly, Jacob is talking and all I hear is "....and DIARRHEA" 

"Jacob!  We do not say that word in a joking way.  That is not a word you want to use that way." 

"But Mom...." 

"No, there are exceptions.  It's not a word to use when you are kidding around." 

Suddenly Jacob was in tears and through his crying he said, "It's just a book in our class - the Diarrhea of a Spider." 

My heart sunk as I realized MY mistake.  

"Oh honey, you are talking about the book the DIARY of a Spider!  The way you said it sounded like a different word.  You want to say it DIARY - without the extra A at the end of the word." 

"Okay Mom - the Diary-a of a Spider - is that right?" 

We practiced saying the word a few more times, and finally he got it.  

I'm still learning the fine line of listening to what the kiddos are saying - and KNOWING what they are saying!

*******

Another time I was driving Jacob up to the school, he leaned forward and whispered, "Mom, Bryson said the S word yesterday!"

I froze a little bit as I thought this is it - the time when I have to explain what a swear word actually is.

I tried to keep my voice calm as I asked, "Oh yeah, and what was that S word?"

Bracing myself for the worst, Jacob again whispered to me....

"He said stupid!"

Phew - crisis averted.  I affirmed to Jacob that that is not a word we use in our family & home, and thanked him for knowing that it was not a nice word.  And then I chuckled inside at how naive our little world is right now.  I hope that we can stay this way for quite some time to come!