Hong Kong Fui with Tourettes...

Noahman has developed an issue with controlling his, well, outbursts.  We've nicknamed them his "Tourette's Outbursts".  I cannot figure it out, but he will start off with his Ronnie James Dio "Crazy Metal Face" and point to the crowd, ala Jack Black in "School of Rock" and launch into these crazy karate chopping antics while hooting like a Cherokee Indian.  The only way to describe it is by video...

Oh, Snap...

It's funny when kids start repeating things that their parents say or things that they hear on TV. The "newest" saying of Caleb is, "Oh, snap". The funny part is that it is said, almost in passing. The funniest part is that it has no emphasis...just stated. For example, we were lost in a corn field yesterday and caleb quietly stated, "I think we're lost, oh snap..."

Yesterday he and I were in a corn maze here in Northern Virginia and we were very lost. After a few minutes of wandering through the corn, he and his friends were starting to blatantly violate the cardinal rules of the Corn Cops(seriously, there are yellow-shirted thugs in the cornfields that "police" the people therein). I started to tell the young cub scouts about children that live in the corn and how a movie was made about it--"Children of the Corn". Taking a hint from Oliver Stone, I embellished the reality and truth of the matter to state that the Children of the Corn were your friends...until you walked off the path into their corn. And DON'T, under ANY circumstances, hurt any of the corn.

I think that telling the kids this story before entering the maze would be a better policing idea than randomly staging minimum waged pseudo-rent-a-cops in the corn fields.

Noah, the entertainer

Noah has this new..."thing". I don't know where he picked it up, but he has an uncanny ability to pick up songs very quickly. He learns the words, the music, and the tune. He then, well...becomes mix master flash. His latest rendition is the power speed metal version of "It's Raining, It's Poring" complete with a fancy ending of "Bum, Bum, Bum".

Video to come...

The rain forest...

Trying to spark conversation with the kids, I was telling them about when I ran the "Run to the Sun" in Maui a few years ago. I told them about flying over there on the plane, renting the car and the run itself. I was explaining to Lily how my hut that I rented didn't have locks on the doors and how I had to climb up a ladder to get to bed--a difficult task after running 36 miles up a 10,000 foot volcano. I explained that it was hard to train there the first day because I woke up in the morning and it was rainining. This is the conversation:

Me-(said in an overzealous teaching tone of voice)-"...and do you know WHAAAAAT?"
Kids-(said in unison)-"What???"
Me-"I stayed in a rain forest. And do you know that it RAINS in a rain forest?"
Lily-"Well, yeahhhhh. That's why they CALL it a rain forest"

Famous, by name only...

Raising kids is hard. Razing villages is easy.

Some people seemed intrigued when they learn our last name. Kids are no different. Caleb took someone else's bus home from school--a milestone in kid-dom. This was the conversation that took place when he came home...

Caleb said, "Mom, I told Shaun that I'm realated to George Washington."
"Did he think that was pretty cool?"
"Yeah. Am I going to be famous because we are related to a famous person?", he asked inquisitively.
Janelle, feeling motherly and thinking that this could be a moment to focus on building Caleb up in a world where failure is mocked--morals are looked down upon--kids are assaulted from the media, says, "No. You are going to be famous because you are smart and you are going to be a famous scientist, or engineer someday."
Caleb, moved by such tenderness from his mother, says, "Hmm. You know what, Mom? I had pizza for lunch today."
He has his mother's timing.

One of those elusive moments where you don't know if it stuck in their head or if it went straight down the toilet.

Thus sayeth the child

Last week, we were teaching scriptures to the kids. Since the kids kind of get bored with reading it straight, we have tried to shake it up a bit. Janelle bought cards that ask a question. So, all the kids are tired, no one wants to listen, Caleb has Isabelle in a headlock and is putting his stinky feet in Lily's face, and Noah is sitting on my lap. I am whispering some of the answers in his ear. The question was, "What 2 people did Angel Gabriel fortell would come?".
Dad-(quietly, in Noah's ear)--Jesus
Noah-(loudly, as if at a football game)--JESUS!!
Dad-John the Baptist
Noah-JOHN THE BAPTASTIC!!!!

Wii are family!

I found a Wii at Target. I am using it to bribe Caleb to become a
"Rockstar Reader"

Upon showing him the box, I let jim touch, hold and even smell it so
it would motivate him to become a better reader. The whole evening he
was professing his love of the written word and how he can read
chapter books. I'm guessing that he most likely dreamed about the
glorious white computer, like a Red Ryder BB gun.