Lots of Funny Shorts

My life is a comedy, at least I'm telling myself that so that I can look back and laugh at more things than to be stressed out. Here's a few few funnies from the Quinn family.

Raise your Feet

Lisette is very flexible, it almost makes me sick.  She likes to show off her flexibility at the table by squeezing her left foot from under the table, through the small space between her belly and the table, and up on top.  Every time we have gathered at the table you will hear at some point "Lisette, foot off the table."  She usually complies.  Moments later "Lisette, foot off."  Most times if we have reached the point of asking her 3 times in a row, that foot will quickly go from under the table, to right on top in just a second flat.  "Lisette, stop... put your foot down... Lisette, no feet on the table... stop it!"  Each time that foot goes down, then right back up.  And so on.  She tests her limits; with her flexibility and her parents all in one go.  Of course sometimes Franklin joins in "Wisette, foot down!"

Gross!

We are a very affectionate family.  We hug and kiss all the time, parents and kids alike.  Stephen and I decided long ago that our kids will grow up knowing that their parents do kiss.  Stephen came home for lunch, a somewhat rare occurrence now, and as he was leaving I stopped him at the door to give him a kiss.  Franklin was standing on the couch and had been looking out with window.  Just as we kiss we hear this very loud, "Gross!!"

He actually outbursts with "Gross!" many times about random things; the cat, his sister, me, the potty, food, his room.  Makes me laugh every time I hear it.  I know he picked that up from me.  And sometimes we might hear him say "oh crap!"

Kiss it

I've been very amazed and happy at how much a kiss can cure anything.  From the non-boo boo's that don't actually hurt but need a kiss, to the fell-down-large-lump-on-skin that must hurt far more than a kiss should cure.  I've also learned that blowing a kiss can heal just as well.  Now this has happened more than how many fingers I have...  Franklin pretends to fall down a lot; such a silly boy that is just like his father.  F: "Mommy, kiss it better."  M: "Did you hurt yourself."  F: "Yeah.  Kiss it better."  M: "Where do you want me to kiss?"  F: "My butt."

Franklin decides multiple times a day that I need a kiss.  I don't mind, usually.  Every so often I lay on the floor, on my stomach.  Usually that isn't wise for anyone near toddlers and preschoolers.  Of course its only fitting that my children turn me into Mommy-playground when I did the same to my mom, especially if I give them that opportunity.  On one occasion, Franklin quickly came, nearly belly flopped on my back, and then, with his face already so close to my bum, proceeds to kiss it, "Mommy, I kiss your butt."  He has found many occasions to kiss it, while I'm doing dishes, or cooking.  Yep, that kid doesn't get the concept of personal space.

Contest

My children are very silly and can be very loud.  Every morning I usually enjoy a contest between them.  They have 3 different contests that occur daily.  At breakfast they usually have a growling contest.  Yes, growling.  It starts simple: "Grrr!" from Franklin.  "Aaarrrr!" from Lisette.  And so on until it is very loud and high.  Yep, so fun.  I was on the phone with one of my sisters once when one of these contests began.  I explain what she's hearing in the background and that its all out of fun for them.  She replies, "How cute."  I respond, "to you." 

My favorite is in the car, the "No!" contest.  Don't misunderstand.  They aren't upset, or mad at each other.  It just starts with Franklin (he's always the one to start these contests) telling Lisette, very kindly, "no".  She smiles and says it back.  Usually this one has the most laughter between them as they get louder.  However, the most common contest in the squealing.  The most disruptive and least fun.  This one often ends with Lisette mad; you can take that to mean she is losing the contest to her brother.

'Fess up

(*disclaimer, TMI in this one) I wish I could say we have 100%, accident free success with potty training Franklin.  However, he's had a very recent and happy breakthrough with going poop in the potty every time when he's already up for the day and in underwear.  Our biggest struggle with him was getting him to tell the difference between passing gas and needing to poop.  He'd constantly announce, "Poop, mommy!" as he releases gas.  Not too fun when in the middle of a store and he says it loudly.  Now he'll say "Mommy, skinky!" when he farts or "Wisette skinky" when she has a bad diaper.  Not long ago I wasn't sure where the stink came from and I asked in general, "who farted?"  Franklin laughs and with his very excited enthusiasm "I farted mommy!" all proud of himself.  At least he doesn't get embarrassed, yet.

Christmas!

Though it hardly feels like winter; wearing shorts, T-shirts and flip flops, and running the ceiling fan in the middle of the day because of the heat, we are so happy to see Christmas lights.  Around 5:30 every evening, it is dark and the lights come on.  If we happen to be out and about, every home we pass with lights is announced, each one as enthusiastic as the next, "Christmas!" by Franklin.  He used to say "Snowman!" to everything Christmas.  Not sure where that came from, but we've been working on it.  I suppose he misses the snow as much as I do though.

Take Nap

Franklin is obsessed with the Wii.  And we don't let him play it as often as you might think, mostly because of his obsession.  It started to become our way of talking him into a nap.  Yes, he is 3 years old, but that boy still shows signs of really needing a nap just about everyday.  So now he says every day, "Mommy, play Wii, take a nap."  I ask him if he wants a nap and he'll say, "Yes, play Wii, take a nap!"  Nope, sorry kid.  Its the other way around.  Of course if he does take a nap, he doesn't forget that we made that deal.  The first words out of his mouth always are "Play Wii!!!"  Sometimes he even pretends to take a nap, but we are not fooled. 

Of course we even started using it as an incentive to leave Grandma's house, or where ever we might be and he doesn't want to leave.  We don't even mention it anymore and he'll still be happy to leave, all the while saying "Go home, play Wii."  Maybe once a week we actually let him play.

I have resorted to letting him watch a show in his room, with the curtains down, white noise low, and in bed.  Sometimes that is the only way I can get him to sleep.  He's like his dad, he can fall asleep watching something.  However, the doesn't work for Lisette.  When we're in the car, she will fight hard (and win) to stay awake if there is a movie on. But once its off, that girl is out.  It doesn't matter for Franklin though.

Mommy's Stress Ball

It's large, bouncy and green.  It helps me stress release at times and can be a lot of fun.  It also happens to be enjoyed by both the kids.  Franklin will bring, or toss, me this big green, bouncy ball and I will proceed to peg him with it.  Lisette will even go get the ball and throw, or hand, it back.  Yes, I toss this ball at my kids, as they laugh with delight and even try to hit me back.  They even try to hit each other with it.  Of course if they pick up any other ball to use they are quickly corrected, hopefully no harm done, and we all enjoy play time with mommy's giant stress ball.

Gabriel's Oboe

This one may not be funny, but it is unusual, though it makes me very happy.  We aren't very successful in taking away Lisette's dependence with her pacifier or animal blanket.  More like our dependence, I suppose.  She can scream and fight like no one's business when we are in the car, without her two items, and she is tired.  However, we turn on The Mission soundtrack, and play "Heaven on Earth" featuring "Gabriel's Oboe" and she instantly calms down.  So we listen to that song, a LOT.  Good thing its such a beautiful piece and I'm obsessed with the oboe. 

I should probably add right here that, thanks to Geoff DeSpain (band director at EAC), I have an oboe in my possession and have begun playing again.  I hope to play with the Symphony Orchestra next semester and I feel that I'm making good progress right now.  I've also began singing again.  Last month I sang at the college for 5 classes, doing a Jazz clinic with the Safford High Jazz Band and the Gila Jazz Connection for the World of Music classes.  This weekend I will be singing at a wedding with Tom Sullivan (my old band director: pianist for Gila Jazz Connection)!

Hope some of these made you laugh! 

Terrible two better not last 2 whole years

So much going on and so many stories to share. I realize that I am failing horribly on the writing blogs multiple times a week thing. And since there is so much, I'm going to shorten as much as I can so that you all can keep up and not get overloaded.

We started painting in the kitchen. Mostly just the cabinets but its a huge improvement. And, no, we're not done. Stephen was gone a lot during October. He had NATE classes and testing, a 4 day long Comfort Adviser training and workshop, and the hunt. He enjoyed all of it, apart from stressing out about his test and we will know the results of it soon. All that time of course left me at home with the kids and Franklin is DEEP into his "terrible twos" now. Two words for you: NOT fun.

I've opened up a new shop on Artfire. I'm very excited about this new shop, there are fewer fees and it takes far less time to upload and create on it. I've also been working hard on updating new photos for everything. Its been a lot of work, but we are serious about my business and enjoy it very much. We hope to get an LLC this coming spring!

Now on to the good stuff everyone wants to hear.

Lisette has been very fun, funny and oh so daring. That girl can get running, without really wanting to. She turns 18 months this month but has been going to nursery already. She can push back when pushed and is an eating machine. We went to Casa when my parents visited me (on Stephen's hunting trip) and my mom was feeding her beans. She wasn't being fed fast enough, so she got her own fork, turned it around and used the handle part to scoop up the beans and feed herself.

My favorite thing Lisette does is putting herself to bed. I was rearranging Franklin's room while he was playing at Grandma's. Lisette was refusing to nap until she was so tired she couldn't fight it anymore. I gave her her giraffe blanket and she climbed onto Franklin's bed and instantly fell asleep. Ever since, at night when she's "put down" to bed, we don't let her out. She plays in her room till she's ready to sleep. She'll fall asleep in the just-crawled-into-bed position. Very funny! I LOVE that she's great with her toddler bed. I made a few adjustments to it myself. Its working out great, looks better and is completely safe.

Franklin has been getting into so much; and most of that is trouble. A wise woman once told me, when Franklin was starting his terrible twos before he was 2, that, "Its not called Terrible Two's because it starts at age 2. No. Its called that because it lasts for 2 years." It has almost been 2 years since that wonderful, angelic, can-do-no-wrong little Franklin disappeared and the wrath of Franklin began. It has been tolerable until now. He throws the most dramatic, emotional fits over something as little as not wearing the right colored bib, or putting on the wrong pajamas, to him calling our home "Grandpa Reeds house" and me correcting him saying, "No, this is our house".

He has been a HUGE bully to Lisette. Good thing she pushes back. He will hit her just because she was in arms reach. He'll forcibly take something from her, or push her off of things. Remember those two words? Not fun! There's been a LOT of crying here. But don't worry, there are a few funny stories of Franklin to share, as well as some good.

I had Franklin screened at Brighter Day Preschool. His non-sense way of talking has caused problems at home with his highly emotional state. Though most of you love and adore Franklinese, I don't, at least not as much as I used to. His screening went well. He ranks average for his age with speech on single words. They did tell me that when Franklin uses sentences he gets ahead of his thinking. That's why he understands me, but I don't understand him. He is very smart though, knows his ABC's very well, and can count to 15 (working on higher numbers) without trouble, though he likes to get ahead of himself counting sometimes too.

Franklin has been a sneaky devil to top it all off. A week before Halloween we made sugar cookies with some friends. It was fun, but I forgot to put those cookies away. Franklin gets up before me, all quiet like, and helped himself to all the ones that were frosted and a few of the not frosted ones. 2 mornings later he saw bags of candy on the table. Tried opening one bag; no success, but lots of evidence that he tried. The other bag had been opened, and wrappers from half of the candy was strewn about the floor.

3 mornings later he rummaged through my junk drawer in the kitchen where I had Smarties hidden for when he did good deeds and hid in the corner of the dinning room to eat them. Would have gone unnoticed if I didn't catch stupid Rizzo trying to eat the plastic wrappers. Nearly a week later he gets banana bread off the counter, pulls the plastic wrapping back and tore off chunks to eat. That last one I thought was his dad being in a hurry to get out the door but Stephen let me know he had nothing to do with it. Needless to say, all the Halloween candy they collected at Trunk or Treat on Saturday is hidden in my closet and daily the child-proof gate is put up in our bedroom doorway. No way is he helping himself to all that with his track record. And because I never saw him actually do any of it, he never got in trouble for it, but I know it was him.

Here's a few pictures of the past month. Enjoy and sorry that this still ended up being long but thanks for sticking with me!

The Fair

Though the days can reach in the 90's and higher, the nights have cooled down.  Fall is in the air at last.  The Graham County Fair was this past weekend (Oct. 7-10).  The Parade was Friday morning, the pictures were in the previous post, and we attended the carnival on Saturday.  We went with Janiel McNeil and her boys.  Curtis is Franklin's best friend.  He has so much fun with him!

Lisette didn't enjoy herself much, until we got her a balloon.  Of course it didn't keep her happy the whole time, and you can't blame her since she missed nap #2 for the day.  I also couldn't resist getting this adorable blue halter dress for Lisette from one of the vendors.  We also enjoyed the kettle corn so much that I have found a recipe, and still perfecting it, to make it at home.  It is very good for any that want it!

Sunday night we visited Great Grandma Reed's home and enjoyed dinner, and lots of catching up!  Sonia and Ethan were visiting also (I was so sad to have missed Tanya and her boys who also had visited over the weekend)!  We had Casa Manana Monday with the whole clan, so much fun to visit!!  I took so many pictures that I decided to make a slide show.  Enjoy!

Monsters

Franklin has reached that point that loves, and is scared of, Monsters.  Daily he tells me he wants to watch "Monster Door" aka Monsters Inc.  Since Monday we have restricted what he watches due to nightmares.  A few nights ago I made a run to the store to pick up a better nightlight, Wall-E and Spirit (non-monster movies with very mild scary images).  He loves to go to bed now with that nightlight, and its a relief to know he won't be crying in his room at night.  I've also stolen an idea from someone else that I heard years ago, before I had kids.  I purchased a Febreeze spray bottle, and am putting a No Monster's type icon on it.  So now in the future if he gets scared I will tell him to use the Monster Killer spray in his room.  He likes it already.

Lisette is very interesting.  She's an amazing angel one second and the next she's screaming murder.  She can fall, hit her head, get a bruise and either there is zero crying, or after 2 minutes she's moved on, and on the other hand she will get so mad and scream so deafeningly loud if she doesn't get to stand in a certain spot, play with something not safe, or get her way for any reason.  Franklin at her age was far more accommodating and easy to please.  She is definitely a beauty though.  This morning, during one of her fits because we wouldn't let her sit at the bottom of a slide that other kids wanted to go down, Stephen tells me, "Imagine what she'll be like when she's 13".  I respond with "You have just ruined my whole day."  I honestly think she won't be quite like this at that age though.  Here is the very clip of that fit just so you have a bigger idea of what she's like.

Some day I will enjoy Karma.


Franklin enjoyed the Graham County Fair Parade very much (the carnival is tonight).  One great thing about small town parades is the candy and various other things they hand out in plenty.  He got an Otter Pop, perfect for the heat, and I didn't have to help him.  He loved the bands, and that has made me proud.  He had to keep watching them, even after they had passed, and all the other kids had moved their attention on to the next thing. 

I will post pictures of the carnival next week.