What do campsite, earwax, and doorknob have in common?

Eliana has been learning about compound words at school. At dinner tonight, she was explaining to us what a compound word was: two words that are put together to make one word. We asked for an example ... and she promptly told us, "Thanksgiving!" Impressed, we began a discussion of other compound words: backyard, butterfly, catfish, into, campsite, hairbrush, sweatshirt, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, schoolhouse, icebox, doorknob, dishwasher, birthday, wallpaper, earwax, eyelid, lipstick, bookshelf .... and there were many, many more, most of which Eliana came up with on her own. 

As we're coming up with all these compound words (and plenty that aren't) Olivia was trying to help. She came up with lipstick (which was actually pretty impressive), and then she pipes up, "How about stay-in-your-boundaries?"

Bedtime Prayers

At bedtime, we pray with the kids every night. Each family member gets a chance to pray, and if one of the kids doesn't want to pray, we always tell them, "you can pray for two people." For Eliana, this isn't usually an issue ... she wants to pray for everyone we know. Olivia, on the other hand, usually prays for herself and mommy ... since that qualifies as two people. Corbin has been taking a turn ever since he was old enough to understand that it's something he can participate in. The caveat of this is that often we don't understand what he's saying. So we chuckle at what he says and move on. Lately he's been praying a lot for "Mommy, Daddy, Pee-po ...." and we have no idea what "Pee-po" is, but it's cute, and he's very sincere. Until tonight, when it just clicked. We remind Olivia almost every night that she can pray for two people. And so Corbin prays, "Mommy, Daddy, too pee-po ..."

Like WHO?

Corbin is in this stage of everything being very negative. His favorite answer is "no!" His comments are all presented as dire and upsetting, even the ones he's excited about, like the "po-ise car!" And if he's talking and you're not listening, he's yelling at you to pay attention to him. So in the car today, he's yelling because I'm talking to Eliana and not him, and I sighed and said, "Corbin, you're impossible." Eliana asked what that meant. I replied that it's kinda frustrating how everything he says is complaining or yelling. And Eliana replies, "Oh. Kinda like Sharpay!"

Sick

My sweet Eliana is very sick today. I think the saddest part is that she's so brave about it. Fever, headache, runny nose, cough, with some barf thrown in there during the night. I think the barf is cause she gets too much phlegm in her little tummy.

So after I dropped Olivia off at school today, we went to the grocery store because the only thing she wanted to eat was strawberries. How could I resist that? While we were there she also decided she wanted yogurt and chicken noodle soup. She sat in the cart, wrapped in a blanket, giving her sick-voiced little comments and questions. So pray that she gets better, 'cause she makes me feel so sad! Even right now she's curled up on the couch reading to Corbin because she felt bad that I was refusing to read to him while I was on the computer. I know, I'm a mean mom. And she's very sweet.

On the positive, today is my first prenatal! We get to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time. I'm just praying there's only one!

Halloween pics

On Twins

I think I would die if we found out we were having twins. But Olivia asked me the other day if maybe we would have two babies, one boy and one girl ... Olivia likes everyone to be happy.  I said, not having really considered the idea, "Oh, I hope not!" After a little pause (where she was obviously thinking), Olivia says, "So if we have twins, will we sell one?"

On boys and girls and new babies

We were discussing whether our new baby was going to be a girl or a boy. Olivia has waffled a little bit about whether or not she wants a sister or brother, but mostly lands on "Corbin needs a brother." So yesterday, she gets all teary and says, "I want to be the baby girl. I don't want to have a girl baby because then that will be the baby girl and I want to be it!" We all make sympathetic sounds and stuff, and then Eliana says, "Well, I want a girl!" And so then we're discussing how many people want boys and how many want girls. We determined that Olivia wants a boy, Eliana wants a girl, Mommy and Daddy don't care, but it's extremely difficult to figure out what Corbin wants. If you ask him straight out, he says girl. But if you ask him if he wants a girl like Avery or a boy like Jack, he says, "Yike Dack!" So Eliana decides he doesn't count 'cause he wants both. So she and Olivia are tied. And I said, "But I still think you're outnumbered ... more people want boys than girls." And so she demands to know who ... Aunti Jenn, Grandma Cooper, Grandma Wages, Grandpa Wages, Aunti Krystal ... so she huffs a little bit and says, "They are off the chart! They don't get to pick. Just US!"