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conversation from the backseat:
(my two youngest who both lisp!)

Amie: (in a grave, important voice) Mudders are very bad.

Demi: (in shocked, offended-you are so wrong tone) No they are not! Mudders are good!

Amie: (now aggrieved and near shouting) No, Mudders are very bad

Demi: No

Amie: yeeess

Demi: No!

Amie: uh haaaaaa....

Amie: Mudders are two really bad, they go to jail, huh Mom?

Demi: they are not, they are nice!

my husband is rolling his eyes and about to issue a threat, when I tell him, laughing that Amie is saying "murderers" and Demi is saying "mothers". They couldn't understand each other either!!
The lisp thing makes teaching phonics really interesting...


It was, it really and truly was, the only right word....

I am reading Beatrix Potter's tales to my two youngest. A few days ago we read
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, which begins, "This is a tale about a tail..." -delicious! It's a very cute story about a very naughty, excessively impertinent squirrel. So daringly naughty I knew my boy would love it. And a running hint of danger to keep him asking to hear it again...the story is supposed to read the same everytime, but for little ones, the possibility that the old owl just might gobble up the squirrels, is always there.

This quote from Madeleine L'Engle came to mind while I was reading and enjoying Beatrix Potter's lovely big words that are sprinkled throughout the story (read with a British accent of course!)

"The simplest word is almost always the right word. I am convinced that Beatrix Potter used "soporific" because it was, really and truly was, the only right word for lettuce at that moment."

So, we read Squirrel Nutkin and reveled in words such as excessively impertinent, and obstinately. For school I had Demi draw a picture from the story and then dictate what he remembered back to me. He did a wonderful job remembering the story.

Secure enough in his manliness...

We celebrated Demi's 7th birthday last night, having cake and ice-cream and inviting a few friends and family over. Demi requested a strawberry cake. When I went to the store to buy the mix, they did not have strawberry, so I bought a white cake and strawberry frosting. When my husband saw my purchases, he was highly indignant. I didn't see his point, and my reply was that it was his birthday and he wanted strawberry, so strawberry was what we were having. It wasn't until later when I was frosting the cake that I saw his problem. The cake was light pink. This is what ruffled my husband. We had a good laugh over it, and philosophized that Demi was secure enough in his own manliness to not notice.

We bought him a skateboard....luckily the pediatric E.R. Doctor lives a few houses down...