Real vs. Unreal

I was THIS close to writing "choice spirit" with a permanent marker on the foreheads of these kids of mine last week just to remind me how precious these little ones are. Believe me, I needed the reminder. (Stories to come later. I haven't stopped twitching yet from last week...People really have more than three kids?)

update: On Sunday while Brandon was on the stand, they were pretty good. Monday= good. Tuesday= good. Today... could be better, but kind of good. I started behavior charts this week and I think they have helped.

All in all these kids are unreal!! In a good way.
They really are good kids.

I love that these three are becoming better and better friends. They play all together now and you can tell the energy level boosted now that Haley is out of school for Christmas break.

Why do we say cheese for a picture?
Dylan loves to yell it at the camera.

Maleia: Close your eyes daddy? B closes his eyes.
Tada!!!! Here you go daddy!
B: looks at the nothingness that Maleia gave to him.
What have we here?
Maleia: It's your favorites.
You like BYU and Guitars Hero. Doncha?
B: Of course.
Maleia: Sorry I couldn't give you mommy. She was real.

Haley: She just came over to the computer and asked what I was doing. So you are writing about Maleia? Can you write about me?
Mom: Sure, but I can't think of any stories about you right now. Do you remember any?
Haley: I don't remember any stories about me, Mom. I'll think of one and get to you about it.

(a few seconds later... long enough to write the dialogue above. She "got to me about it." :) I am writing as she is talking.)

Haley: Okay mom, here's a story: Once upon a time. There were two ladybugs.

Mom: Is this a story about you?
Haley: No.

Mom: Can you tell me a story about you?
Haley: ug! Okay. Once upon a time, I saw two ladybugs. They tried to talk to me.
Mom: Is this a real story?
Haley: No, it's a pretend story, but it's about me. Anyway, they tried to talk to me, but they couldn't. And so I let one crawl up my hand. It tickled me. So I got a jar and I put my ladybugs in it. Then I went inside. The ladybugs were sad. So I put them in my room instead. And I went to sleep and they were happy and they went to sleep too. The End.
(Her friend Abby just sent her a story that she wrote about ladybugs, so ladybugs were fresh on her mind.)
Mom: That was great! Do you know any true stories about you?
Haley: Well, I'll just make sure I do this in the summer, okay? That will make it real.

Dylan:
1. Walks around with the numerous magic wands we have and whacks everyone and everything with it and yells, "BOO!"
(Like Bibbity-bobbity-BOO!)

2. Throws things on the ground from his highchair or over the baby gate or out of his crib or out the window of our car!! and says, "Uh-oh that?" While pointing and looking at it. (I still have no idea what he threw out our car when Maleia rolled down the window on the way to the store.)

3. Calls me dada. still. But he is such a momma's boy. ???
I don't get it?

4. If he sees ANYTHING remotely edible, he'll say, "Mmmmm mmmm mmmm" until you give some to him.

5. If he has something in his mouth that he is not supposed to have I will say "Spit that out. That's yucky, Dylan" and he will respond with "ckkkkkkk that ckkkkk."

6. He soooo wants to play with the hanging balls on our Christmas tree. He will go right up to it, squat and yell, "WOW!!! Ball? Oooooo! Ball?" and point at all the "balls" on the tree. Poor guy. There are nothing but round things on the tree this year. ***Tonight at FHE when we were cutting snowflakes and he was left to wander, he broke three hanging balls and ate two hanging chocolate balls from our tree. (Chocolate balls are a Hungarian tradition BTW.) He was sooo good at not touching!! eh, he's one.

7. If he sees or hears a telephone, he will yell, "Hey-woah? HEY-WOAH!? HEY-WOAH!!!!" Until it is given to him or you distract him with something else.

8. His dance is hilarious! He does these deep squats and then just "twirls" aka: walks in a circle while waddling. All the while singing "wa wa wa wa." (la la la la)

9. Does all the "normal" Chapman tricks. Touchdown, waves and yells bye-bye, peek a boo by himself, high 5s, clap, tackles anyone already laying on the ground, hugs and kisses to everyone, (including strangers. Maybe this is why Haley thinks kissing her friends is okay? oops) opening every cupboard that we have, dumping every toy bin that we have, and unrolling every TP roll that we have. He also does this funny "gasp thing" that sounds more like someone being strangled or gasping for breath whenever he sees something he likes or wants. Which is every few seconds.

10. If he sees a camera he yells, "cheese!"

11. When it is time to pray he is the first to "fold" his arms and when we are done he yells, "Uh ma!" (Amen)

Dylan's words:
up, all done, that, dada, duck, wow, woah, no, yeth, uh-oh, bye-bye, bottle, hi, num-num, hello, bath, cheese, nigh-night, and of course, ball!

says "nana" - for banana
says "boo" - for book
says "bo-woah" - for doggie
(Hungarian dogs apparently say bow wow)
says "neigh thhhhhh" (slobbery thhhh)- for a horse (thanks B for teaching him this. When he sees one he slobbers all over you.)
says " baaaa" (complete with the bleating sound) - for a sheep
says "mow" (sounding like now) in a high pitched voice - for a cat
says "moooooow" (like you are 'mow'ing a yard) - for a cow
says "waoh" - for a lion or dinosoar
(any other moving creature either makes a kitty noise or a sheep noise.)

When he sees a car, truck, motorcycle, tram, etc., he pierces his lips together, vibrates them, and makes a car sound. Even when he plays with anything that has wheels he does this.
I LOVE THIS ONE!!!

And the Quote of the Day goes to Maleia:
Noticing the Red Robin seasoning on the table before dinner: "Rebember Daddy? We went to Rib Robin Lasterday?" (yes, in question form.)

Dylan says: "I just looove this pose that the girls think is so cute and I think it's great that they want to do this every time all three of us are in a picture. Seriously guys. This is getting old."