Logan: Buuuurp! Wow, I need to go to the burping doctors.

Notice no “excuse me” and we’ve been working hard on it too, but I admit I was off my game this time.

Logan again: Kora needs to go to the hiccupping doctors and I need to go to the yawning doctors too.

Tired Mom Tésa: I need to go to the tired doctors.

Kora: Yeah, Mommy. You are always tired You should go to the sleepy doctors.

Tired Mom Tésa: I know I’m always tired.

Sigh.

Kora: Well, Mommy. If you wouldn’t stay up all night watching tv and if you would not get up and exercise in the morning before I get up and if you would take a nap in the afternoon like me and Logan, you wouldn’t be tired!

Tired Mom Tésa: You’re right. I do need to get to bed earlier. I don’t stay up all night watching tv (well, not all night), but going to bed earlier is a great idea and a nap sounds good too. Thank you.

Kora: I know Mommy, I will tell you what time you should go to bed and get up so you won’t be tired. You should go to bed at 4 at night and get up at 10 in the morning and then have a nap too. I think if you do that, you won’t be sleepy any more.

I love Kora’s plan but I’d probably be tired from getting too much sleep! Is that even possible, I’ll have to give her idea a try and get back to you. If you don’t hear from me in a couple of days, don’t worry I’ll just be following Doctor Kora’s orders.

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The other day Kora was looking at one of our wedding pictures and this conversation occurred:

Kora: Wow, Mommy. You were a beautiful princess when you got wedding-ed.

Tired Mom Tésa: Thank you. I think you mean a beautiful bride when I got married.

Kora: Yep. That’s what I said.

Pause while I was washing dishes and she was looking at the picture.

Kora: Mommy, the next time you get wedding-ed can you make sure I’m there? I know you got married before I was born-ed, but next time can you do it again so I can see how beautiful you are.

Awww!

Tired Mom Tésa: Well, honey most people usually only have one wedding and usually it’s before they have kids. So Mommy and Daddy got married once and we won’t do it again.

Pause while Kora gives me the cutest, saddest puppy complete with downturned mouth and tears in her eyes.

Tired Mom Tésa: Welllll (think, think think!)…One day you can get married and have a wedding all of your own! Won’t that be fun?!

Whew! Her face went from hound-dog to Christmas morning.

Kora: I can’t wait to be a beautiful dride (bride) and get wedding-ed!

Tired Mom Tésa: I know, won’t that be fun?! Oh, and I think you mean bride and married.

Kora: Yep, that’s what I said. Won’t I be beautiful?

Said complete with a few dainty spins across the kitchen.

Tired Mom Tésa: You are beautiful and you will be a gorgeous bride. Who do you think you’d marry?

Kora: Ummm…Oh, I know! I would marry my best friend Logan.

Note: She couldn’t have been more adorable while saying this, she posed like she was in a movie or something too – hands clasped by her face, big smile, head to the side – similar to this:

Where does she learn this stuff?

Tired Mom Tésa: Welll…actually people don’t marry their brothers and sisters. Who else would you pick?

Kora: Umm..I think I would pick my best friend Logan again.

And off she went, having had enough of this conversation she jumped her way through the dining room to play with her best friend Logan.

After a bit of this game. they stopped and sat in smiling silence for a minute when Kora said, “Mommy, do you know what I love best?”

My first thought was she was going to say Mommy. Conceited, I know, but we are in a Mommy stage with both kids and sometimes it really hurts Tired Dad Dave’s feelings. They love him and ask about him all the time when he is not here, but sometimes there are instances where Logan sees him in the morning and he runs away and cries.  I think it’s more out of routine than favorites, simply because I’m home all day while he is at work, they are used to me doing things for/with them more often.

That’s why, when I thought Kora was going to say she loved Mommy best, I panicked for half-a-second. I didn’t want Tired Dad Dave’s feelings to get hurt after he was just smiling at the cute little game they were playing. Then I thought to myself, “Well, she said ‘what’ so maybe she will name a thing and everyone will be happy.”

While I was thinking all this, Kora asked again, “Mommy, do you know what I love best?”

“What honey?” I dared to answer, holding my breath.

“Myself.”

Kora and Logan have been cracking me up lately. Here’s a few conversations we’ve had in the couple of days:

• The other day while driving in the car Logan sneezed and then told me, “Mommy, I bless you’d on my coat.”
• Kora informed me, “Wow! That girl is 16 years old! Mommy, that’s older than you!”
• Kora calls granola bars – gorilla bars.
• Yesterday morning Kora told me about the dream she had the previous night, “I dreamt I was a ballerina, dancing all around with a tattoo on.” (She meant tutu.)

And the Crazy Kid Conversation of the Month Award goes to…Logan:

After picking him up from school the other day, we started to head home and Kora asked him what he had for snack.

“Korwah, are you finished with your turtle pierogi?”

Smiles.

I said, “Noooo. Why?” and looked at him through the rear view mirror. He was holding up one finger. I asked if he needed a Kleenex.

He said, “No. I put it back in my nose.”

Ugh!

The other day we were at an indoor jungle gym and found out another little girl about 7 years-old named Cora was there too. My Kora was thrilled. She’s pretty outgoing so she went right over to her and said, “Hi, I’m Kora too.” As kids do, they instantly became best friends and spent the rest of the time playing together. 

Logan tried to play with them but was feeling a little left out. He eventually started crying and was really pouting. I pulled him up on my lap and asked him what was wrong.

He said, “I want to play with another Logan. There’s not another Logan here.” And cried as if his heart was broken.

I quickly explained to him that he will definitely run into another Logan sometime, everywhere we go I here someone calling out the name Logan.

We wanted our kids to have unique and different names, but nothing difficult to spell or pronounce. I thought I was on top of the baby name books and online lists. However, we discovered after we picked Logan’s name that it was 6th most popular boys’ name at the time. I have no idea how we missed that.

 When we chose Kora’s name we wanted something old-fashioned and original. Since going to this jungle gym this is the second Cora we have run into.

Guess we weren’t imaginative as as we thought!

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While at breakfast the other day the kids had this exchange:

“Korwah, you’re so boo-tiful.”

“What? My shirt is beautiful?”

“No, you are boo-tiful.”

“My wings are beautiful?” She wasn’t wearing any wings, but there was a pair on the ground under the table.

Frustrated noise from Logan.

“Uhh! No. I wasn’t talking about you. I said I’m boo-tiful!”

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The other day Kora was coloring and Logan was playing with the little Little Tykes basketball hoop when this adorable conversation took place>

Kora: “Logan, you like playing basketball. You might grow up to be a baseball-soccer man.”

Logan: “Yeah. Maybe, Korwah.”

Kora: “I don’t want to be a baseball-soccer man. I want to be an artist.”

Logan: “Me too, Korwah. I be an artist too.”

Kora: “Logan, if you want to be an artist you have to do a great job coloring.”

Logan: “Okay, Korwah. I do good job coloring like you.”

Both kids call chapstick – chipstick.
Their combination of chapstick and lipstick, I guess

They both call skunks – dunks.

Kora says there are icebergs in her glass when she means ice cubes.

Logan often points out his favorite restaurant (and he does it a bit too much for my liking), “Look, Mickey Donalds.”

They both call mashed potatoes – mashed tomatoes.

And Kora thinks the Dollar Tree is the Money Store.
Don’t I wish.

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When I was working on my PTA newsletter, I found some seasonal fun facts, I thought I’d share.

5 Fun Facts about Candy Corn

• October 30th is National Candy Corn Day.
• Candy corn has 3.57 calories per kernel.
• More than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced this year. That equates to nearly 9 billion pieces — enough to circle the moon nearly four times if laid end-to-end.
• A cup of candy corn has fewer calories than a cup of raisins.
• Candy corn was originally only available from March to November.

I’m intrigued by the raisins statement. I’m going to have to investigate that one myself!

Kora keeps telling Logan, “Good eyezin’” whenever he spots something she didn’t. I’m pretty sure she means “Good eyes,” which I say sometimes and admit is a weird expression if you think about it.

The other day the kids laughed hysterically and told me the car was crooked, when we slightly bumped a curb making a turn.

Anytime Kora sees a flying insect she calls it a “bug-squito.”

Logan still calls crocodiles and alligators “croc-o-gators.”

Anyway, today we were at the indoor jungle gym at our local rec center where I work out. I don’t know what I would do without this jungle gym in the winter, it’s a wonderful way for the kids to burn off energy in those cold, snowy months. Anyway, the slides are made of plastic and after sliding down one today Kora stood up, held out her hand and yelled “I’ve been shot!”

Again.

Not happy about this and wanting to get to the bottom of it, I immediately called her over and asked her to repeat herself. She said, “I been shocked!” After having her repeat it ten more times just to confirm what she was saying, I sat back in relief.

The contrast of the plastic slides and the dryness of the gym air creates enormous amounts of static electricity. Kora’s hair is always standing on end and you can hear the slide “shocking” the kids as they hop off. I have no idea know why the static electricity doesn’t normally bother them, it always sounds painful. They almost never notice it, even when the air is constantly crackling as each of them climb down off the slide.

This time the slide must have gotten Kora good, so she yelled out that she had been “shocked.” And after thinking about it, I realized that snapping yourself with a rubber band does feel a bit like a static shock. I’m so glad to know that I can take the gun reference and concern off the table.

This was a good mom lesson for me: I should actually try listening to my kids sometimes, it might cause a lot less stress if I actually heard what they were saying.

We a had a similar incident recently where I wasn’t listening well and Kora was saying “diving” and I thought she was saying “dying.” Between that and the “shot” story I was getting myself tied up in knots about the things she was picking up at preschool. Thankfully Dave was there and heard her correctly. So it’s official, I’ve got to order myself some new ears.

Kora did say something cute and much more toddler-like yesterday. She was upset with Logan for not sharing and she was getting frustrated. She was frowning and her hands were clenched and I could see the wheels in her head turning, looking for the right thing to say at that moment. This is what she came up with:

“Ohhhh. My chinny, chin, chin!”
(imagine the perfect foot stomp for emphasis)

I think it was her equivalent to swearing.

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Just wanted to show of a few photos today too. It was slightly warmer today. 60 degrees when we left the house this morning. I was thrilled because it meant the kids could wear their vests. Vest season is always so short that we had to take advantage of it.

Kora’s came from her Nonna (Grandma) who stumbled across it at Cracker Barrel of all places. And she found an unbelievable deal on it. Logan’s came from consignment shopping, I think it’s one of the cutest outfits he has. I find it so difficult to find cute boys’ clothes.

They both love their vests and thought that coats without sleeves were the greatest invention ever. They wore them to the gym today and made sure all of the daycare ladies took note and complimented them.