Samantha Pierce

The following amusing exchange took place in the garden this morning. Sophia: Mommy what's that? Me: That's a grub dear. Sophia: What's it doing? Me: Probably eating roots. Sophia: It's so cute! Can we name it? She named the two we found while forking over a flower bed Elisabeth (Jewel's middle name which she also gave to the new fish) and Julia (her cousin's name). She did not, however, name the slug we found nor the numerous earth worms that wriggled out of our way. A little later on she asked, Sophia: What's a grup? [ Not a typo. ] Me: It's a baby beetle. Sophia: A baby beetle! This was apparently one of the most incredible things she's ever heard.

Things over heard in our house in the last few months. *** Me: No touching the walls! Ethan: I won't! Auntie 1: Stop touching the wall! Ethan: I'm not touching the wall. I'm painting the wall. With reasoning like that he has a bright future, perhaps in treaty negotiations at the UN. *** Sophia: There's no ham on this burger. Just two big pickles. *** Sophia: Why are you smiling at me? Me: You're a cutie pie. Sophia: I'm not a cutie pie! I'm not even a pie. I'm a girl. *** Me: Are you just giving these to me so you can get some more? Sophia: Yes. At least she's honest about her bribery. *** Sophia: Mommy remember what God told you to do. God told you to put two kinds of icing on it. We need to work on her understanding of theology a bit. *** Isaiah: [ After hubby picks him up. ] You hands are cold! Hubby reports that Isaiah said this with appropriate cadence and inflection. Every time hubby repeated this story Isaiah got a what-are-you-all...

This installment has been a bit over due but I've been busy ya know. Anyway, here are a few things heard in the house since early August. *** Ethan: [ Curled up in a blanket on a hot summer evening. ] Do not distrub. Me: I think you mean disturb . *** Hubby recorded this exchange: Context: I was trying to get information out of Ethan about the song he was playing on the organ, and I eventually got out of him that it wasn't something he sang at school but was the dance practice song from Mickey Mouse. I asked him something else (I can't remember what), and he was his often-unresponsive self. Sophia chimed in, "Daddy, he doesn't hear you. You should talk to me about it." *** Sophia: Daddy! I'm busy! Said as hubby plucked her off of Ethan who she was using as a trampoline. He was a willing trampoline but we had to stop her on principal. *** This exchange took place while I nursed Jewel. Ethan: She's eating your skin! Me: No she's drinking milk. E...

Had this exchange with Ethan at the farmer's market yesterday: Me: Okay no touching. Keep your hands to yourself until I say it's okay to touch. Ethan: So say it already! He had his eye on a pint of cherries that he really wanted to get into. The kid's mind is amazing. I sometimes wonder, how can I possibly keep up with him?

The latest installment of some of things hubby and I have heard the kids say recently. *** Isaiah: Read this. After I failed to read the entirety of the title page of Dr. Suess' Ten Apples Up On Top before bedtime one evening. *** Sophia: [ Brandishing the saw from a toy tool belt at Isaiah. ] Don't mess with my room or I'll cut you. Me: [ To hubby. ] Did she just threaten to cut someone? Hubby: [ Giving me an of course she did look. ] Yes. Me: .... Sophia followed Isaiah out of her room matter of factly explaining that she would cut him with the saw if he did anything to her room. She, of course, is to have free reign of Isaiah and Ethan's room. *** Sophia: Mommy I want to watch Alton Down Brown! In addition to raising a new generation of scifi geeks we're also raising a new generation of foodies. She means of course Alton Brown of Good Eats fame (check out the wiki ). She was immediately transfixed the first time she saw him on TV a few months ago wanting...

Here's the latest installment of some of the sayings in our house. Everyone has been so chatty lately that I didn't even capture a fraction of some of the interesting stuff said. Hubby recorded some comments and conversations on his blog . *** Sophia: [ Leaping out of the pantry at me. ] I'm a monster! Me: Okay. Would you like a taco? Sophia: No thanks. Monsters don't eat tacos. They eat kitty cat vitamins. *** Sophia: [ Brandishing a squirt gun. ] I'm a squirter! I'm a squirter! I'll squirt everything in the house! I bought a multi-pack of squirt guns for the kids. They enjoyed them way too much the first few times I let them play with them. They eventually calmed down though. Especially after Ethan spent an anxious night worrying about if his CD player would work again after he shot it with his squirt gun. *** Me: You'll get a turn when your brother is done. Sophia: What's a turn? Me: ... Sophia: A turn is when you get a screw and a scre...

Ethan: [Turns up in the living room with an old cell phone and holds it out to me.] Say hi. Sophia: [To Ethan.] Ooh! Can I play with it? Ethan: ... Sophia: Say, "Yeah you can have it!" [Takes the pone from Ethan.] Ethan: Yeah you can have it. I don't know if Ethan ever got the phone back.* Sophia spent the rest of the afternoon having pretend conversations with various friends and family members (none of whom she will actually talk to when they are really in the phone). Good thing Ethan was in a sharing mood. I wasn't in any condition to break up a fight. *The phone has resurfaced since I first wrote down the above at the beginning of the month. It has been the source of more than one altercation. *** Sophia: [With a pillow held above her head with both hands.] I'm going to kill you! Ethan, the most common object of her inexplicable blood lust, wisely armed himself with a pillow. I disarmed them both after a few wild swings that got only the air and the c...

Here begins another collection of some of the things said in my household. Sophia: [ After giving Ethan half of the curtain rod she had brought downstairs. ] Here, now we can kill each other. *** Me: You're not going. It's just me and Ethan going to see the doctor to make his arm all better. Sophia: Okay. Can I bring my backpack? *** Sophia: What does it say? Hubby: Adorable. Sophia: Just like Dora the Explorer! *** Sophia: I'm gonna make Isaiah dead! [ Pulls a toy egg out of her purse. ] With this! Me: What?! Are you going to try to kill your brother with an egg? Sophia: Yes! Me: We don't kill people in this house! Sophia: [ Walks over to Isaiah standing in the window and throws the egg. Isaiah fails to notice this deadly assault. ] That didn't work. Maybe we should eat the egg. I don't know why she keeps trying to do away with her brothers. *** Sophia: [ Walks in the room and puts a book and a block next to me on the bed. ] Mommy would you pay for my ...

I've been writing down some of the more amusing things the kids have been saying lately. They often leave me speechless. Here they are in no particular order. *** Sophia: Mommy it sound's like the human-midifier is making some noise. *** Sophia: Mommy why are we waked up? Me: What? Sophia: Why are we waked up if it's not spring yet? *** Me: Oh your feet are cold! Sophia: Yes they are cold, I know that mommy. *** Ethan (to Sophia): Don't touch it! I'm butching it. I'm butching the beef. (It was orange playdough and he was "butching" his "beef" with a spoon.) *** Me (to Ethan standing on the back step without a coat with Isaiah right behind him also without a coat on a day when the predicted high temp was 20 degrees): Get back in here! Are you nuts? Ethan: Yes, I am. Note to self, do not ask rhetorical questions of children. *** Sophia (upon discovering that the seed tray that the kids had effectively turned into a sensory table was go...