Lonsberries on the Loose: Just 44%

Can you tell I'm a Western girl, captured to the East via I-80 with friends in Michigan and Virginia? I thought so.

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Just finished...

Anyone with children -- no matter their ages -- should read this book. Its insights into the science of young brains are incredible. In fact, its first chapter answered a problem I've noticed with my own son, but was a loss of how to fix. The book is loaded with information on everything from gifted screening programs to childhood aggression to teen rebellion and more. It's an important tool to understanding today's kids and in how trying to create perfect children, we may have corrupted what worked naturally. Excellent read!

Random quotes from the kids:

4/15/2010: Robbie: "Mamam. Unn Foo Foo." Requesting his first book by title, "Little Bunny Foo Foo."

4/10/2010: Jack: What's for dinner?
Me: Chili.
Jack: Huh. Why does it smell so good when I don't like chili?

4/2010: "Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye." Robbie, to anyone for most greetings or partings.

4/5/2010: "Is there really any problem a pair of sharp scissors can't solve?" Jack

4/1/2010: Jack is saying family prayer: "Please bless that mommy wakes up happy tomorrow and isn't such a bear." (repeated twice for good measure. geez...)

3/29/2010: Ellie (in this story, aka Cinderella) is asked to pick up the crayons for the third time. "Oh, my mices are going to do it for me. Can't you see them?"

2/24/2010: Ellie looks out her bedroom window, "No movement outside. Yep, all the squirrels are safe."

1/31/2010: Ellie runs ahead to push open and door and yells, "Mens first!" (Jack has been getting praise for opening doors and saying "Ladies first." I suspect Ellie wanted in on the praise action.

1/29/2010: Ellie: Mommy, when am I going to be big? When I get big, I'll drive the car and you'll sit there (points to passenger seat.)

1/25/2010 Setting: I am lazing around bed and I hear the kids creeping up the stairs.

Jack to Ellie: I'll show you how to do this. You're a big kid when you're 3 or 4. This is a difficult job.

(I hear them go into the bathroom where I hear...)

Ellie: No Jack, I have to wipe. I can get on the toilet myself.

Jack: OK, you do that. I'll go downstairs and start breakfast. First, we need three bowls...:) (He actually did get cereal and juice for himself, Ellie, Robbie & Mommy.)

1/21/10, about 10 p.m.: Trying to get ready for Ellie's friend party and have too much to do. Baby starts crying and I turn the corner to find Jack, awake, putting away puzzle pieces. Resist urge to be upset. "what are you doing?" I ask. "Well, I was upstairs and a little voice whispered in my ear that I needed to come pick up the puzzles." Blink away tears as I watch him scurry around picking up all the toys that needed to get pick up and he says, "Mommy, you don't need to pick up tonight because I'm doing it. This is your lucky night." So worth the late bedtime for him.

12/20/09: Jack is jumping to the couch from this wood block we have that he's put in the middle of the living room. I ask him to put the wood block back because I don't want Robbie to imitate him.

Jack, just before ignoring me and jumping again: "Well, you better close your eyes. That's the best way to not see what I'm doing."

(He gets points for creativity, but he did get in trouble."

12/18/09: Ellie: "I'm amazing."

Jack, just before going to sleep: "Mom, do you know what I'm seeing in my head? Visions of sugar plumbs."

12/5/09 A friend, to Ellie: You have gotten so big!

Ellie: I know. I'm growing.

12/1/09 Jack is talking to Mom about dinosaurs, telling her what differnet kinds eat.

Mom, tossing out big words: "So is a triceratops an herbivore or a carnivore?"

Jack, confused: "Um, a quadraped?"

11/30/09: Robbie walks up to Ellie offering a Binky.

Ellie, closing her eyes and waving her hand: "No. No. Those are yucky. Mommy said I don't need a binky. I'm a big girl."

11/19/09: Mom is busy on Facebook:

Jack: Mom, Robbie is eating glue.

Mom: Can you take it away from him?

Jack: Nope, I can't. He's YOUR baby.

11/2/09: Ellie at the dinner table: "Everyone stop talking. I'm doing my hair."

10/28/09: Jack needs a new coat but rejects the first submission with this: "It makes me feel like a cloud. I need something, um, flatter."

10/27/09: Ellie at the dinner table to the church missionaries:

"Is everyone OK? Does ANYONE need to go potty?"

10/27/09: Scene: lunch at the park. Jack digs a spoonful of diced peaches from his cup and feeds it to his brother.

Me: Jack, that is a very sweet thing to do. Thank you.

Jack: He's a cute baby, Mommy. I'm just trying to welcome him to our family.

10/09 Talking with just Jack before bed:

"When am I going to grow up? You know, I'm already half past your legs."

"I wonder what Robbie's voice will sound like?"

"You should have another baby. Then I'd have two little buddies."

Me: Well, buddy, I have to go downstairs. I have to do the dishes and clean up.

Jack: Do you like doing all that stuff?

Me: Well, I have to do all that stuff.

Jack: Well, Dad could do it...

Bob is getting Robbie cleaned up from breakfast and is saying "Robert" with a bad, silly British accent.

Ellie: "Daddy. He's not a robot. He's a baby, O.K.?"

Jack, while helping make applesauce:

"God is in charge, and we don't know when Jesus is coming back."

8/09 Ellie has taken to giving enthusiastic good-byes that include nonsensical advice. My recent favorites:

To Sophie: Bye!!! Don't let the sun get in your eyes!

To her daddy: Bye, Daddy! Don't pee your pants!

To her daddy: Bye, Daddy! Don't forget your sunscreen!

9/09 Bob, left alone with kids for a day, dicusses his day with them:

Bob: They ate really well at breakfast.

Me: That's great.

Bob: This is the point where you ask me what I fed them

Me: (staring at him in anticipation)

Bob: Teddy grahams and goldfish. They loved it. We ran out of teddy grahams, though...

Jack: Mom, what did the seal do when the robbers started chasing him?

Mom: What?

Jack: He called the police, of course!! hahhaha. Mom, that's a joke! hahaha. (smiles all around. A for effort.)

Background: We are driving to Geneseo and are near the salt mine, which features a train to carry the salt away.

Jack: Mom, we're boring. I'm tired of doing the same thing every day.

Mom: Well, what can we do to spice things up? What would make our days not boring?

Jack: Well, we could drive a train. That's not boring."

8/09 Ellie: Coming up next is Parker's birthday!

8/09 Quote background: Ellie and Mom have searched for more than a week for a Princess Jasmine Polly Pocket Princess for her friend Parker's birthday.

Ellie: But Parker NEEDS Princess Jasmine and her purple bag. Mom: I know, honey, but remember, we looked three times and we couldn't find her.

Ellie, pauses and thinks a moment: 'Noculars, mommy. With noculars (binoculars) you can find things.

7/09 Ellie: I have to go potty.

Jack, murmuring to no one in particular: Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your pee pee.

Jack to Mom: Mom it's such a hot day, it's sweltering outside.

Mom: Where did you learn that word?

Jack: Word Girl, of course.

Jack to Bob: "Did you know that OxiClean cleans all around the house? I saw it on TV."

6/09 Jack: "You said it, Girl." (after I suggested we water the garden with the HOSE)

Jack: "Mom, I'm going downstairs to work with liquids. You know, scientists use them. I'm going to mix milk and water and see what happens."

Ellie, standing on a chair watching mom cook: "Mama, what'cha makin'?"

Mom: Meatballs, honey.

Ellie: Oh, I can't eat those because my dance slippers got lost last week.

Ellie, in any unguarded moment: Let's play I Spy! I spy with my little eye...(giggle uncontrolably)

Jack: "I don't like it when the TV sits there just waiting to be watched."

Two quotes from my sweet Jack while watching "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" :

"That queen is not nice. She should be put in time out." (interesting because we don't do time out...)

During the ending, where they're riding into the sunset on the white horse:

"Well, what happens now? Huh? What's "happily ever after?"

Mom is pondering out loud having a fourth child.

Jack: What? You mean again? Don't we have enough babies?

The scene: Jack is wearing kids sunglasses.

Mom: Whoa, Jack you are stylin'!

Jack: What'cha talking about, Mom? It's me, Jack.

The scene: Mom is trying to help Ellie add ingredients to some cookies.

Mom: Ellie, let mommy help you.

Ellie: No. Mine. (points to sink and stomps foot). You wash dishes.

1/09 The scene: Mom is running a few minutes late to a birthday party. Jack has inherited the "Lonsberrys are never late" gene.

Jack: Mommy, hurry! The bowling alley starts in five minutes. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...Mom! We aren't there yet!

Mommy: Jack, please get dressed.

Jack: If I do, do I get a sticker on the good boy chart?

Jack: "Mommy. I have some bad news for you. Ellie is taking things out of the fridge."

Ellie: "Mama, 'ook. Eggs!"

Jack: "Mommy, what's for dessert?"

Mom: "How about root beer floats?"

Jack: "I love to hear those words."

Ellie: "Knock Knock? Banana who?" (repeat 20 times and giggle intermittently.)

Ellie: "Knock Knock"

you: "Who's there?"

Ellie: "Joke!"

(This is also Ellie's response to getting in trouble...)