According to the kids

Kids say:

Me: It's almost Lulus birthday.

G: no it's almost DADS birthday!

(This was before Paul and Addie's birthdays. He's learned the order really well.)

I can't decide if this is appropriate or not, but it was cute, and Garrett doesn't really know better yet. When my nephew William was born, Garrett wasn't talking much and Addie wasn't at all. But they'd both put their index finger along the bottom of their nose, above there lip (like the oxygen tube) to let us know they knew who he was, or that they wanted to see him. This past Halloween Garrett had the corner of his bandana twisted up and he put it up to his lip under his nose and said,  "Mom! Take a picture! I'm baby Will!" 

We often have to remind Garrett to finish eating before going on to something else and he's started picking up on our eating advice. Paul was hurrying through a mean and G said, 

"dad, swallow that bite first." Another time Paul and I were talking during dinner and Garrett shouted, "mom, focus!"

Everyday when Paul gets home from work the kids both excitedly ask, "Done workin'?"

Me: Addie who should we go see for Christmas?

Addie: Baby Will...and Tow Mater. 

G was chasing Addie swinging a coat at her. 

Me: Garrett, what are you doing?

G: I'm playing hitting. 

Me: You're playing hitting? That sounds like a safe game. 

G: yeah, it's a safe game. 

G: Addie don't do that! You're making me crazy!

Walking to our car from a store, G was touching each car as we walked by.

Me: don't do that bud, people don't want your finger prints on their cars. 

G: (keeps touching every car) mom, you're crazy. 

The two of them are very mischievous together. When Garrett had been told

not to do something, he whispers to Addie to try and get her to do it. And she almost always whispers back, "ok" and then does it. I used to get mad at her for doing what he was doing, but then I caught on, and now he still gets in trouble for making her do stuff I've told him not to do. He hasn't learned yet though. 

They are both constantly telling me things are 'so cute' or 'adorable.'

No matter when the last time was that G used the bathroom, if I ever tell him to try and go, he says, "I went last night."

Addie: sneezes

Me: bless you!

G: (wipes his arm from Addie's sneeze) and says: Eww, you just blessed on me. 

Addie puts on new Jammie's and goes to G and says, "Garrett, look at me." Garrett says, "oh...you're very pretty."

G: mom that dinosaur has a lady friend. 

Me: hmm, do you have a lady friend? 

G: no. I have a mama lady friend.

Addie walks around randomly patting her belly saying, "oh ho ho, Merry Chris trees."

Garrett walks around randomly patting his belly saying, "ho ho ho, Very Christmas."

According to the kids.

G: Can I have a bite?

A: No. All mine. 

G: You pooping right now? 

A: Yeah... You poopy?

G: No, poop in the toilet.

A: Baffroom?

G: Yeah.

G: My cook dinner. 

Me: Oh, you're cooking dinner? 

G: Yeah!

Me: cool! 

G: Don't touch my cookin'.

Me: Addie don't whine. Talk in your big girl voice.

G: Yeah talk big. Lulu talk a little one, I talk a big one!

G: Mom, are you sad?

Me: Yeah, a little sad.

G: (hugs me) You wait a second, I play with my toys real quick then come check on you.

G: I speak Japanese! Aw Choo!!… I'm funny, right?

Addie needed a little downtime, so I had her sit on my lap for a story. I started making up a story about a brave, strong, pretty little girl who loves her family, and her family loves her. She smiled, pointed at herself, and said, "me!"

Addie brought me a golf ball in a cup and said, "soccer ball, eat it!"

G: I can't pee standing up. My pee pee gets in my nose. (He's been peeing standing up since he said that and he hasn't had a problem yet.)

G: I peed the garbage can!

Me: What!? No!! Why??!

G: I peed like this. (He then took the pee stance and began swaying from side to side.) Sigh… Growing up with all brothers, I fear that teaching a boy to pee IN the potty is a lifelong struggle.

I was teaching Addie to properly ask for more fruit snacks.

Me: May I

A: May I

Me: Please have

A: Please have

Me: One more?

A: Two more?

Garrett's new thing when he doesn't want to go to bed at night is to keep asking "guess what?" There's never anything to guess.

I guess when I'm frustrated and trying to not let on when I'm asking the kids to do something, I call them sweetie. A couple of times now, Garrett has been trying to convince me to let him do something that I don't want him to do, and he ends his request with, "okay sweetie?"

P: Garrett, is it okay if I take a nap?

G: No, little kids take naps.

Addie's a curious little girl, she often asks, "wha-cha doin' there guys?"

Garrett came up to me and said, "hug me." I gave him a hug, and as I went to let go, he said, "a little bit more…" a second later, he said, "Squeeeeeze." Then we were done. 

We got a go fish game that's not cards, it's a fishing pole with a suction cup that picks up cardboard fish. There's items on the back of the fish, and one of them has an anchor on it. Garrett caught that fish and he held up the fishing pole and shouted, "look mom! I caught a hooker!"

Later that night Addie went for the pole and Garrett yelled, "No Lulu! Don't touch my hooker!"

When Addie says fork it sounds a lot like another four letter word that starts with F.

A few days ago at dinner, she was passing out forks, and she'd say with each one, "Fork you. Fork you."

Garrett was trying to explain to me that Mimi was making him hold still so she could comb his hair. He finally just yelled, "Mimi's making me crazy!"

Favorite words that Garrett mispronounces:

Jellyfish- Jell-O fish

Flamingo- FlingO

Sprinkles – sprinklers

Basketball – back sit ball

According to the kids.

Garrett lately...

What's Sisters name?  Lulu or Luschki
What's your name?  Garrett or Gargit
What's dad's name? Paul White
What's mom's name? Mom White

Addie was fussy as she was going down for an early nap.  Garrett heard her through the monitor and said, "Mom, you wait here.  I go check on Lulu."

The White grandparents live in the next town over, but it's easy to get there, down one road, turn left, turn left, and we're there.  When we get to the right streets, Garrett has started saying, "turn left, Sparky!"  Yesterday, Paul was in the left turn lane and I said, "Where do we turn?"  Garrett pointed and said, "here."  I said, "do we turn left or turn right?"  And he said, "turn right here!"  To which Paul responded, "Aww, son, you have found one of the many flaws in the english language."

He checks his poop in the toilet and says what it looks like:
-snake
-fish
-muffin
-ice cream
Yuck.  I know.  Boys are gross.

It happens nightly that he asks if he can sleep on the couch or sleep in our bed.  Neither of which he's ever done.

I was hurrying him through a store, telling him we needed to get home to go to the bathroom, to which he loudly responded, "Did you pee in your underwear?"

He was begging to go to the play ground at the beach and I kept telling him we didn't have time.  He finally said, "I go to the play ground mine self and say, Hiiiii Kiiiiids!"

He calls all of his toys, whether it be trucks, trains, stuffed animals, etc. "These guys."

Addie Lately...

I don't remember the last update I gave on Addie's talking, but here's what I remember as of late.

She'll repeat any words we ask her to say.  Sometimes it comes out right, other times, not so much.

Some usuals:
-fridge
-pizza
-chocolate milk (but she says it the same wrong way Garrett used to) cha-led a led a muck
-melon
-Lulu
-cheese
-bacon
-diaper
-flowers
-sleep
-kick
-push
(Pretty sure Garrett had a hand in those last two.)

Paul plays hide and seek with them at night and when she can't find him she comes to me and shrugs her shoulders and says, "Dad go?"

She's been walking around chanting "ABCD."

When we're eating something she wants, she says, "Some. Some. Some."  or "This, this."

When Garrett goes to use the potty she always announces, "Go baff-room."

Whenever she sneezes she shouts, "Bless you!"
When Garrett sneezes she shouts, "Bless you Garrett!"
When anyone else sneezes we get a bless you about half the time, the other half she repeats, "Ah-choo!"

She hates when the sun hits her in the car, she lets out a whiny, "Sun! Mom! Sun! Gases, Gases!" (glasses)

She can hear a bus from a mile away, and she puts her hand up to her ear, and yells, "Bus!"  She does the same with "Plane!" and "Truck!"

According to the kids

This will be boring to most, but one day I'm sure I'll love looking back at these posts, so it's mostly for me.

Garrett lately:

Burrito=be-yo-ee
Tortilla=ta-toy-a
He likes to eat quick and get back to what he was doing, so after a bite or two at every meal he announces, "me almost done."
He hates going to the store.  When I tell him we need to go, he tries every option-

-"Me stay wiff Lu"
-Lu's going with me."

-"Me stay wiff Dad."
-"Dad's at work."

-"Me stay home."
-"You can't stay home."

-"Me stay self."
-"You can't stay by yourself."

Then when we get to where we're going-

-"Me stay car me self."

Every.single.time.

I made the mistake once of telling Garrett that the tv in our car was broken because I didn't want him to watch it.  Now he constantly asks, "Big TV broke?" "Baby TV fixed?" Etc.

He's such an excited kid.  Lately I've heard him, as he's building something with blocks, or, yesterday, he was running down the hall to get me to come see something he fixed, he chants, "A wee hee, woo hoo!"

He's also started acting surprised about everything.  Even if he hears me come into a room he'll look up and say. "Oh! Hi mom!"  Or if he watches me pour him a cup of milk, I hand it to him, and he says, "Oh! Thnaks Mom!"

"Me poop all day."
"Lulu toot all day."
(Fortunately, these two announcements haven't been true, but he says it a lot.)

I thought I had a sweet kid who skipped the defiant "NO!" phase, but it's here.  Fortunately, he usually giggles at how loud he can yell "NO!" and his laughing makes him forget why he was saying no. (for now anyway.)

Addie lately:

She'll be 18 months in a week, and here's the new words we hear from her all the time now:
-Down
-Up
-Hold
-MilKK (really strong K sound)
-Juice
-Bottle=Ba-bow (We're working on ditching the bottle, which was a challenge with Garrett around this age, too.  There's only one kind of sippy cup she'll take.  Anything else at this point she'll take it, then hand it right back and say, "Done!")
-Hello
-Yes
-No
-Love You=Ya You
-Oh! Almost! (She loves playing ball with G, and we hear "Oh! Almost!" a lot from both of them.)
-Shoes (She puts on my shoes, Garrett's shoes, tries to get her own shoes on.  She always wants to be wearing shoes!)
-Chip (Anything crunchy (pretzel, cracker) is a chip.)
-When she's walking somewhere and wants someone to come with her, she walks in rhythm and chants "walk, walk, walk!" or "march, march, march!"
-Happy, Happy, Happy!! (She has a cute gallop that goes along with this.  And when you tell her to say "Happy Birthday" she says, "Happy B-happy."

Garrett's always been a thankful kid, (thankfully), and Addie's picking up on it.  She says, "Thanks Mom" all the time now.  Tonight at dinner Paul kept getting things for her, and she'd say, "Thanks mom."  It secretly made me happy because she would only say, "Hi Dad" for so long.
  
She loves Mickey Mouse.  And she's made me realize how often that little mouse pops up. Billboards, ads, clothes, etc.  She points and yells "Mouse!"

She puts her hands in the air and says, "Holla" but it comes out, "haha".

We taught both kids to say "Aww snap!" (The important things.) G says, "aww nap!" A says, "Aww mat!"

I love that the kids know that we pray, and remind us at meal and bed time to pray.  But Addie's in a phase right now where she wants to pray 4 or 5 times a meal.  Out of no where she'll put her food down and her hands together and say, "pray."  If we pretend we don't hear her she claps and with each clap she says, "pray, pray, pray!"  It's easier to just keep saying quick prayers.

According to Garrett

Me: Garrett, do you want chocolate milk or juice?
Garrett: Chocolate juice. (But he still pronounces chocolate 'cha-led a led a'.)

I noticed throughout one day a few weeks ago, that Garrett seemed to be itching his nose a lot and one eye was kind of watery.  But as he was watching his night-time episode of Phineas and Ferb, his eye wasn't watering as much.  I paused the tv, and asked, "do your eyes hurt or are they okay?" he said, "okay."  I said, "is your nose ok or is it itchy?" he said, "okay."  I tried to go through other things, mouth, ears, etc...  He stopped me and said (and touched each thing as he went along), "Mom, head- okay, eyes- okay, nose- okay, mouff- okay!"  Then he pointed to the remote and said, "beep."

He walks around with my old blackberry in his pocket, and he often pulls it out and pretend dials and says, "Hello Mimi!"

I was holding Addie and trying to get Garrett to climb in the van.  He was watching a dog and not listening to me. I finally got him to climb in and I jokingly said, "pay attention, yo!"  He looked at me and said, with a puzzled look, "Attench...yo??"

Getting him from bed one morning.  I walked in and said, "Hi sweetheart!"  His response, "Hi zweet mom!"

I've gotten in the habit of asking him how he slept when he gets up from his nap.  Yesterday he beat me to it.  "Hi mom!  I pleep good!"

Me:  Addie, how old are you?
Addie: Two!
Garrett: No, Lulu one, me two...mom, TEN!

The three of us have spent a lot of time on the couch this last week, the kids recovering from colds and me staying close to wipe noses.  On our down days we love the Disney channel.  Here's the names of our favorite shows, (according to Garrett, of course)
-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse=Mick Mouse
-Phineas and Ferb= Nigh, nigh, nigh...with a slight 'G' sound at the end...said really fast...I've been sitting here making the sound to try and decide how to spell it.  It's Garrett mimicking Perry's teeth chatter. -OR- Perry-pus.
-Jake and the Neverland Pirates=Pites Hook
Octonauts=Ock tots

Speaking of Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  We hardly ever watch that show, but a couple days ago I bought a decorative ship wheel and when G saw it he said, "Hook's boat?"  Then we took turns running around with it, chasing each other and pretending we were driving a ship, he'd squeal and yell, "No, Hook!!"

We bought a bug catcher net thingy as a gift a few days ago.  Garrett kept swinging it in the air and saying, "Go catch Butt-flies."

He wanted some of Paul's cologne, so Paul put a tiny dot on his arm.  He took a big sniff and said, "Ahhh, I stink."

Me: Do you want mac-n-cheese for lunch?
Him: No mac cheese.
Me: Yes mac cheese.
Him: No mac cheese.
Me: Then what do you want for lunch?
Him: (sneaky little smile, taps his fingers together, and slowly whispers) Gumm balllls.

On our walk, Me: Okay, hold hands, we're going in the street.
He takes my hand and we cross.  I let go of his hand.
Him: (Reaches up) No, mom, hold hands?
Me: You still want to hold hands?
Him: Yeah.
I take his hand again.  Then I hear a really quiet, "Thanks, mom."
(little heart melter.)

At Costco last night by the little wooden playgrounds and play houses.  He kept saying something, and then "house".  Me and Paul kept asking, "Go house?" "NO" "Our house" "NO" "Umm...Your house?" "NO" ...I finally said, "Sorry bud, we don't know what you're saying." He let our a loud and dramatic, "MOO!!"  I said, "Ohhh, COW house!?!"  He casually said, "Yeah."  I said, "like a barn?"  Again, he said, "Yeah."

Just for fun tonight as I was getting him ready for bed, I said, "Garrett, where do all the cows go to bed?"  He said, "Cow house."

Love that kid.