Phases and Phrases

I wish I could remember ALL the funny sayings. But even the ones that aren't necessarily funny, I want to remember the things each of these boys say. They are certainly ALL verbal at this point!!

Christian's phrases....

"Apparently, _______ (any number of things could be said here)."

"He deliberately did that." 

"He OBVIOUSLY wants to annoy me." 

"I literally didn't know that would happen.

"I technically can't reach that, can you help."

"Please stop. Can you please stop. Please stop." (It seems as though he thinks if he can say this on repeat quickly without many breaks, the other person is going to feel as though they should listen to what he is wanting. He tries to make the point he is asking nicely...however, if you hear HOW this is said, it maybe isn't the easiest to listen to.)

"Dis-arupt" = interrupt "Noah, don't dis-arupt me, I was talking!"

Noah's phrases...

"What should I do??" So commonly asked these days leading up to school starting. He is so good at keeping with a project or task if started, but just needs that extra boost to get the idea in his head to get going. "I can handle it." When he wants to do a puzzle, he doesn't want to "just" do a 100 piece puzzle, he wants a 200 piece puzzle, because he "can handle it!"

"I can do it by myself." or "I want to do it by myself." He has been wanting to prove to himself and us that he can handle doing things independently. Examples: Making his bed without being told, bathing himself (start to finish...he just can't get the towel off the hook, and that is really irritating that he just HAS to ask for assistance with that), the complete bedtime routine. He has made it clear that now that he is in kindergarten, he is BIG enough to do these things by himself!

"Constructions" = instructions. He will refer to the "constructions" to his Lego sets, or plus-plus sets and it just makes me want to giggle so hard every time.

Jonah's phrases....

"I don't want ta. I need ta do it." (He replaces "to" with "ta"..said with a bit of a southern drawl.)

"I want Daddy." (this one should be #1 comment/statement on repeat...it is said ALOT!!!)

With Jonah, it is more how he says things rather than what he is saying. It is the eye rolls, the sighing, the acting as though he is about 15 instead of 3. He does alot of "behind-the-scenes" talking. He is NOT a fan of being heard by people he doesn't know well, and he certainly won't be seen talking on the phone, whether it is just regular phone or FaceTime. But you get him playing with Legos, blocks, animals, bricks, etc....he is going to be making up stories and talking away to those toys!!

Isaac's phrases...

"Baa-pa, baa-pa." (Back-pack, back-pack. He saw an episode of Dora the Explorer with his brothers, and that saying STUCK to say the least!! That show says backpack quite a bit!) 

He also says, "ma-ma", "daa-da". Oh, and he certainly knows much more than he speaks. When mentioning the word, "scream" even within a sentence, he gives that ornery ol' look and gives a very distinctive scream. 

Just within this week he has started saying a clear, "doooonnn!" (= don't) and "noooooo" ( = no)

He is jabbering combinations of sounds together, so much so, that sometimes it seems like actual sentences are going to pop out of there at any moment!

Noah's Narratives

Hearing his newly three year old self say things like "amazing", "incredible", "interesting" (said 'intresting') and "ridiculous" to describe things can instantly bring a smile to my face. The other day, he was looking through a catalog (a toy one) for Christmas ideas. He came to a page and said in awe, "whoa! This is in-CRED-ible. Look at this!! It is Ah-MAZ-ing!!!" (It was a page with all things that glowed in the dark!) 

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He has quickly learned from his big brother the word-age in terms of "playing nice". I will often hear them tell each other back and forth..."Jesus said.....". And occasionally, Noah will come to me and say, "Shis-shen is being mean (said with the poutiest and sad little face). And Jesus says to be NICE in the Bible. We be NICE!"

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What is your name? "Noah". What is your full name? "Noah Hersgerber"

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The other morning, he came into our room and stood by my head. I had him crawl in bed with me, as Ben had already left for work. He looked around and asked "Where's Daddy?" I told him he was at work. "Oh, he's a work?" So we go about our morning, eat breakfast, etc. I'm in the kitchen, and he comes in the room, and says, "Where's Ben?"

"Who's Ben?"

"Ben is Daddy."

"Oh, well, we just call him Daddy. He is your Daddy, and Christian and Jonah's Daddy."

"Oh, well he IS Ben."

(I couldn't help but laugh.)

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At bedtime, we go through a process. Christian and Noah usually have there routine...brushing their teeth, climbing into bed, Ben reads a Bible story, and then tucks them in with a story. Somewhere in there I stop in with Jonah and tell them goodnight (as well as have Jonah say "goodnight"). Lately, Noah has been requesting "I hug Jonah", and it is about enough to melt my heart. Jonah knows exactly what's going on...he leans his head down onto Noah, and Noah gives him a hug around the neck...and then they stay like that for a brief moment. Oh, its so sweet. Tonight, he was hugging him and says, "Oh, I just love you SO much, Jonah." (Goodness, I treasure these moments.)

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He has started the process of potty training. I just put him in underwear the other day and we went with it. Knowing he needed to poop, and he refused to go while he sat on the toilet...I just decided to leave his diaper off and see if he would follow through with letting me know when the time was 'right'. Sure enough, after a little bit, I saw him standing by the front door looking guilty as ever. I asked him "Noah, did you poop?" 

"No."

"Noah, did you go poop?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Over 'dere'. On the floor. Clean it up." (pointing in the direction of his room and the bathroom...and SO sassy!)

"Show me."

"See!"

Sure enough, on the floor in the bathroom. "But you were SO close to the toilet, next we need to go IN it!"

"Oh."

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I said to him today, "Child! You need to go to the bathroom in the potty!!"
He looks at me with his smile, and says, "I not child."
"What? Why not."
"I not CH-ild. I am NOAH. My name is not child. That's a funny name."
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 When discussing colors, this poor boy is just stubborn.
He is becoming very good at coloring in general. He colors in the lines, changes colors for the small differences within the pictures, etc. BUT, when it comes to naming the color, he often doesn't even refer to it by a color name.
When I point to a green object, or crayon and ask him, "What color is this?"
"That is the same color as grass (or a tree, or a frog, or a variety of other green things he can think of)."
"But what color is it?"
"I already told you."
This will go on and on, each color he will have a reference for, but not a name.

Every now and then, he'll play my game and he'll tell me. He's usually right about red. Blue is almost ALWAYS referred to as 'water', and yellow is almost always called pink.
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 One more bathroom related one, since we have been spending ALOT of time in the bathroom...with little progress.
Potty words (not trashy potty words, but literal) are fascinating to Noah and Christian, I don't really get why...well I do, but I don't. I guess its the thrill of the reaction. The only time I say they can say potty related words is while they are going. And if they choose to while they are in their room, just to be funny...they get to go sit on the toilet for a bit since that must mean they have to go.
While Noah was on the toilet the other day, he said something about poop.
I told him that's fine, when he's in the bathroom he can talk about bathroom things... and he should probably go ahead and go poop now.
So then, he said went through EVERY possible thing he could see in the bathroom as options that he can say while on the toilet.
"And I can talk about towels on the toilet.....and I can talk about showers on the toilet...and I can talk about rugs on the toilet...and I can talk about...." and on, and on, and on.
However, on this particular day...the distraction of talking about ALL these things for QUITE some time worked! So whatever it takes, I'm game. 

Conversations [the boys]

Christian:
He had taken a nap, and Noah had not (a very odd day)...so at night time Christian wasn't tired, but went to bed at the same time Noah did all the same. Thirty minutes later, little feet are at the top of the basement stairs (we almost always spend our late evenings in the basement). So Ben, takes him to the bathroom..then he asks if he can lay next to Noah so he's not so lonely. Noah was sound asleep all the way at the side of his bed. Ben says he can, but he can't mess with him to wake him up. As Christian is climbing in to bed, he notices how Noah is laying, "Oh, well that's a nice boy...he made room just for me." He stayed laying with him for another 20 minutes or so, before again coming to the top of the stairs. He wanted Ben to lift him up to bed, so he wouldn't wake up Noah by going up the stairs.

At Christmas, we don't have Santa come to our house. We just don't. But he does go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. And we've talked about him, how he is a nice man, how there are several different Santa's that he may see during Christmas time. I think he knows he's not really "real", but he just can't quite make sense of it. His reaction to Santa (Grandpa) on Christmas was priceless. He was smiling SO big, and then when he got a remote control car (OH MY!!). He thanked and hugged Santa. And afterwards came to me and said very seriously, "I guess I WAS good. I didn't get coal after all." (Between listening to songs and story books about Santa, he figured it out that you get coal if you're not good....which he had also told me prior to Christmas on a particularly naughty day, that it would be alright if he got coal..because you can put coal in fire, and "I like fires.") Later on Christmas Day, he came up to me and said, "You know, Grandpa really is Santa." I asked why he thought that.."because his eyes. Grandpa has really blue eyes, and so did Santa. But it's okay, I know he's not really real, but he's just kinda real."

Noah:
This little boy is making sense of everything lately...and is now verbalizes his information! Last night was my favorite new phrase..."I ruve you, Mama." (I love you Mama.) I've asked before if he can say "I love you" and he just gives his ornery, I'm-only-going-to-say-what-I-want-when-I-want face.

We hear, "Heeyyyy Joo-nah." about a million times every day. He LOVES his baby brother, and will get up in his face to say this. Also, "Jonah sad." "Jonah eat-ing." "Jonah seep-ing (sleeping). Hug Jonah."

He's tricked us lately at bedtime. He will act SO ready for bed, ask for his "mi-lck", get his "bank-ies" on arranged just so. And then 20 minutes later, the door to the bedroom bangs wide open, and his little pitter-patter feet come scurrying to the top of the stairs. "Hmmm? Hmmm?" He makes this kind of noise in his little ornery way, with a big ol' smile on his face. When we go take him back to bed, "Nooo." (but you just have to know how he says it..I've never heard it sound so cute or funny..and its not REALLY cute OR funny) So sometimes I'll rock him, or Ben will lay with him. He is an all out mess with his words he will start saying or fidgeting with our ears, eyes, hands ANYTHING. It is funny for the first five minutes..then its not. The other night when I was rocking him and he was SO loud, I said, "Noah, you have to be quiet. You need to whisper." In a very loud whisper he said, "whisss-per" about 5 times. So then I said, "Just rest your eyes and your mouth. No more talking." So he covered his eyes with his hands. Oh mercy. And lastly, Ben laid with him one night, and he was doing all of the classic stuff. And then he took Ben's hand, "Daddy hand. Hold hands." So they held hands. (Melt my heart.)

"Smooch." I request one from him prior to bed..and he will insist on giving Jonah one first, then me, then Ben, then Christian (if he lets him).

The other night I was looking on my phone for something. He came up to me, tried taking my phone, and said, "Put phone down. Come Mama." It worked...I followed his instructions.

Frequent phrases used by Noah:
"Oh, no. Fall dooooown"
"Dtri-shen did it" "No Dtri-shen NOOOO" "Dop-it Dtri-shen" (Christian did it. No Christian no. Stop it Christian."
"Mine" (he's mastered this..and uses it often to claim HIS stuff. It is frequently said "mines.")
"Ca-er" (color..and he's actual pretty good at coloring)
"Frosty" (He requests Frosty the Snowman to be draw on a piece of paper so he can color him, nearly everytime he gets a piece of paper. And he always gives a gitty laugh when you oblige.)
"Juice in it." (Smarty pants watches when you get him a drink. I will always fill it at least halfway with water...and then he follows it with this phrase.)
"Bam it" (When he is hammering, or banging on something. It usually sounds more like a swear word)
"Gramma's houuu-se" (requested every single time we get in the car to drive somewhere
"Mitch's houuu-se" (the other request when its obvious to him that we are not going to Grandma's house)
"Ahh Mitch" (a random phrase, I'm assuming that means "Where is Mitch?" or "hey I'm thinking about Mitch"...either way, he says it OFTEN)
"Build Legos." (both he and Christian can play with Legos for a long time)
"Nakie Time." (Prior to bath time, he and Christian run around without their clothes on yelling this with huge smiles on their face. And then Noah will pat his little bootie and say, "buns".)
"Tank-u" (Thank you. This is quite possibly the cutest phrase he says...it is so sweet. And especially when he follows it with whom he's speaking to.)

Jonah:
He has discovered his voice..and his sweet little noises are just that. So sweet.


That's it in a nut shell. These boys are not quiet.
They have their moments....but I love them all.