Summertime stories

All the cousins in Ohio

In our recent long car ride, the kids had a fun time driving us crazy by repeating the same phrases over and over.  Strider would say something annoying like “I want some” and then Rayna would repeat it over and over and over… Then Strider would start laughing hysterically, which would make Rayna start laughing too…  One time Strider sighed and said, “I get my sister GOING!”

Whenever I say something to Rayna about nap time or bed time, or anything else she doesn’t want to do, she puts her index finger in front of her nose and says something like “more minute”  She’s heard Strider has for a “few more minutes” and seen the subsequent delay in the undesirable event and has figured that this should become her standard response.

Strider and I were playing the “alphabet game” in the car on our recent trip and it was taking awhile to find the letter “F.” After a pause he said, “Ah, the suspense is killing me!”

We were playing “Simon Says” and when “Simon” said “touch your beard,” Strider said he was doing it but I saw him touching his leg. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, “I don’t have a beard on my face, so I was touching the hair on my leg!”

Rayna gets very excited every morning to do “sercises” – our Jack LaLanne show exercises.  She particularly likes the jumping jacks, during which she jumps around waving her arms and says “jacka-jack!”

For the last couple months whenever someone asks Strider how old he is, he’s answered in fractions.  Last month it was 4 and 10/12ths, and this month it’s been 4 and 11/12ths.  He can’t wait to turn 5!

Rayna has been doing knock-knock jokes now.  She has no idea what she’s saying, but she’ll say “knock knock.  Who’s there?  Miss you.”  And then she stumps herself.

Strider and Rayna recite Proverbs 3:5-6 together now.  Strider does most of the verse, but leaves out a word here and there.  Rayna always fills it in without missing a beat!

Rayna likes to tuck a book under her arm – it has to be put in just the right way, but it doesn’t matter which book – and then announce “I’m going to school Mommy!”  I don’t know where she picked that up, or what she could possibly conceive of as school!

I asked Strider the other day if I was a cool mom.  I got the (expected) immediate “Nope.”  Then I asked him who a cool mom was.  He said there was no such thing. “’Cool’” he said, “can only describe men and boys.”

When we were in Ohio we kept running to various places and Rayna had many fun adventures.  She started asking to do the things she had enjoyed every time we got in the car.  (Like, “I want to go see the birds.”  Or, “I want to ride the horsey” Or, “I want to go to the farm.”)  But my favorite was when I knew she was a true girl.  She started saying “I want to go shopping!”

While we were in Ohio, the younger cousins (Strider, Eden and Natie) all started singing a goofy song – with one word – “Epidermis.”  It had its own little rhyme (and apparently reason) and they sang it quite constantly for 3 days.  Towards the end of the visit, Andrew (age 14) apparently was up in his room talking to his mom and said “If I hear that epidermis song one more time….”  Just as the words came out of his mouth, Rayna came around the corner singing “EPIDERMIS… EPIDERMIS!”  Over and over she sang it and had a complete dance to accompany it, with arms waving in front of her and everything.  Andrew broke down laughing, to the point where Karen said he even had tears in his eyes!

Rayna likes to come up to me periodically and say “I’m gonna getcha Mama!”  Then she scrunches her fingers up in front of her scrunched-up face and pretends like she’s going to chase me.  The hilarious part is when she starts off and PRETENDS to run!  She tucks her head down and bends her arms, and then starts “running” in slow motion.  So funny.

With neighbors Georgia and Juliet

Hot Air Balloon Landing in the Neighborhood!

"Look what's happening over there!  Let's go see!"

It was quite an exciting day here in Lake Park!

All done.

I just love these two!

Sometimes Strider’s words can be so sweet… and sometimes so funny.  And sometimes all within the same 10 seconds!  The other day, he looked at me and said, “When I’m a man, I want to find a wife like you.”  And then after a short pause, he said, “I wish I had fur like Daddy.”

Rayna loves to run after Strider and call him “boy!  boy!”  She only calls him Strider when I tell her too… If it’s up to her, it’s strictly boy!

The other day I sat with Strider and Rayna together on the couch.  Strider got in real close to Rayna’s face and said so sweetly, “Rayna, you’re so cute.  You can’t see yourself, but you’re really cute!”  I put my hand on the side of Strider’s face and told him he was being so nice. And then Rayna took her little hand and put it on the other side of his face and said in a soft little voice, “Boy.”  That was as close as she could get to telling him “I love you Strider!”

Strider has a whole little “routine” down that he loves to regale.  He and Pete have memorized (from watching it so many times!) a bit that Bill Gaither and Mark Lowry do together.  It’s a full song with lots of comments thrown in – and Strider does it with the same exact accents and facial expressions that Bill and Mark have… it’s hilarious.  So now Mark Lowry is his all-time favorite, most funny person EVER.  (Strider’s also in what I call the “superlative phase” right now – everything is the best thing in the “whole wide world!”)

When I sit down on the floor, or anywhere else deemed accessible by my children, I get very different response from each of them.  Rayna immediately runs at me with her thumb in her mouth and her hand raised to grab my hair, wanting some snuggly time.  Strider immediately runs over and essentially tries to tackle me, push me over, or some other rough thing.  Quite the difference between the boy and girl!

The other day we read a poem in which a boy was talking to the sun, essentially asking him where he had gone during the nighttime.  The sun then responds that he was on the other side of the world, etc.  Strider was perplexed by this dialogue, and then decided HE should try to talk to the sun.  So he ran over and opened the front door.  I heard him lean out and say, in a very “cool” voice, “Hey, sun.  What s’up?”   After a minute he returned to me with a disappointed face and said, “It didn’t work”

 One of Rayna’s favorite words is “exciting!”  She says it when she’s anticipating something really cool, and she always says it with the same face:  eyebrows raised, eyes squinty, big grin.  Sometimes it’s followed by “fun!” in the same high-pitched, dramatic fashion.  She knows what she likes!