All in the Semantics

Last night Daniel wiped something on my arm as I was helping him get ready for bed. I said, "Ew, Daniel! Did you just wipe a booger on me?" knowing that he had been touching his nose. He looked at me innocently and said, "No! It was snot."

Scribbles

Look what Daniel drew on his AquaDoodle the other day! It seems like it wasn't very long ago that all of his art was just scribbles, lines, and dots. Now they're sort of becoming people! See on the left that there are clearly arms, legs, a body, and a face! So proud of him! He loves to draw, and today I asked him to draw a picture for Grandma Fox's Easter card. He said he was going to draw the Easter bunny, so he got started, and the legs came out pretty long (we're still working on that whole fine motor thing). He looked at it a minute and said, "It's an Easter bunny giraffe!"

Laying Sod and a Bottle of Rum

David started laying more sod in our backyard last weekend. We're determined to get our yard in good shape by the end of the summer!

Daniel really wanted to help him. He watched Daddy and Carey (David's friend that graciously helped us out) lay the sod for awhile, and then he pitched in. He would stomp down on it just like Daddy. Now he's been helping David water it every night - a favorite chore!

Daniel and I had been running errands the day before all this, and David had asked me to pick up a bottle of rum so they could make some drinks. Daniel always has to know what's going on, so, of course, I had told him what we were doing. When we got to the cash register at the liquor store, he told the cashier, "We're buying rum!" "Oh!" she said, "What are you buying rum for?" Daniel said, "For Daddy and Carey. They're gonna be working hard in the yard!" I guess there were a lot worse things he could have said!

More pics!

Birdhouse

Abuelo wanted to make a birdhouse with Daniel this weekend when they came to visit. Daniel enjoyed wearing the apron, choosing his paint colors (mac & cheese and cherry on top), and painting the birdhouse. We're still waiting for some birds to move in.....Don't hold your breath! Enjoy the pics!

Mr. Not-So-Independent

Daniel noticed there were ashes in our fireplace the other day. He's a pretty talkative kid and typically narrates what he's doing, even though nobody is listening. (Well, okay, I'm typically listening, but anyway...) He found the ashes and said something like, "Oh, there's dust in the fireplace. Oh, wow. What a mess! I'm gonna clean it up. Yeah, I'm gonna go get the shovel and clean up that mess. I'm gonna go get the shovel. You guys stay here (pointing to David and me, as if we were about to get up off the couch)." He gets all the way to the garage door, realizes his lack of skills, and says, "Will you go get me a shovel?"

Trickster

Daniel's becoming a little trickster - probably because he has such a good role model in David.

Every night, during the "say goodnight to Daddy" part of our bedtime routine, David tries to give Daniel a hard time about coming to sleep in our bed vs his crib. It usually goes something like this:

David: Daniel, will you come sleep in our bed tonight, pleeeeeease?
Daniel: No! I'm going to sleep in my crib, and you sleep in your bed.
David: Please, Daniel! When will you come sleep in my bed?
Daniel: When the light turns green, Daddy. Then I will come to your bed.
David: OK. Go to bed then!
And Daniel takes off to his room without any trouble.

Well, last night, David got duped. They were going through their exchange, and instead of telling David that he didn't want to sleep in our bed, Daniel said, "Yeah! I'll sleep in your bed tonight!" and took off running to our room. David looked at me as if to say, "Oh s***!" I said, "Well, you're gonna have to go get him. I'm not telling him that he can't really sleep with us." David started walking toward our room to get Daniel. He stepped through the bedroom door, and Daniel jumped out at him, cracking up with laughter! He totally tricked David (I guess me too) into thinking he wanted to sleep with us! Then he ran to his room for bedtime. Goober!

Go, Dog. Go!

Daniel loves to read - like most kids do. The other night we were reading "Go, Dog. Go!" (a favorite of his) before bedtime. If you know this book, you'll remember that the whole story is about dogs and what they're doing and it ends with......"A dog party! A big dog party!" Daniel has always gotten excited about the dog party, and the other night, he said, "Can I just jump right in to that dog party?" I said, "Well, that dog party looks like fun, but it's just a picture." He replied, "But I just want to be at that party with all those crazy dogs!"