He was there and we were there and he wouldn't try!*

I love these kids in my life...seriously.

So last Sunday, Ryan came over for dinner at my parent's house. Joanna's boys are pretty used to Ryan (in fact - they may love him more than me...). So Ryan and I are sitting on the couch with his arm around me and I look over to see Tommy looking right at me. I don't know how long he has been looking at us, it's a little unnerving (only because, how long has he been watching us?) and I say, "What's up bud?" He remains quiet for a moment and says, "awkward!" and then turns to watch the television.


Later, Ryan shows Ava a magic trick and she has him do it over and over (I saw that coming - but Ryan did not - anyone who has spent time with kids know that they don't easily get tired of things like that). Then Tommy sees it and wants to see it over and over. Then Tommy wants to do the trick. So he takes the quarter that Ryan was using and says, "Hey guys, watch this!" once he has our attention he throws his hands up in the air and cries, "Don't look!" so we look away and somehow, I just can't figure it out, the quarter disappears while we aren't looking. Then it appears on the floor, or in his hand, or if we are lucky, somewhere on us and we ohh and aww.


Tommy was on a roll on Sunday by the way. He comes into the dining room and says, "hey guys," (...have I mentioned that might be his most used phrase? Hey Guys...insert something here"). Back to the story, so he goes on, "What do tables eat?" Some of us waste a little time trying to think what the clever answer will be and Tommy says loudly, "Ice cream!" I gave him a pretty convincing laugh if I do say so myself. The others don't laugh as loudly and Tommy smiles and says, "it's a joke." Then he moves on the say what chairs eat (I believe they eat dinosaurs), this too is followed by, "it's a joke!" So later, I asked him what couches eat (or something like that) he answers something random in return and my eyes get big and I say, "Oh, you've heard this one." I get nothing from him, I think Ryan laughed though. My sense of humor is lost on children sometimes.

My brother-in-law, Ben, called me up on Thursday and invited me over for dinner, so of course, I went. I was hanging out with Tommy (there are other children in these stories - just wait) on the couch and he keeps sticking his finger up his nose.

Me: Go get a tissue, bud.


Tommy: You go get a tissue.

Me: I'm not the one with my finger in my nose.


Joanna: Tommy, get a tissue.


Tommy: I'm too short.

Me: No you're not

Tommy: Yeah I am, see? (he gets on his knees next to the bookshelf and reaches for the tissues up on the third or fourth shelf) See, I'm too small.

Me: Get on your tippy-toes, I bet you can get them if you are on your tippy toes.

Joanna: You just got a mushroom (Jessica is confused) to make you big.

Tommy gets up off his knees and reaches for a tissue and brings it to me. It takes me a minute but I realize what has just happened.

I've played the game...he got a Mario mushroom and grew big and tall so he could get that tissue!

Later that night it turned out that Tommy had Jacob's PJs on and it created quite the event. Somehow, Joanna got everyone to calm down, Tommy remained in Jake's PJs and then Jake was going (sadly) to put on different PJs. As Jake and Tommy passed each other in the hallway Jake starts to cry. We ask what happens and Jake says that Tommy elbowed him in the eye. Tommy doesn't deny it but he puts distance between him and Jake. Joanna comes in at that moment and starts striping in the PJs off of Tommy and giving them to Jake. I don't know why - but I thought this was hilarious.

Joanna told me a story about Ava saying, "Eat, eat" when the baby is feeding and I wanted to hear her say it. So the two of us were hanging out and I look at Ava and say, "Eat, eat!" She smiled and says in her Ava voice, "Eat! Eat!" and then pats my chest...I guess I deserved that.

This past Sunday at dinner, Jake comes in to report on Tommy's bad behavior. His eyes get all big and he points towards the family room and says, "Tommy's on a rampage!"

My Dad was going to take Theo with him to pick up Samantha from something and Theo didn't want to go or something like that and to calm everyone down Jake says, "They fight with each other remember?" Duh.

Later, while eating cake, Jake had crumbs on his back and Joanna was wiping them off asking how he managed to do that. Jake just shrugs his shoulders, keeps eating and says, "it just fell on me."

That's all I have for now.