I begin typing this while our most excellent local friends, the Gambrells, commence their journying toward our cozy little abode, and my toddler stands next to me attempting valiantly to hinder my typing. Speaking of our largest bundle of joy, this post is about him. Specifically, I would like to put down a few of the more endearing things he has said to us lately.
On of the things I love most about being a parent (and there are many) is the fact that my kids make me laugh just about every single day; Aaron accomplishes this just by being cute and Isaac does it by coming up with the most hilarious things to say. He has a manner of approach to me which is difficult to resist. Every night when I put him in his bed he looks up at me with this little smile on his face and says "You leave the door open?" If I say no, he will say, "You give me a last chance? I want a last chance!" I rarely resist.
Here are a few little episodes I wanted to record. I don't think they will be nearly as amusing written as they were experienced, but they will trigger memories for me when I read them again.
A few weeks ago Isaac pulled a piece of junk mail out of the recycle bin and declared that it was his wings. "Fly! Fly! Fly!" he shouted, running around the house holding the paper in front of him. Occasionally he does this while flapping his arms, and for a while he declared that he was Batman.
We made chocolate chip cookies and Isaac sat in front of the cooling rack. He picked up a measuring tape and began pulling it out and holding it next to a cookie. When we asked what he was doing, he said, "measuring how much I love cookies."
We were putting on our shoes once, and I was talking to Alison while Isaac asked me if I had any boots. He got tired of waiting for me to pay attention and said loudly, "You stop talking and talk a me about your boots."
Pottyings were happening in the bathroom once and Isaac said, "You see the peepee? You see the water? You see the little mermaid?" During the same pottying session Isaac looked up to me and said, "My not have hair on my cheeks or in my armpits...my gonna shaver my hair off."
Isaac likes to contradict things we say that he doesn't like, as if simply negating them will make them untrue. For example, once I was explaining to him that the batteries in a toy were dead and he said, "No, sorry dad. They're not." He does that all the time and I think it's adorable.
We were eating dinner one night soon after Christmas and Isaac had received one of those Nerf over-the-door basketball hoops. He left the table, telling us not to eat his food, and went to his room. We heard him playing in there and every once in a while he would yell, "You not throw away my food! My play basket-hoop!" I went in that night and shot a few hoops with him, and when I made one he yelled "Yaaay! BYU!"
On Sunday and Monday mornings I get to be home for breakfast. We keep Isaac's door closed at night and a child-resistant handle on the inside of the room, so after he wakes up he will yell for us to come open the door. One particular Sunday morning Alison and I were both very sleepy, so he called several times. "Daddy! Daddy! You come open my door?" After I still hadn't come, he yelled, "Jordan! You open my door?" When I asked him why he had called for me by name, he said, "That's Daddy's other name."
We went to the Bean museum at BYU and watched a video that included a bear eating a dead bison. Isaac said, "There's chicken!"
One night we were doing bedtime kisses and when Isaac was about to kiss Alison's cheek, he coughed on her instead. He then said, "that was an Isaac coughing kiss."
We were eating at Nana and Poppy's house and I was about to take the last strawberry off the fruit plate, upon which there were a few apple slices. Isaac reached up and pulled the apples off and put them on my plate. "You eat the apples," he said, helping himself to the strawberry.
I love my kids. Aaron said "Hi, dad" on command once after I got home from a long day at work and it was heart-melting. I love sticking tongues out at each other and chasing and tickling, and I think it's cute when Isaac tries to convince me to let him have another cookie or stay up late. I can't believe how much joy there really is in being a parent.
