Glasses

John told me tonight, "When I grow up, I'm going to still wear glasses. I'm not going to get contacts. But on my second pair I'm going to make guards that would flap down and cover my glasses. I would still be able to see, but the guard would block the smoke. You know when I'm building stuff." Gillian said "Or you could just take the working glasses in my room." John looked at her like she was crazy. She said "I have glasses in my room that you could put over your glasses and they would stop stuff from flying at you." John said "Gill, my invention is for smoke!"

I love that he has created a solution to a problem he hasn't experienced yet. And that Gillian solved it with simple logic. 

Dancing

We went out to dinner tonight.  We sat next to the window and throughout the meal, John danced in his seat and watched his own reflection in the window.  It took me a couple tries but I got it on video. 

Survey says...

At dinner tonight, Gillian asked John and I, "Who likes Harry Potter?" John raised his hand. And I said "I do!" She looked at me and said "You gotta raise your hand." So I raised my hand. Then she asked "Who likes Frozen?" Gillian and I both raised our hands. She looked at me and said "You can't like both." I said "Yes I can." She said "Nope. My game. My rules." She wasn't happy that I liked both but she quickly moved to something else. 

Houston, we have a problem...

Every week at John's camp he has an elective. It is a special class only offered for a week and they spend about 45 minutes a day in the elective. John's elective this week is rocketry. 

He came home on Monday telling us, "I got rocketry!" Daddy asked "Did you go to the moon?" John said "No. We were just working on building our rocket." The rest of the week, we had similar conversations. But they spent most of the week building their rockets (no trips to outer space).

Today, I picked up John and when we got in the car he says "I'm really sad." That's never something a mom wants to hear. I automatically think the other boys are bullying him. So I say "Why? What happened." He tells me "Well we launched our rockets today. And I lost mine." My poor boy. I asked "How did you lose your rocket?" He explained "Well I shot the rocket in the air and it flew towards the pirate ship and then I lost it. It might be in a tree. But I don't know." 

At dinner, he explained what happened to Daddy. "We took our rockets to the field. Some rockets didn't launch right away. And the we would say 'Houston, we have a problem.'" Daddy asked "Why did you say that?" John said "You know! Cause when you are in the rocket and you have a problem you say 'Houston, we have a problem.'" Daddy asked "Did you have any failures?" "Just losing my rocket." He explained that he launched his rocket and then ran to get it after it landed, but couldn't find it. He said "It could be in a tree or gone forever." How frustrating for John. He worked so hard on his rocket to lose it. I hope they find it before the rain comes tonight. 

In disguise

Tonight at dinner, Daddy was playing with a Transformer toy. He held it and asked "What is this?" I said "It's a Transformer." Daddy stared at it for a little longer, and then said "Yea, but what is it?" I started to explain that it was from McDonalds, when John said "You know, robots in disguise."

Knock Knock Jokes

Gillian has been telling us a knock knock joke she learned over spring break. It's hilarious.

In case you can't understand her, the joke goes like this:

Knock, Knock
Who's there?
The interrupting cow!
Interrupting cow, but before you can say who Gillian screams "Mooooo!"

So tonight at dinner, Daddy says "I've got a joke!" He proceeds to tell us Gillian's interrupting cow joke. Gillian then screamed "That's mine!" She giggled then told us the interrupting pirate knock knock joke. 

Spanish Class

At dinner tonight, I asked John about his day.  He said "It was good."  I noticed that he had a new library book in his backpack, so I said "I see you had library today.  What other special do you have with library?"  He said "Spanish."  I said "Great.  What words did you learn today?"  He questioned, "Spanish words?"  I laughed.  Daddy said "No French words.  What French words did you learn today in Spanish class?"  John was very confused.  And said "I take Spanish."  This conversation went south quickly.  Anyway he finally said, "Do you know Julio and Julio? It's two different words."  Then he sang us a little song.

We were impressed, even though he only sang half the months of the year.  Daddy asked "Do you know the song for the days of the week?"  John said "Yeah. Do you?"  Daddy said "Yes."  And then he sang us a song for the days of the week.  When he finished John said "That's not right.  I didn't learn that today!"  We laughed and said that's because Daddy sang the days of the week and you sang the months of the year.  John said "Oh!" 

Number one

In the car tonight, John and I argued about who was the best Lego builder. He says "I'm number one, Daddy is number two and then you are number three." I disagreed with him and we continued our argument at dinner. John told Daddy, "I'm the best builder, then you and Mommy is number three!" Daddy said "Um, no. I'm the best." John then clarified "I'm the best Lego builder. You are the best builder of other stuff." I tried to argue with them, but John wasn't having it. "Mom, you're the best baker! And I'm the best Lego builder and Daddy's the best builder. But what's Gilly good at?" Gillian, with her mouth full of food, said "I'm a good eater!" Yes. Yes you are.  

I'm allergic

For dinner tonight, I made chicken and pasta with cheesy garlic bread. Gillian ate all the cheese off of her bread and then asked for another piece. Daddy said "No. You didn't finish your first piece." She said "But I'm allergic." Daddy said "Allergic? To what?" Gillian said "The cheese." (As she continued to pick the remaining pieces of cheese off her first piece of bread). Daddy said "Well if you were allergic to cheese, it would make you sick." She smiled and said "I'm allergic to bread." She is so funny. She ended up eating her bread and getting a second piece too. 

Mean girl

At dinner tonight, Gillian told us about school. "It was Dashiel's party. We had pizza and cup-a-cakes." Daddy said "And next week it is Grace's birthday." Gilly said "Grace is new. And she doesn't like Dorlisa. Dorlisa didn't look pretty today. You know why? She was wearing orange. And Grace doesn't like orange. Dorlisa is ugly." And I cringed. Did my little girl just say that her best friend is ugly because some other girl didn't like the color she was wearing?

We explained to her that calling people names hurts their feelings and we don't want to hurt our friends. 

Tall

I keep our bowl of Easter candy on top of the hutch. After dinner tonight, John asked for some candy for dessert. I got up and reached for the bowl. Meanwhile, John pushed his chair over to the hutch. I told him "You can't reach it even on top of the chair." He tried and couldn't. He said "You know what? We need the 16th president! He could reach it. He's like taller than the ceiling!" I said "I'm not sure he is that tall." John grinned and said "Yea. He's really tall and he wore a tall hat too!" I said "I'm going to find out how tall Abraham Lincoln was." After a quick internet search, I discovered that Abraham Lincoln was 6'4". I told John. And he said "See! I told ya!" I said "We should find out how all Uncle Bob is. I bet he is as tall as Abraham Lincoln!" John was doubtful. I texted Uncle Bob. And he is 6'4" too! But John said "Lincoln is taller. Because of his hat!" But Uncle Bob said "Hats don't count." John said "But hats make him LOOK taller!" Uncle Bob said "Hats don't count." John laughed and came up with a new theory, "Uncle Bob is bald and Lincoln had hair. His hair makes him taller." Uncle Bob said "No. I've got hair. And Lincoln was bald. That's why he wore a hat." And then I sent him a picture of Lincoln and said "Not true!"

And that's when Uncle Bob FaceTimed us. He said "John, I have hair. See?" And he shows us his head. Then he says "See that? (And points the camera at grandpa's head) That's a bald spot. Lincoln had a combover. Do you know what a combover is?" John says "Yea. A combover is something covering something else." Uncle Bob said "See Lincoln had a combover. I'm just as tall." John didn't really seem to agree. So 

Uncle Bob asked him a few questions about Lincoln. "What number president was he?" John said "16th." Uncle Bob asked "What happened to him?" John said "He got assinated." Uncle Bob asked a few more questions, but John didn't know a lot of the answers. We learned a lot about Lincoln tonight, most importantly, that he was taller than Uncle Bob!

Colors

Tonight at dinner, we did our usual conversation starter, "How was your day?" John said "It was good." I can't stand those simple answers. So I asked "What was your special class?" He said "Art! And we didn't have it in our classroom!" I asked "Why not?" He said "Cause there were teachers eating lunch in there. You want to know where we had class?" Now I'm getting very excited. He doesn't normally give us this much information. So I play it cool and say "Yes. Where was your class?" He said "Outside! We were learning about primary colors. And how you can make all the other colors with primary colors." I quizzed him and asked "What does blue and red make?" He said "Purple!" What about yellow and blue?" "Green!" "OK, how about yellow and red?" "Orange!" Gillian thought that it was a game. So she started just saying colors. "Pink!" "Yellow!" John got annoyed, "No Gill. Yellow is a primary color!" 

We talked more about primary colors and secondary colors. I am very thankful that the teachers were eating lunch in the art room and John got to have art class outside. He retained a lot and was excited to share with us tonight. 

PSA

Tonight at dinner, Gillian asked "Can I have a drink?" John said "Me too? I want milk!" Daddy got the milk. Gillian said "I like milk it's my favoritest!" John said "The doctor said I have to drink a lot of milk. But I don't know why." Daddy said "Well milk has calcium." And John said "And calcium gives you strong bones (and he pointed at his arm) and teeth (and he pointed at his teeth)." I asked him how he knew all that. He said "What? I learned it in health!"

Llama

Tonight at dinner, we were talking about John's favorite animal.  He said "I bet you don't even know what my favorite animal is!"  Gilly didn't hesitate and said "A llama!"  He said "No!  It's not a llama."  Daddy and I joked with him and said "We know.  You don't have any secrets.  We know everything."  He said "You don't know!"  Gillian again said "It's a llama." He said "It's not a llama.  My first favorite animal is a lion!"  Daddy said "Yup.  I knew it!"  John said "You didn't.  And I bet you don't know what my second favorite animal is!"  Gilly said "A llama."  John said "No.  I'll give you a hint.  It is a dark animal."  Daddy said "What?"  John said "It's a dark animal that flies."  Gillian said "A llama."  John said "No.  It's a dark animal that flies."  Daddy said "I know.  There's a superhero that uses it too."  John didn't understand and said "It's not a superhero.  It's an animal."  Gillian said "A llama."  I whispered to Gillian "Say nah nah nah."  She did.  But John didn't understand our little hint.  So I said "It's a bat!"  He said "I bet you don't know my third favorite animal!"  Gillian said "A llama!" By this point, any time Gillian said llama, I would just start laughing.  Her timing was perfect and hilarious.  John didn't find it funny at all.  All he wanted to do was talk about his favorite animals.  He said "No.  It starts with an O."  Gillian again said "Llama?"  John said "Gill, that doesn't start with O.  It's an orca!"  Gillian said "A llama?"   

Jinx

Gilly is always trying to jinx someone. But she really doesn't understand how to do it. Tonight at dinner, she and John said something similar and she yelled "Jinx!" John said "That's not how it works! You need to say the same thing at the same time. Count with me." They both said "One, two, three." And John said "Jinx!" And then a few seconds later Gillian said "Jinx!" John whined "You can't say that if you can't talk." I explained to Gillian that to jinx someone you need to say the same thing at the same time. She said to me "Ok. Count!" I said "I'm not counting. You're going to jinx me!" She said "Come on talk!" I didn't say anything. So she said "blah, blah, blah, blah. Jinx!" 

Greece

The kids' Uncle Joe (my big brother) is currently the Navigator for the USS George H. W. Bush. At dinner tonight, I told the kids "Guess what? Uncle Joe is in Greece today!" We showed John where Greece is on a map. Daddy told John "Do you know a long, long, long time ago Greece was the first country to have the Olympics!" John loves the Olympics and hopes to be an Olympian one day. John was very impressed with this little fact. Daddy also told John "You know the torches that they carry in the Olympics? Well they first start in Greece and then go to the country where the Olympics are held." John asked "When are the Olympics going to be by us?" Gillian said "No! The Statue of Liberty has a torch!" Daddy told John "Maybe one day they will be in New York." Gillian again said "The Statue of Liberty has a torch. Remember last week, I tell you all about it. And we can go in it. Can I go in the elevator?" John tried to explain to Gillian what we were talking about, but she was too focused on the statue. Thanks Uncle Joe for inspiring tonight's lesson about Greece!