Clipper Finger

Landon's term for a fingernail that needs to be trimmed: "clipper finger"

Aidyn Eat My Finger

Landon, waking from a bad dream in the middle of the night, was crying in his room and in a little bit of a panicked state.  Donnie went to his side and knelt down, trying to comfort him.  He asked what was wrong and Landon gave us a glimpse into a 3-year-old's nightmares: "Aidyn eat my finger!!!"

We Need Forks

AJ: "We need forks."
Me [prompting]: "May I please have a fork?"
AJ: "Yeah.  What you said."

And I Said to Him...

Aidyn, after school, in the midst of a story about one of her classmates: "...and I said to him, 'No offense, Tyler, but you're doing it wrong. He didn't like that very much."

Vacuum Shelf

We have a space heater in our room that the boys love to play with (it has lots of buttons for pushing, of course) under close supervision, obviously.  The unit is tall and thin with slats for the airflow.  It's appearance and the sound it makes has caused it to be dubbed "The Vacuum Shelf" by the boys.

If He Cries

About a month ago we accepted a new foster placement--a three-month-old baby boy.  AJ was absolutely enamored with the newest member of our family and spent the whole first day by his side.  He held his hand and sang to him and rocked him and tried to hug him more times than I could count.

By evening when Daddy came home, AJ had baby care down to a science.  We put Chase in the swing and AJ said his goodnights. As he went up to bed, in a moment of stunning clarity for our speech delayed boy, AJ said, "Daddy.  If he cries, just turn up his music, ok?"

That's not even the best part.  Shortly after AJ went to bed, Chase was crying and crying.  We picked him up, rocked him, tried to feed him, tried a pacifier.  For lack of any other option, we put him back in the swing and turned up the music.  And he went right to sleep.