Short and Sweet

  Today the minions were running around, playing "Everything is Dangerous!". They had foam swords and sock hands and all sorts of plans to take out bad guys around the house. Jace took a short break for a tea party, and when Aria saw she turned on her most dramatic voice and said, "Jace, NOOOoooo! Don't drink that! It is the very most dangerous drink, and it is from the bad guys. They are trying to get you, and it is SO dangerous and bad and gross. It will make you SO sick. It's very, very dangerous...it is juice that has been left out too long!!!"

I think this kid has been around me too long!

Baby Prayers

Every night Chris and I split the kids up for bedtime routines. We all do teeth-brushing together, then one of us will put Jace to bed, and the other will get Aria later in the evening. I was on Jace duty tonight. I read him his current favorite bedtime story, "Say Moo". He is so cute, and loves making the animal sounds even if he gets them all sorts of mixed up! Then we said prayers. My nightly prayer is "Thank you, God, for today, for giving us everything you gave us. Thank you for our family, for Mommy and Daddy and Jason and Aria. Thank you for the good day we had today, (Insert applicable list of good things) where we got to play outside, then go over and play with Nick and Krystal and Bree and Julius. It was a good day, Amen." Then I sing Twinkle-Twinkle, You Are My Sunshine, and Hush Now, My Baby. 
   I was a few words into "Twinkle", when Jace interrupted and started saying, "Tony, Tony!" I realized he was adding Tony to the list of people he was grateful to play with today, it was so sweet. So I said, "You're right! Thanks for letting us play with Tony!" He seemed satisfied, and layed back down to snuggle for the song. It was only a second before he popped back up, and said "And Nana! And PopPop, and Grandma, and Grandpa, and Daddy, and Jace, and Ari and Mommy!" I thought it was the sweetest thing that he wanted to add all the names to his prayers. I can't believe how big he is getting, and how much he understands. <3

HopHops

      Tonight we painted for some Christmas crafts that are super top-secret. Needless to say, the kids both needed a serious scrub down afterwards! When Chris was throwing the washcloth into the laundry room, Jace snuck into our back storage closet, which has a makeshift pantry. He grabbed the peanut butter and followed Chris around with it, claiming he was hungry. When we asked to confirm if he was hungry, he said in his hopeful toddler voice, "HopHops!" We initially thought he was saying "PopPops", which is something requested about twenty times every day, so I told him it was too late for candy. Chris put the peanut butter on the counter, and Jace kept insisting, "Hophops!".  Then there was a HUGE hiccup! The poor kid had been trying to tell us he had hiccups the whole time, and in our family, the magical cure is a spoon full of peanut butter. He's now very happily marching around, with a spoon full of peanut butter, and some cured HopHops.