March 15 – “Quote line”

Since it’s Sunday and I have to get ready for church, oh, and we have to pick up Cailyn and Wes, here are just a few quick grandkid quotations from our weekend.

Let me start with Kel.  I know, he’s not a grandkid, but his quote leads into the others well.  We were outside watching his sweet little daughter play when he remarked, “Why do my kids all like to play outside?”  See, Kel is not much of an outside kind of guy. 

But then later on, I was outside preparing to fry the fish when Cailyn morosely trudged up to me with, “I want to play outside with my cousins, but they’re all stuck inside.”  Ah, yes.  Sadly, the presence of video games and parental approval for media time tends to do that.

Speaking of media time, here’s one from Micah: “Can I play on the phone?  Can I play on the iPad?  Can I play on the wii?”  I think he would have continued but that’s all the potential media he knew of at our house. 

And still on the media page, I got this taunt from the eldest, Jachin: “Come on, DadDad.  You can play this dogfight game.  It’s simple.  Trust me.”  Sorry, Jachin.  I learned a long time ago that when the oldest sibling says “trust me” that something is afoot that has designs on my total destruction. 

Josiah’s quote of the weekend is hard to write down.  “Ha Ha” just doesn’t seem to capture the essence of his belly laugh.  It takes him about an instant to be totally and completely engulfed in laughter from head to toe.  Love it. 

Noa is really beginning to talk a lot now.  Sometimes there are no discernable English-language words in what she says, but the expression and emotion are quite clear.  She definitely has the girl propensity for verbal skills.  Her favorite word now is “disgusting.”  Uses it appropriately, too.  My favorite of the weekend, though, came out when I was in my chair at my desk.  She crawled up in the nearby rocking chair, looked at me with captivating eyes, and asked, “Ock, Ock me, DadDad?”  Which I took to mean, “Rock with me, will you, oh grandfather, my love?”  And once she knew she had my attention, she looked up again at my painting of a praying man, folded her little hands and said, “’men, DadDad, ‘men.”  That’s right, Noa.  DadDad is praying and he says, “Thank you Jesus.  Amen.”

Caleb’s comment of the week I have already shared.  It was his reflection on exiting the Rainforest Café’s thrill ride, ”I can smell the terror.”

And I found out the Zak was the one to blame for the secret, somewhat threatening note on the door that read, “Do not go to get donuts without us.” 

Finally, the youngest.  Luke doesn’t say much.  He is great at captivating things like falling into your arms backwards, totally trusting you to catch him and engulf him in a big hug.  He did have one particular word that we heard more than twenty or thirty times.  See, he was fascinated by the dogs. And what better word to announce their presence or ask where they are than, “uff.”  Hey, Dennis the Menace would know right away that he was talking about a dog, right?  Or is that dating me?  Who is Dennis the Menace?  You didn’t know his dog’s name was Ruff?  OK.  I quit.  For the day, anyway.

Psalms 8:2 says, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise”

Father, thank you for words of wisdom and amusement from the mouths of little children.  Sure do love these eight you have blessed us with.  Amen.