Quotes

Elliot: "Why do they call rainbows rainbows? Shouldn't they just be waterbows? And who are 'they' anyway?"

Libbie's suggestion for the title of Ben's book (after being told day after day that Tato wasn't home because he was working on his book): "A Very Long Book, By The Famous Author, Tato Peters"

Happy Birthday, Elliot!

Our Elliot turned five last week (on the 21st). It seems like we have been calling him "almost five" since a month after he turned four so it's about time he actually turned five! He's still in the 90th percentile for weight and 98th for height. He loves to play with his little sister and loves to read. He'll read almost anything he is interested in now, sometimes even trying to work through big chapter books. He loves his Pre-K class, the Hummingbirds. (I don't think I ever officially posted that we took him out of kindergarten after a week or two because we found an amazing Pre-K in our neighborhood that is only three days a week and not as long of a day. He was doing just fine in kindergarten, but we didn't want to push him into the system so early (he'd be almost two years younger than some of his classmates) and found this great school. His class of eight kids somehow ended up all boys this year, which is kind of fun for him.We feel really great about our decision.) We love having Tuesdays and Thursdays to play at home or go on outings. 

He revels in accuracy and thoroughness, and aims for perfection: closing every door he passes through, spelling words correctly, reading every sign that crosses his path, reciting rules and guidelines he is familiar with (at stop lights he recites, "Green means go, red means stop, and yellow means finish crossing"), giving the last kiss, waving the last goodbye, insisting on pronouncing every syllable he knows is there, which sometimes means exploding the ending consonants like in "goo-duh ni-ghT" and, my personal favorite, frequently naming his list of "not nice words," which usually consists of "stupid, hey you dummy, it's your fault, told ya, and hate." Most of these are words he found in books or heard from friends. He is very good at being careful what words he uses and does avoid the things on his list, except, of course, when he is reciting the list. Hopefully this listing habit will stop before he learns any real doosies. 


Elliot's unbounded enthusiasm and ear-to-ear smile keeps us all smiling. The raw joy and unadulterated passion he finds in life are contagious. He keeps track of exciting upcoming events through numerous countdowns going on in his head simultaneously: how many sleeps until my birthday, until his birthday, until his friend's party, until he gets to take the school weekend pony home, etc. He loves to keep track of things in general--the day of the week, the date, the helper of the day, his weekly chores, his chore/behavior points (which he counts in his head instead of on paper), who is where and doing what, etc. He loves it when you pretend you don't know something he does, but he doesn't appreciate it when you tell him something he already knows (which is a politeness issue we are working on...). He is constantly trying to figure things out and sum them up. He'll come up with statements like, "I'm never gonna die when I'm four years old," to satiate his need to make general statements but maintain accuracy. He still loves puzzles. He loves to listen to music, often carefully singing along to his favorites. He likes to listen to songs over and over until he has them memorized. He would crush his dad in a lyric recitation contest any day (and regularly does). He likes the Baby Beluga Raffi c.d., especially "Day-O." He still loves Peter and the Wolf. He also seems to enjoy Bach and Rachmaninov, shouting out the instruments he recognizes. One of his favorite songs to listen to is "The Kids' Song" by Moxy Fruvous, which he will listen to over and over, singing along and laughing out loud, sometimes rewinding because he missed some lyrics because he was laughing too hard (I can't tell you how happy this makes me... such a good song/album/band. My sixteen-year-old self is smiling big at those moments). He loves to be silly, especially when it's allowed.

Elliot is our little bear cub, almost too big to hold but still snuggly. He likes to find funny snuggling positions, like "nose to eye," which means I rest my nose in his eye socket and we laugh about it for a few minutes. He loves to build and create with his big brother and to help his little sister, sometimes calling her sweetheart or darling. We love our Elliot and are so glad he joined our family five years ago.

Interview with Elliot, October 17, 2011 

(My questions in red, his answers in black.)

What's your full name? 

Elliot James. And then Lambert. And then Peters.

How old are you? 

Right now? I think you know. Four and eleven months.

What's your favorite thing to do? 

How about animals? I like a zebra, alligator, crocodile, elephant. Can I write it now? Also flamingo, jaguar, cheetah, leopard.

What games do you like to play?

Hockey, golf, tennis [Note: He has never played any of these games. But he does love board games and sports.]

What food do you like to eat?

Sausage and hot dog, cake, ice cream, an elephant, haha. Why did you write haha? (Because you laughed.)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A policeman and doctor and a lying man *Lies down on the ground* Spiderman, Batman, Superman, a tug-o-saurus. 

What's a tug-o-saurus?

Just write it down.

Who do you want to be like when you grow up?

Not a mermaid. Those are for girls. Hahaha. Make sure you write that I'm laughing. Pirate. And a race car driver. Did you get everything right? Let me check. *Reads through all questions and answers.* Yeap.

When Tato goes to work, what does he do?

He goes like this, *types imaginary keyboard* "I want to eat ice cream."

What is one of your favorite books?

Like tracing and copying and coloring? "Who Wants a cheap rhinocerous?"

What is a book you really like to read?

"The First Day of Winter," "Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, "Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom"

Quotables

Elliot, half an hour after being tucked in bed tonight, insisted: "I'm wide asleep!"

Quotable

After Aaron heard that my sister Kelcie gets to go see a real rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, Aaron said, "No fair! I never get to see anything cool in my life."

I laughed and said, "What about the Statue of Liberty? Empire state building? Mt. Rushmore? The Dome of the Rock?" He interrupted me at this point and said, "The Dome of the Rock is boring. I see those things like everyday."

Just wait till we move to Oklahoma buddy.

Quote Board

Aaron: "What should I do if a teenager with rabies is chasing me?"

After fits of laughter on my part, he looked and me and said, "No, really. Teenagers can run like nine miles per hour and I can only run like six. And only for a few minutes."

Two conversations

Elliot woke up this morning, came to me and we had the following conversation:

Elliot: "I'm sad.
K: "Why are you sad?"
E: "Because I had a plane, a truck, and a costume, and now I don't have them anymore."
K: "Oh darn it. It must have been a dream."
E: "I want to go back to that dream!"

And then this afternoon while I was walking with Aaron we started talking about facial hair and Aaron said, "Tato doesn't have facial hair. He just has hair on his chin." So true. We decided he was cuter that way.

Another Joke

This morning I gave Aaron the cinnamon to sprinkle on his oatmeal, then walked away. When I came back, he said, "This cinnamon can't come out."
Me: Could you not get it open?
Aaron: No, it can't come out because it's grounded, see? (Points at the words "ground cinnamon" on the front.)

Ah, the joys of being able to read.

Aaron's Joke

As we were getting ready for bed last night, Aaron told me he had a joke. The joke was as follows, verbatim:

Two guys were talking and one guy says to the other, "I'd give anything to be able to stay up until 9:00." Then the other guy says, "Okay, fine. All you have to do is not stay up until 9:00."

The he got a big smile on his face and said, "So see? He shouldn't say 'anything.' "


Addendum: It has come to our attention that this joke might need a little explanation in order to be fully understood and therefore appreciated. I recognize that explaining the joke makes it a lot less funny, but I am just so pleased with Aaron's sense of humor that I think it worthy to beat this to a pulp by explaining it. So, here I go... I think the best way to think of it is in terms of sets. The first guy said that he would do "anything" in order to be able to stay up until nine, therefore giving no limitations to the set of things he is willing to do in order to have the privilege of staying up until nine. The second guy, however, pointed out that such a set is impossible, since said set could not include the event "not staying up until nine," since if he did do that, he wouldn't be able to stay up until nine. Get it? Pretty darn hilarious if you ask me. (Needless to say, there is a lot of talk around here about paradoxes, between Ben's dissertation writing and my general mathematician talk. Aaron's "joke" is somewhat similar to Russell's Paradox , or, more anecdotedly, the "Barber Paradox. " Aaron also liked the "All Cretians are liars" paradox his grandpa told him tonight.)

Book Eating

We try as a family to read the scriptures every morning, which means at breakfast since that is really the only time we are all together most days. Yesterday Elliot found a Book of Mormon lying around and said, "Hey! A Book of Mormon! We eat cereal with that."

Kid Updates

Here are some recent kid quotes and snapshots. I recognize the imbalanced distribution here, but I've been working on the list for a few days and I think it just needs to be published at this point. And, of course, Elliot is two right now, so almost everything he says comes out cute. Anyway, here you go:

AARON:
Commenting on Grandpa LeeR's love of hot dogs, Aaron said, "Grandpa's a gutavore," after Grandma Karen explained to Aaron what hot dogs are made of. Then the next day when grandma ordered a hot dog, Aaron looked up at her and said, "Are you sure about that grandma?"

In a discussion with Grandma Karen about the fact that Ben is off working on his dissertation, grandma told Aaron that Grandpa LeeR is also working on a dissertation. After telling grandma that tato's dissertation is on the Cold War, Aaron asked her what grandpa's dissertation is about and she said it has to do with donuts and their shape (he's working on some topological questions). Aaron giggled and said, "I think the Cold War is more interesting than donuts, don't you?"

LIBBIE:
Has one tooth broken through, with the second close behind

Giggles very cutely but quite sparingly-- you need to work for it, but it pays off

Survives her brothers' tackles like a champ

Scoots backwards and a little bit forwards. Is starting to get up on her hands and knees and rock.

Has long, strawberry blond hair

Very cheerful after waking from a nap-- rolls around and smiles at you from her crib

Smiles back at her mama consistently. Cries when mama turns her back to walk away. Cries when she seems mama walk into the room. Stops crying when she sees mama walking towards her.

I took her to see Star Trek in the movie theater with us the other day. She was very well-behaved. The time that she wasn't sleeping, she was sitting on my lap and staring up at me, waiting for me to look down at her. When I looked down at her and smiled, she would giggle and get so excited.

Raises her arms up for "SOO big!" (In response to, "How big is Libbie?")

Sits for long periods of time without falling over.

ELLIOT:
"This is fun and awesome." -- He says some form of this statement almost everyday. Such an enthusiast.

When I put my new skirt on for church today Elliot said, "You look beautiful!" Then later, "Are you a princess?" Totally made my day.

Whenever he wants Aaron to do something, particularly when he wants him to give him something back, he says, "6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, OK, you go to time out."

"Take off your shoes off." -- He uses this construction for any statement that could have the word (most commonly a preposition) in two positions. He puts it in both places.

"I look so awesome and cool." Elliot has a little obsession with mirrors. Well, particularly when his own image is reflected back of course. At Tahoe he would put his swimming goggles on and just look at himself in the mirror, sometimes doing various poses. There was a mirror on the wall of the kitchen area and as he walked or run by, he would inevitably turn his head and watch himself as he passed, usually with a smile. All evening after he got his face painted as Spider Man, he came inside every few minutes to check in the mirror and see how he looked. When a mirror wasn't nearby, he'd ask, "Where's my Spider Man?" I'd reassure him it was on his face and he would be calmed. For days after we washed off the paint, he would still ask, "Where's my Spider Man?"

"Libbie is soo cute!" Elliot says this almost every time he sees Libbie in a transition moment-- when she just woke up from a nap, or when he just came into the room, or whenever he is seeing her after a period of not seeing her. It's very cute but usually followed by a tackle/hug that is not so fun for miss Libbie.

"LastDay" = yesterday, which really means some time before this moment.

"Is it picy or good?" He asks this about anything that could potentially be spicy. Up until recently, anything with carbonation was "picy" but lately he's been saying very enthusiastically about root beer, "It's not picy; it's good!"

"Remember when..." Elliot often will quote or refer to things that happened in the past. One of my favorite times was when he choked on a spaghetti noodle. All of us were standing around, mid-breath, waiting for him to show that his coughing/gagging was not going to turn into the silence of real choking, when he stopped coughing, looked up at us and said, "Remember when I was choking?"

Teasing Game

Aaron: Nah, nah, na-boo-boo, you are a poo-poo.
Elliot: I'm not a poo-poo! I'm pee!

Elliot's Newest Phrase

"Hooray for everybody!"

He says it at random times, throwing his arms up in the air, with a big smile on his face.

Old Macdonald

Elliot just sang "Old Macdonald" while he was doing his puzzle, and it went like this:

"Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o, and on that farm he had a cow, e-i-e-i-o, with a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo-moo, Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o. Goodnight boys."

Not coincidentally, this is the last song I sing to the boys most nights.

Because why?

For the last few months, Elliot has decided that "because a fish, a long nose" is a good response to any question that involves the word "why." It doesn't matter what the question is, but the response inevitably involves a fish and a long nose. The last few weeks, to make the joke even funnier, he has decided to mix things up a bit. So now instead of always saying "because a fish a long nose" he changes the word "nose" to various animals. He also puts pauses between words for emphasis. So the following is a typical Elliot conversation/joke.

Parent: "Elliot, let's change your diaper."
Elliot: "No way!"
Parent: "Why not?"
Elliot: "Because... a fish... a long... elephant!"

It doesn't make any sense, but it sure keeps us laughing.

"Aaron's Song"

Many of you may be familiar with the Primary song "I Am A Child of God." Elliot was singing it this morning and asked me to sing along, so I did:

Elliot and Kourtney: "I am a child of God, and He has sent me here. Has given me an Earthly home, with parents..."

Elliot: "No! with Aarons!"

K: "Oh, sorry... with Aarons kind and dear."

Elliot: "Yeah."

He now calls it "Aaron's song."

Wise Words

Ben has been pulling late-nighters the last few days trying to meet upcoming deadlines. The other night Aaron woke up at about 11:30 to go to the bathroom and on his way back to his room climbed into our empty bed. I joined him after a few minutes and told Ben (who was typing away right at our heads) to move Aaron when he came to bed. A few hours later, Aaron woke up for a minute and said, "Dad, don't you think you should go to sleep? I think you're going to be really tired tomorrow."

Elliot's Contrariness

Ben, upon greeting a smiling Elliot returning from the playground: "Did you have a good time at the playground?"

Elliot: "No."

"Oh. Did you play with your friends?"
"No."
"Did you play in the sand?"
"No."
"Did you play anything at all?"
"No."
"Did you play at the playground at all?"
"No."
"Did you run?"
"No."
"Jump?"
"No."
"Hide?"
"No."
"Slide?"
"No?"
"Squat?"
"No."
"Dig?"
"No."
"Sit?"
"No."
"Um... did you have fun saying 'No' a lot?"
Elliot, with a sly smile: "Yeah..."
Ben: "Can you say 'No' right now?"
Elliot, as his smile broadens: "Yeah..."

Nightmare

Aaron crawled into our bed the other night and later explained, "I had a dream there was a dead man knocking at the door."

Geez louise, a dead man knocking at the door? Whatever happened to the boogey man? He seems a lot easier to explain away than a dead man knocking at the door.

More Aaron Quotes

Today the four of us were running around playing monster/bad guy/ hunter guy, tackling and tickling the "monster" after a sure defeat and I guess I got a little carried away because Aaron said, "Mom, stop because the monster is actually our dad."


Aaron's made-up superhero has advanced from "Packer Man" to "Meat-Packer Man." He's a guy who can pack a lot of meat, really fast.


"Nephites are called Nephites because they have a lot of knee-fights. And Helamans are heal mans because they were sick" which Aaron later explained on separate occasions that Helamans were men who could heal or who were in need of healing.


The other day while playing with the kids I said something like, "I love you guys so much. What would I do without my little boys?" To which Aaron replied, "Well, you could go to the store and get some cute little statues that look kind of like Tato and then you could take them to the park and stuff."

Yesterday at breakfast time Aaron announced, "I'm not going to eat dinner tonight because I'm fastinating."