Mumma makes the rules and the ants in the stoplights

[Matt] After repeatedly asking me if he could play a game on my iPod, and after me repeatedly saying no, I started to get a little frustrated.  I turned to him and said, "Matthew, NO means..."

To my great surprise and amusement, Matt literally threw his arms up in the air - rolled his eyes - turned around and walked out of the room, calling over his shoulder, "Yeah, yeah... I know... no means no... Mumma make the rules..."

Yesterday I was driving home from food shopping with the kids.  I overheard this conversation in the back:

Jill: Matt, how do the stop lights work?
Matt replied, matter-of-factly: Well, Jill, there are little ants inside the stop lights and they press a button that makes the lights turn green.  We should say thank you to the ants.
Jill and Matt together: Thank you ants!

Jill thinks that whenever there are pink clouds in the sky at sunset, God made them especially for her, because He knows that she looooves pink.

Matt loves all things related to Nintendo's Mario Brothers. He has Mario figurines, Mario games, he draws Mario pictures, etc. etc. Somehow he got it in his head that Mario and his friends live on a planet in outer space.  One day last week, he decided to draw a picture of Mario and wanted to give it to him, so after much thought and deliberation on how he was going to get the picture to Mario if he lives on another planet, Matt decided to enlist the aid of - ready for this? - the Tooth Fairy.  Now every night, Matt leaves another picture of Mario under his pillow and wakes up every morning excited to see if the Tooth Fairy took his picture and delivered it to Mario in outer space.

Oi.

He likes it ‘cause it’s cold in there…

Here’s the scenario… I stumble, half-asleep this morning, to the refrigerator to get Matt some orange juice.  This is what I was greeted with:

Matt put him in there because, “He was hot and he’s a penguin so he needed to be cold.”

My silly sweet little man. :)

Jill’s New Haircut

After her haircut today, Jill told me:

“Mumma, I look so grown up! I look like a big girl!”

“Yes, you sure do!” I replied.

“Yeah!! I look like I’m FOUR!”

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She is also VERY excited about the “sparkly hairspray” that Dean put in her hair.  Just like Cinderella! :)

Portrait of a 5 Year Old Boy

Happy birthday little man!

I can't believe it's been five whole years since I met and fell in love with this little being that had been making me throw up for the past nine months! No seriously, Matthew has been a joy since day one. I am an incredibly lucky woman to have him as a son and I'm so proud of the little person he's becoming.

But the best part of Matt's fifth birthday? I told him as I was tucking him in tonight that I can't call him my baby boy anymore because he's my big boy. And he replied, "But Mumma, I'll always want to snuggle with you, even if I'm big."

(I asked him what he was doing with his arms and he said, "Making a heart shape.")

Christmas Words to the (not so) Wise

 After opening the Mario action figures (5 inch Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toadstool and Donkey Kong) on Christmas morning, Matt ran off into the other room with them.  Mark called out, "Matt? Where are you going? Come open the rest of your gifts!" to which Matt yelled back, "Jill can open the rest of my presents!"  We had to practically force Matt to come back and open the rest...

Note to self: next year, make Matt open the "big" gift last.

Note to self number 2: During Christmas dinner, if your daughter happens to be sitting next to you and spills her cup of ice water all over your lap, do not refill said cup.  Chance are very good that she'll spill said ice water all over your lap again not more than five minutes later.  Fool me once, shame on you... yadda yadda yadda. Lucky for me, Jen was able to lend me a pair of her sweats while my pants (and Jill's socks) were in the drier.

Note to self number three:  If your daughter begs Santa for one "Dancing Dora" doll, chances are the novelty of the "Dancing Dora" doll will wear off in about... oh, say, twenty four hours or so.  Next time, try if at all possible to distract/dissuade/discourage the daughter in question from the doll in question to avoid wasting $40.00.

Note to self number four: If you happen to have another Christmas Eve family gathering next year, and get it in your head to order a cold cut platter from Borrelli's Italian Deli, one cold cut platter will definitely suffice.  Because when they try to tell you that the smallest cold cut platter will feed about ten people, they're LYING.  In fact, the "smallest" cold cut platter (and the antipasto platter that they talked me into ordering) would have fed one entire third world country and all their relatives for three months. At least. That said, does anyone want any meat? We have some to spare.

And, one final note to self: If you and your dearest husband (whom you love so dearly) get into a huge, frantic "tiff" Christmas morning about who last had the $150.00 worth of gift cards for the family... try looking in the vegetable crisper in the refrigerator.  That's where you'll most likely find them.

And it was good

Matthew wanders into the room the other day with a pensive look on his face. 

"Mumma," he says to  me, "God made the Earth right?"
"Yup," I replied.
"He made the stars and the moon and all the planets?"
"Yes, he did!"
"He made all the people?"
"Yup."
"Then... Mumma? "
"Yes Matt?"
"...Who made God?"

A couple of Ho Ho Ho's

Singing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jill suddenly stopped after the verse, "...used to laugh and call him names," and complete with wide eyes and finger wag, announced sternly, "Mumma, calling people names is NOT very nice!!"

Jill had a humidifier in her room last night because she has a cold and a lingering cough.  After coughing himself this morning, Matt told me that he thinks HE needs a "campfire" in his room tonight so HIS cough will go away.

Jill's newest fear is of tarantulas, which she calls "anchelas."  She told me that they are "big and furry and slimy and when you touch them they sting like a bee and they're very SCARY." I asked her who told her about "anchelas" and she said that her 7 year old cousin Ryan told her all about them.  After two hours trying to convince Jill that there are definitely NO tarantulas in "our land" - I was absolutely NOT going to "go there" regarding pet tarantulas - I called my dear nephew on the phone and made him tell Jill that he was just kidding.  We still had to take Jill's clock out of her room though, because she thought the ticking sound was a "aranchula."  *sigh*