Over the Fence

I was tucking the boys into bed tonight when L1 casually mentioned: “We throwed our frisbees over the fence.”

Me: You WHAT???

L1: “We throwed the frisbees over the fence.  We tried to throw the t-ball set over the fence too, but it wouldn’t go.  Just the balls.”

Me: Which fence?!?  (Our yard borders four different yards.)

L1: “The backyard fence.”

I headed down to tell MrA… “Um… the boys threw the frisbees over the fence.”   We headed to the back fence to take a look.  Sure enough, a slat had been knocked down from the 6′ privacy fence and we could see three frisbees, two t-balls, two empty animal cracker containers, an empty apple sauce jar, and two 2x4s lying in Mr. Neighbor’s yard.

I returned to the boy’s room and asked them about the damaged fence.

L1: “The fence was a little damaged. So we damaged it just a little bit so we could get our frisbees.”

Me: What about the big pieces of wood?  Did you throw those over the fence or put them through the fence?

L1: “Through the fence. We were using them to try to push the fence down.  We were trying to get the frisbees, but we couldn’t get them through the hole, so we were using the big pieces of wood to push the fence down.”

MrA and I cracked up with laughter once out of the boys’ room and went to figure out a plan.  Mr. Neighbor’s lights were still on, so we dropped him a quick text.  Amiable as usual, he met us at the fence and proceeded to gather up frisbees, balls, and containers and pass them back over the fence to us.  We had already pulled the 2x4s back through the fence and returned them to their rightful spot in the scrap lumber pile.  MrA had brought a hammer, so we nailed the fence board back into place as we laughed a bit more over little boy antics.

Then we went back to the boys’ room for a long, somber lecture on not throwing things over fences and not damaging fences and not pushing over fences.

Boys tucked in, we left the room… and laughed again.

Like Someone is Splashing Me

Boys in bathtub.  Bloodcurdling screams from L1. Mother enters and intervenes.

Me to L1: Next time you can say, “L2, stop splashing me please.”  That works much better than screaming like…. me trails off, about to say “like someone is murdering you,” but I didn’t want to have to introduce or explain the phrase.

L1 fills in: …like someone is splashing me.

Dancing lights

L1 as we turned on a florescent light fixture that flickered several times before becoming steady: Mommy? Why was the light dancing?

Runaway words

L1 was frustrated with the music book not staying open on the piano music holder and was trying to express his frustration, but didn’t really know all the right words to express that the music book kept closing and the music holder on the piano kept folding up on him and making it harder.  Finally, he broke down in complete frustration and said,

Mommy!  I’m trying to use words, but my words keep running away from me!  I can’t find them.  They just keep running away from me!

Too Bigger!

L2 (while strapped in his car seat and futilely trying to reach a toy on the floor of the van): My arms are too bigger!  Ugh!  My arms are too bigger!

Me: Your arms are too short?

L2: No! My arms are too bigger!

Moving the Baby

Me: What have I told you about moving the baby?!?
L1: Don’t pick up the baby without asking mommy!
Me: Thank you!! You need to remember that!!!
L1: But I didn’t carry him this time. I slid him!

Talking to Noah

L2 was chatting away like crazy in his peapod at nap time. I caught a few words here and there including “ark” and “animals,” but poked my head in and reminded him to be quiet.

L2: But Mommy, I was talking to Noah!