Claire (doing fancy moves on the elliptical machine): “Mom, look!”
Me: “Wow. What a great trick.”
Claire: “You should sell us to the trick store.” 3/25/11
(On the phone with her grandma, discussing Sandy’s upcoming birthday)
Ruby: “But how much will you be, Lita? ‘Cause I’m guessing you’ve run out of fingers.” 4/5/11
Ruby, telling me about needing to pass some jeans down to Claire:
“My legs are getting fatter; like yours, probably.” 4/13/11
Claire: “Mom, what’s a birth stone? Is it a stone you take a birth on?” 4/20/11
Claire, eating monster mouths (sliced apples w/peanut butter and marshmallows): “I call this marshmallow ‘Grandma,’ ‘cause it’s old and crusty.” 4/21/11
Claire: “Haley, doesn’t that dress itch you?”
Haley: “Yes.”
Claire: “Then why are you still wearing it?”
Haley: “Because I have to dance.” 4/23/11
Haley (at bedtime): “Mom, can you kiss me? . . . since I just can’t kiss myself.” 4/26/11
Me: “Did you know that chicks come out of eggs?”
Ruby: “We knew that for years.” 4/27/11
Haley, sitting on a pile of library books: “I’m hiding these since I can’t trust Ian. He will drool over them and ruin them all up.” 4/28/11 (“Since” has been one of Haley’s favorite words this last year.)
(Background: I have 3 different kinds of towels in the kitchen—each with its own use. Claire had just washed her hands and I was telling her which towel to use.)
Me: “Here. This one’s the hand towel.”
Claire: “Hmm. Which one is the foot towel?” 4/28/11
Me: “Is this Haley’s toothbrush?”
Ruby: “Let me see. . . I have a special way to tell. . . (long pause). . . if it’s ruined, it’s Haley’s.” 5/1/11
Haley to her dad: “I’m growing boogers on my shirt!” 5/1/11
Haley (proud of herself): “Mom, I hugged Ian like a normal person!” 5/2/11
Claire, obviously searching for something.
Me: “What are you looking for?”
Claire: “I heard something over here that sounded like a toad’s foot.” 5/1/11
Ruby: “I am a lazy bird. No one can stop me.” (Ruby went on to express that being lazy is doing nothing. Ever. All the time.) 5/5/11
Claire, showing me a tall stack of blocks. “Mom, look!”
Me: “Wow. That’s a big tower.”
Claire: “It’s not a tower, it’s a dad.” 5/7/11
Ruby: “Mom, it hurts my ears when Claire screams like a crocodile bit off her arm.” 3/10/11 (Ruby, you’re not alone.)
Ruby, pointing to the roof of her mouth: “My top lung hurts.” 5/23/11
(The kids are all in the shower together.)
Me: “Ruby, would you please wash Ian?”
Ruby: “Mom, I love washing Ian. It’s like washing a pig.” 5/25/11
Casey (After Haley runs into a wall): “What hurts?”
Haley: “My owie!” 5/25/11
At the drive-thru: “That'll be $3.05 at the window.”
Claire (with interest): “Did she say, ‘I’ll climb out the window?” 6/7/11
Claire: “Mom, I just love watching you . . . but it’s kinda boring.” 6/18/11
Claire, pensively recollecting a statement she’d heard after watching a ballerina’s dancing presentation: “She said she danced with her whole body, but she didn’t dance with her eyes or her lips.” (Pause.) “And she didn’t dance with her nose, either.” 6/21/11
Sharing what we’re thankful for, Claire is excited that Ian will grow up to be a man because he can get married.
Casey: “You should hope that when he grows up, he’ll stand up for his big sisters.”
Claire, nonplussed: “He already does stand up for us. Lots of times.” 6/25 (Do we have another literal thinker in the house, or what?!)
Claire, discussing love with Ruby: “I don’t think I’ve ever fallen in love.” (Pause.) “But I might have fallen in love with Daddy. And I might have fallen in love with Ian.” 6/27/11
Claire, handing the phone to me: “Daddy wants to talk to you again. I think he must be falling in love with you again.” 6/30ish/11
Claire, commenting on the upside of getting soap in one’s eyes: “Well, after you get the soap out, at least your eyes will smell good.” 7/6/11
I was explaining to the girls several of the qualities of breastmilk that make it such a perfect food for babies.
Claire (with surprise): “It’s alive?!? You mean it can walk around and it has a nose?” 7/6/11
Ruby and Claire, playing “finding a baby”
Claire: “Pretend you saw me and I was so cute.”
“And pretend you took off my headband, and I was even cuter.” 7/6/11
