Overheard

ME: Andrew, one of the most important skills you can develop in life is the ability to be a good listener.
ANDREW: ...
ME: Andrew.
ANDREW: Huh?

Overheard

SOPHIE: Can you take the tag off mine dress?
GINGER: Yes.
SOPHIE: Say 'Yes, your Highness.'

Left to her own devices

Sophie thought today would be a good day to dump all of the laundry room bins on the floor.

Caught in the act.

Whatever. Check out that tummy.

Overheard

ANDREW (to his friend): There are lots of hot chicks in my class but none of them are my girlfriend.

GINGER and ME (in the other room): What?!

A few seconds later we heard Ethan talking about how he has a girlfriend. Hmmm. Time to have a talk?

UPDATE: On the way home from our friends' house, we had a talk about calling girls "hot chicks," and Ethan got silent for a second before asking, "Does that mean you heard everything?" Yes. It does.

Overheard

ANDREW: Do you know why it's good to eat ice cream when you're sick? Because you get all the taste and the flavor and then when you throw up you don't keep any of the sugar.

Ecuador

The trip home took 41 hours. But it was worth it. Photos here.

Yes, I have a wonderful wife.

Overheard

ME: Are you guys excited that tomorrow is a holiday?
EMMA: What holiday is it?
ME: Presidents' Day.
ETHAN: Except I'm not celebrating George Washington.
ME: Why not?
ETHAN: His pictures. He looks creepy in them.

Commando

I took Sophie to the Minute Clinic this morning. While she was sitting on the bench in the examination room she fell backwards and I saw for a brief second that underneath her princess dress she was, ahem, naked.

"Please don't tinkle in here," I thought to myself. "And please stop wiggling around."

Ten minutes later we made it out of the waiting room without incident or accident, fortunately. When I found out it would be another ten-minute wait for her prescriptions to be ready, I told the pharmacist we'd come back later.

We rushed back home and made it in time. If anyone finds her old diaper, let us know. Sophie won't tell me where it's hiding.

Overheard

Sophie stayed home from church today because of her pink eye and cold.

SOPHIE: Where did the boys go?
ME: They went to church.
SOPHIE: Can I go mess up their fort?

fyi

"Cuy is what we know as guinea pig and it is one of the special dishes of Ecuador. Cuy serves as a good source of animal protein for people living in the hilly regions of Ecuador."

Watching Elmo on the iphone

Overheard

Outside the mattress store:

ETHAN: Why do people put signs up that say "ultimate mattress" but then you take it home and it's just like any ordinary mattress?

To the barricades!

Ethan didn't want anyone looking at him during dinner tonight.

Non sequitur

Andrew is reading a biography of George Washington in his class at school.  For his homework last night, he had to invent several quiz questions about what they're reading, and then provide answers to the questions.  To get things started, the teacher provided a sample question for the kids to answer about spies during the Revolutionary War. 

Here is Andrew's first question and answer:

Q: What do you think the Tories should have been called?

A: Meerkats.

Did you answer correctly?  When I asked Andrew why Tories should have been called meerkats, he said it's because meerkats eat nothing but insects.  Alrighty then.

Overheard

Ethan, on basketball:

ME: Ethan, good game today.  You got to control the ball a lot!
ETHAN: I don't like it when I have the ball.
ME: Why not?
ETHAN: Because when you get the ball then everyone runs toward you.
ME: You like to be on defense better, then?
ETHAN: I like offense better.
ME: But you said you don't like to touch the ball!
ETHAN: I like offense better because all you have to do is run around and do this. (HE PROCEEDS TO STICK HIS HANDS STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR.)