not-forgotten pictures and things my kids say

Sometimes I come across a photo or two (or a hundred really) that I love but never did put in a blog post. I rarely print anything and I'm well over five years behind in making photo books so this blog is essentially our ongoing family album. One of these days I hope to actually turn it into hardbound books for the kids to flip through and enjoy. There are a few sites out there that claim it's an easy thing to do but so far every time I've begun the process I've quit soon after, discouraged by the time and especially the money it is clearly going to require. Recently however, baby #4's fast approaching due date seems to have lit a fire under me. I've begun looking back through the files and putting together some simple digital albums for the kids -I even managed to make four year old Kate a baby book! It's a start anyway.
The following post is a result of this small attempt to organize and catch-up. A collection of lost-and-found photos and random things I wrote down in the past year hoping to remember...

A conversation with Tristan...

tristan:  "Mom, where are we going?"

me:  "Crazytown."

tristan (totally serious): "But I thought Crazytown was in North Carolina?"

dad: "Son, that's the amazing thing about Crazytown. Wherever we go, there it is."

A string of questions from the boy in the backseat. I'm usually puzzling over how to answer his first question as two or three more come out of his mouth...

"Mom, do sharks have blue tongues? And wouldn't it be crazy if this was new york?!

Wouldn't it be cool if you could kick a ball all the way around the world and it would hit you in the back?"

In the backyard with Kate...

"Mom, I'm watering the ants to make mud so the ants will see it and say, 'ooh chocolate!' and then they will crawl into it and DIE!!!"

Cuddling with Kenna who just tripped and fell down while brushing her teeth, injuring the inside of her mouth...

"Mom, I wish you could get inside there and kiss it."
(I probably said something like "Me too sweetie, I'm so sorry." When really I was probably thinking, "Gross, kid! Get over it!")

And a few of my favorite non-words that I find too cute to correct and get a little sad to hear them letting go of...

thingurs = fingers (kenna)

binahind = behind (kate: "hey, I'm right binahind you!")

valigator = elevator (kate)

turch = church (kenna)

rolling balls = meat balls (kate)

controlmote = remote control (kate)

And these last pictures reminded me of the lone daffodil blooming in my front yard last week. The lone daffodil that I had planned on taking a picture of. The lone daffodil that was plucked from it's stem and brought to me with a proud smile. Whatever you say to kids about picking flowers from neighbor's beds, or stomping on them outside the church, or leaving them on the plant to be pretty will go in one ear and out the other every time.
But perhaps they are better off for it...