Sophie and Rhys Quirks

"Ha-Bee-Lo-pa" is the phrase Rhys has sung repeatedly.  He can't tell me what it means; nor can his sister. He loves singing it.  Changes the tempo and mood of the song but never the "words".  He used the phrase for months but recently is making up his own songs with real words.

"I trick you mommy!" What Rhys says when something doesn't turn out how he expected. Example: "Rhys, where are your shoes? Are they in they in your room?" R: "I don't know. I think so."  Me: "No here they are in the playroom." R: "Oh, I trick you mommy!" 

Sophie and Rhys love to run out and get in the car (parked in the garage) before me, when getting ready to go out.  This is so they can have a "Dark Party" in which they hang out in the car in the dark of the garage.  They are irritated if I am close behind them and open the garage door permitting beams of light to penetrate their "Dark Party".

Naked Party.  Rhys enjoying his nakedness. If they need to be ready for a bath sometimes he has time to run around his room having a "Naked Party". His words. 

Something that worked momentarily for Neal and I was to have Sophie pay us a nickel every time she used lame nonsense words, "blah, blah" and so forth.  She then said, "Oh, I can just pay you." and our new source of income ended.

I asked Sophie what she was doing with they eggs because she was shaking them.  "I'm scrambling them."

During the past summer Sophie was most often seen outdoors in two different colored flip flops.

Fun phrases she picked up from school last year: "How Dare You!" and "Silence or you go in dungeon!"

Sophie wants to marry every boy friend or acquaintance she knows. She come up to me and tell me she's trying to figure out which one to marry. I tell her she's got loads of time.  She has boys to marry her and they have told her flat out "no."  This does not stop her from chasing them to kiss them (on the arms usually).

Sophie is very creative and thoughtful.  She is often wrapping up rocks or homemade notes to give to her friends.  She also creates gifts out of our garbage or recyclables.  I'm sure their mom's love that our improved trash is making its way into their homes.

Since Rhys' language skills improved greatly this past summer, I can no longer just enjoy his prattling from the backseat.  Now I get questions like, "Is that weird, mommy?" to which I have usually gone along with, "Yep, that's weird."  But know he follows up with, "Why mommy?"  Oh man, I don't know why it was weird!  I don't even know what "it" was!  So know I really have to listen and I am truly enjoying it.  I also told him it is hard for me to hear him in the car, which is true.  I told him he really needs to get my attention before he tells me something.  So now he prefaces many long prattles with, "Mommy, I am going to tell you a story!"  sometimes followed by "No, TWO stories".   He's mixing it up a bit more but initially his stories almost always included animals being chased and getting eaten. And if there is a bad guy, he will not live.  Bad guys must die. Jail time or natural consequences or no one wanting to play with them is not sufficient punishment in his mind.