Giggles, roses and isms.

I love little kid giggles. Not just the little everyday giggles, but hearty, belly laugh giggles. We love summer at my house. Summer means so many things. Shorts. Tank tops. Swimsuits. Green grass. Growing things. AND farmer's market at the park! Yeah! We went this morning. It's just fun to walk around. Today Aidan picked out bok choy to try. I very proud of my kids. They really do eat vegetables--not everything, but most things. They also know they have to try whatever is on their plate, at every meal. I think it helps them try new things when they get to pick it out, so I let Aidan do the picking today. We're going to have it for dinner tonight (with Grandma & Grandpa, too), so I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. We also got some garlic scapes (?) to go with it. The garlic things just looked cool. They're kind of curly. It should be good. Anyway, back to the giggles. We picked out our bok choy. We walked around. We looked. We got our bee pollen (YEAH!). We went to the fountain. It's so funny how something so simple as squirting water can bring out the big giggles--and serious ones at that. It's so cute! Aidan has a completely different squirt style than Breanna. Aidan would climb in the fountain, if I let him. He sticks his whole hand in the water stream and deflects it all over himself. That boy LOVES to get wet. He also does the fast-as-flash-karate-chopping on the water, so as not to get wet (we pretend he doesn't get wet, anyway). Breanna, on the other hand, puts two fingers in the shooting stream, jumps back and runs away giggling as hard as she can, and then goes back for more. It is just so fun to watch them.

Both Breanna and Aidan like to help me with the growing things around our house. They like to help pull weeds and the occasional baby bell pepper plant, blow on dandelion fluffies (but only toward the neighbor's yard), and help me tend the rose bushes. I was so fortunate that last year my friend Cori's mom, Linda, was building a new house on their same property and had to uproot all the rose bushes or trample them. We dug up 3 different rose bushes and transplanted them to our house. I wasn't sure they would make it because I have never grown rose bushes before. We did get several pretty blooms last year, but THIS year was fabulous! Of course, Aidan claimed one rose bush for each of us (except Daddy, sorry honey). The climbing mini pink bush with the super pokers is mommy's. The almost red ones are Aidan's. The mini dark pink ones are Breanna's. Whenever they start to bloom we have to run out and check them everyday to see if there are more blooms. I was really proud of myself. I remembered to take pictures of the blooming bushes with the kids next to them. They are so proud of their roses! It is just so amazing to watch the kids be so interested in simple flowers in our yard, and they have to show anyone that comes over, too.

I just wanted to share some of my favorite Breanna-isms and Aidan-isms. I hate to correct little kids when they speak (unless, of course, it is just bad grammar--that darn english major in me won't let it slide). Here are some of the latest and the translations to "grown-up speak."

Breanna:
*Mommy, I have a booby. Translation: Mommy, I have a boo-boo. (I have tried to correct this one, but it is still really funny.)
*That's spices me. Translation: That burns. (As in, cleaning a boo-boo.)

Aidan:
*I yust... Translation: I just... He speaks so well and really has a great vocabulary for a 5 year old, but he just doesn't get the "j" sound on that one. It's okay, though. He'll get it soon enough.

I am so used to their isms now that I am having trouble recalling them off the top of my head. As I remember more of them, I will try to put them down. I really want to remember them forever. They are just so cute!