Lois was making calzones in the kitchen.  From scratch.

She stepped away for “just a moment” to change baby’s diaper.

She came back to the below… well sorta.  The following was taken after the children were properly chastened, but not before removing the evidence of their actions.

I had an amusing chat with my four-year-old the other day.

Me: “Andrew, I like the way you are.  Can you not grow up and stay this way all the time?”

He:  “I can’t!”

Me:  “Why not?”

He:  “Because you keep giving me milk to drink so I keep growing.”

[Note: at one point he was not a great milk drinker, and we told him if we wanted to be big like Daddy, he had to drink his milk.  This evidently stuck in his mind.]

Me:  “Hmmm. . . good point.  Can I stop giving you milk so you can stop growing and stay this way forever?”

He:  “Yes.”

So folks, there you have it.  I’ve divulged the secret to keep your child young and cute forever.  Just stop giving them milk.

Looks like “Ding Family Creations” is about to expand from signs into furniture:

Just to be clear, this personalized furniture (purchased originally from Ikea) is for the boy to set his feet on as he situates himself on the adult-sized toilet and reads his books.

P.S. Yes, the next installation in our series on relationships is coming soon…

I discovered this on the bathroom door in the kids’ bathroom last night as we were bathing the kids.  It speaks for itself.

I spent some one-on-one time with my six year old last night.  We had the following conversation that brought me much amusement:

Matthew: “Mommy, when we have our 6th baby, do we need to change our van?” (Just so you know, we’re having our 5th baby this year and we haven’t made any plans for baby #6 … and baby #5 will max out the capacity of our family minivan.)

Me: “Hunny, I’m really not sure if we’re going to have a 6th baby.”

Matthew (a bit perturbed): “But we’re going to have an odd number of children!!!!”

Me (smiling and amused): “Okay, hunny, we’ll see what the Lord gives us. Let’s just concentrate on having baby #5 for now.”

My boy loves symmetry and completeness, just like his Daddy the software engineer / numbers guy. Even numbers are good and odd numbers are just odd.

Of late, I’ve been entertained by my 3.5 year old son who says the most heart-warming and funniest things.

Heart Warming:

Andrew woke up crying in the middle of the night again. The next morning I asked him why he was crying and he said, “I was crying for you, Mama. I want you.”

One Track Mind:

While I was in the middle of making dinner, Andrew said, “Mommy, I want to go to sushi.” He meant he wanted to go to a sushi restaurant. I told him no and that I was cooking this evening. He replied, “Mommy, can we go to sushi after you cook?”

Homeschooling:

While I was snuggling with Andrew I asked him:

“Andrew, do you want to do school with Mama?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I want to play.”

“Well, school is like playing.”

“No, school is work.”

Now, I want to know where he learned that!!! Nevertheless, it was cute and the conversation cracked me up.

Many times we have challenges picking out gifts for the kids.

We’re frugal.

We don’t like clutter.

We don’t want noisy toys.

The toddler/baby product review blog Thingamababy has solved our  dilemma.

Here’s what we’re getting the kids.  Now & forever.