The Best Words and Phrases of 2010

To wrap up 2010, here are my favorite quotes from the mouths of my babes:
Jack:When I told Jack not to say "hate" because it is a strong a word he said, "So, I can only say things like 'I hate lifting heavy things?' "

My sweet boy is never too shy to say I love you (not yet, at least). He always says a goodbye and I love you to my mom when she takes him to school, and even when our new babysitter took him, he did the same thing to her. He understands the feeling of LOVE. He usually snuggles into me at least twice a day, looks right into my eyes and tells me how much he loves me.

His favorite way to describe how MUCH he loves people is by saying that he loves us all the way to a planet and back (his choice of planet varies). With his Bumpa (Jamie's dad), he tells him he loves him all the numbers and letters, because Bumpa once told Jack that he loved Jack to pieces and Jack interpreted it as TWO pieces, so he quickly replied that he loved him 10 pieces. And it built from there. Lately, however you'd think he loves us less, because he no longer says he loves us to Saturn or Jupiter. Instead he says that he loves to me all the way to Kerry's house or, if I'm lucky, Michigan!

Jack's favorite place to go is the "Museum of Signs and Interesting". Unfortunately he quickly learned of his mistake and now calls it by the proper name.

But that's okay, because just the other day THIS happened:

Jack calls the Peggy Notebart Nature Center the Butterfly Museum, because my mom has been taking our kids there since they were tiny, and what they remember most is the butterflies. But after going with her this past week, he told me at dinner that night, "Did you know that the Butterfly Museum is actually called the Piggy...Naturebart!?"

When his teacher in 3 year old pre-k asked the class what the weather was like, Jack said, "It's a wintery mix"

While we were watching downhill skiing during the Winter Olympics, a bunch of people were wiping out on the slopes. Jack looked at us and said, "THAT's why I don't want to go down the waterslides at the waterpark!"

J: "Mom....Who told me I could come out now when I was in your tummy?"
Me: "Well, I guess you just decided it was time to come out. Why?! Did you hear someone telling you to come out?!" J: No. Was Alice in there first? Or was I in there? Me: You were in there first. Before Alice was ever even around.
J: How did I get in there?......Did you EAT me?!!! Me: No....(quickly thinking of an appropriate response) You were a seed that grew inside of me.
J: A SEED?!!!! I didn't want to be a SEED! Me: Well, what did you want to be? J: A frog

When he was 3, Jack was talking very loudly while Alice was taking a nap, so I told him to be quiet. His response was a sincere, "But I can't hear my beautiful voice if I'm quiet!"

This happened more than a year ago, but I can't forget it: Jack asked me if Oscar was a girl or a boy. I told him that he was a boy, and as Jack proceeded to inspect underneath the poor cat's tail, he said, "Oh! Is that why he has those two street cleaner brushes?!"

On to Alice...

"My brudder" - She learned that Jack is her brother. She likes to refer to him as this when she's not calling him Jackie.

An easel is a weasel, a sandwich is a swandwich, and she loves her Auntie Zeke (Kerry's Male German Shepard).

Recently, Alice was looking at my face and asked, "Mom, do you have stains??" I told her no, and that they're called freckles.
A few minutes later, our cheeks touched and we got a static shock. And she said in a disappointed voice, "Oh mom, your freckles!"

She loves to play with our digital thermometer, which she refers to as a Temperature- Only she gets the consonants mixed up and calls it a Potential, which is really cute to hear that word being spoken by a 2-year-old.

Tummy ache or stomach ache? Put it together and you get what Alice will complain of...A stummy ache.

Alice LOVES anything tiny, furry, and, of course, cute. Whenever she sees something that fits that description, she says, "Awwwww. Is he Soooo cute???" And if she can get her hands on it (usually it's a stuffed animal, but sometimes Oscar is the victim) she will squeeze that thing and clench her teeth so hard with love. She reminds me of the little girl from Tiny Toons who always picked up the animals and said, "I'm gonna love you, and kiss you, and squeeze you, and call you GEORGE."

S0mething both kids love to do is sit in the front seat of the car while it's parked (obviously), but a while back whenever we told her it was time to get out of the driver's seat, she would refuse. It became a problem, so I told her she couldn't drive anymore until she was 16. Well, she hasn't forgetten since. She reminds people all the time that "When you're 16, you can drive". So recently, I let her play in the front seat while we were waiting for Jack to get out of soccer, and suddenly she stopped, looked up at me and asked, "Mom? Am I SIXTEEN?!"