Brynnie chats: April 2021 edition

Note: this blog post is my 800th post since beginning when Brad and I got married. :)

Can I charge to Hallie?
She likes to run and yell, "Da da da da da DA! CHARGE!"

Kitty cat berries : Cadbury eggs

I'm gonna call Mary Poppins.
She'll come to the rescue, for sure.

The Backson : vaccine
She conflates the Backson, a creature from Winnie the Pooh, with the vaccine.

You don't have to be 'fraid. Brynnie's with you.
To Hallie

Pirates : Vikings in How to Train Your Dragon

Her Bunny bank

Crying after Bill and Barbara left for home
I lost Gran!

I like your baby, Mommy.
Referring to Hallie

I want my jacket off. I want to be FREE!

Worried about a backyard lizard coming for her
Did she go back to her home and close her door??

"Look! I'm being Gran!"

The glasses

Brad wasn't playing horse while Brynn was on his back on the floor.
Your horse is broken.

Erin: You're not cleaning up very well. You're going to lose things this way.
Brynn: Aww... I'm sorry, ma cherie!
Perhaps too much Madeline...

"I'm Princess Brynnie!"

LILY-ISMS: April 2021 edition

!f you have a son, can we name him Samuel Whiskers?
No to both.

Lily to Nana: Nana, you know people get us confused all the time. Because we look so much alike. Because we both have curls. 
This is not accurate, but we love it anyway.

Trumpkin always says, " The messier the mess, the more you have to clean up!"
Trumpkin is very wise.

Lily: What is Quidditch?
Erin: It's a game they play in Harry Potter. We don't have it in real life.
Lily: We should make it.

Giant Rufflebuffin lives in our room. He can switch the fan for Daddy.
We had just read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, thus the giant. Brad had been going around and changing the directions of the ceiling fan blades, thus putting the giant to work on the fans.

Background: when I was a kid and had to eat something I didn't like, I, like most kids, tried to chew it just on my front teeth, in an attempt to avoid tasting it. At some point, I named it the Chipmunk Chew (although, in hindsight, it probably should have been the Beaver Chew), and it stuck. Mom told Claire about it a while back, and she and Lily have put it to good use. Except- Lily can't usually remember what I called it.
Lily: I'm using the Gopher Chew.
Erin: Chipmunk Chew.
Lily: Gopher Chew!
Erin: I named it when I was a child. It's the Chipmunk Chew.
Lily: YOU named the Gopher Chew??

We're pretending we're at our house, but actually we're at church!
These are the kinds of confusing situations that arise after a Year At Home.

I'm sorry I'm a slow-dy cat.

No, Brynnie. The one with the bow is Minnie and the one with none bow is Mickey.

Can I bat at the eggs?
Beat

Playing with a Bo Peep doll from Toy Story (a toy with a sound box), and the doll introduces herself as "Hi, I'm Bo:"
Lily: Bo? We already have a Bo in this family.
We call my sister Bo. Her actual name is Amiee.

Claire: I taught her that.
Lily: I didn't need any taught-ing. I figured it out myself!

After our birthday outing to the cat cafe:
I always DREAMED about seeing real kitty cats, and my dream came true!

Blows out birthday candles
I wish for a cat and a dog and three dragons!

Erin (to Brad who was tickling Brynna): Brad, stop making her squeal.
Lily: Brad T. Boswell!

It's going to be something adoring!
Adoring : Adorable

Claire smells like bug-screen.

Got a scrape
I cracked open a little bit of my body.

I wish Brynnie was a big-year-old.

Helping make lunch

Claire lost tooth
This was A GREAT success!

My work done is here.

"Look, I'm a farmer!"

Around here lately: April 2021 edition

Sabrina Star is going to be an astrophysicist after she's too old to be a hero. Which is 31.
Inspired by Jane's writings in The Penderwicks, Claire has been trying her hand at story writing. This was one of her musings. Apparently, 31 is the age cap for being a hero. Good to know, I guess.

These dresses are so beautiful. And so many people will see us tomorrow!
Referring to their Easter dresses and going to in-person church for the first time in over a year

Brad: I can stay under for FIVE minutes! Under water- he was teasing
*Long pause*
Claire: You'll have to prove that to me.

Claire, very generously offered marshmallows to me, mom, and Amiee, which we thanked her for but let her eat.
She then went upstairs to offer one to Poppy.
Returned and reported:
I didn't have to eat Poppy's for him.

She wanted me to give her a "Bo haircut" so she can be like Amiee.

Look at the tree! It's a beautiful lemon-y green!

Mommy! I think Brynnie's whiffy!
Dirty diaper

My prediction is Hallie's voice is going to be thrillingly beautiful.

I taught her to fingerknit and she was off to the races!

Referring to a gift that was wrapped in several parts
It's a package inside a package inside a package... Matryoshka!

I already zipped it up so that it's secret.
An envelope

Nana invents her curls.
Meaning: Nana curls her hair

Can I touch your costume?
Brad's academic regalia

Text sent to my mom after Claire pulled another tooth:
Pulled another one! Told me to text the Tooth Fairy 😂

I have a hundred dollar piece of paper.
Hundred dollar bill

Erin explains international date line.
Claire thinking about it later:
Mommy, is Hawaii next to the magical line?

Your sparkly fingernails are so glamorous, Mommy!

March 2021: a recap

During March, we were in the thick of school life, in between close-ish together birthdays, and starting to come out of winter. Despite much of life outside our home continuing under pandemic conditions, we were rather busy. I don't really sit down much anymore with all of the humans to keep alive, minds to educate, and house to (continually) return to a semblance of order!

Bedtime prayers and devotions can turn into quite a circus sometimes.

One of our neighbors brought the girls gourmet popsicles from a local popsicle place, which kind of helped kicked off outside weather.

Brynn has become a puzzle fiend!

Lily decided that her animals needed a tea party.

She decided humans were welcome, too.

Trumpkin got dibs on the tea. I did make tea- decaf, for sure.

Lily earned a movie on her behavior chart, which everyone enjoyed. It was not lost on me that there was barely room for me on the couch...

We finally took down the streamers from Claire's birthday and turned them into "dancing ribbons" for a couple of days.

Then we played quite a lot of Mary Poppins.

March was when Claire started doing some of her rest time/independent work outside in the sun. Here, her setup included listening to The Penderwicks and stitching away on her little animals.

For Claire's birthday, Amiee gave her a solo trip to Boone! We met her halfway in Winston-Salem for the trade off. The rest of the children assumed they could stowaway and join the fun. Right. Like anyone in this crew could accomplish a successful stowaway situation.

THEY'RE ENTIRELY TOO LOUD FOR THAT.

Trumpkin, Lily's stuffed cat, is always a very active member of our family. One of my greatest daily joys is finding all the scenarios and vignettes that Lily creates for Trumpkin. And yes, I will weep bitter tears when Trumpkin is no longer such an active participant in our daily lives. We don't need to talk about it.

Lily rescued some packing styrofoam and some discarded elastic from the trash and fashioned this very serviceable sun visor for T.

I was bending my head over some stitching (how Ma Ingalls does THAT sound??) and didn't realize until I sat back up that Lily had tucked Trumpkin here to keep me company.

After I read the newsletter from some missionaries we follow, Lily asked if she could have it. A while later, I found Trumpkin catching up on the news.

Again, lots of time together (which seems appropriate as we rang in our one-year anniversary of pandemic life):

Dancing

Got this picture of Lily eating while holding Hallie, which reminded me of this picture...

...of Claire eating while holding Lily! Ha! Isn't that great?

This is circa 2016. One of the original #sistersshotsonsundays.

Lily requested these cutie-cute piggy buns.

Holding hands

"Look, Mommy! I made an 'L' for Lily!"

I'm continuing my goal of getting in more pictures with my children (#proofofmom):

WHEW I look tired here!

We were both holding our babies in this picture, by the way.

Brynn saw me taking the picture before this one and needed to get in on it.

The Boswell family appreciation for coffee (cold coffee, in this case) starts early.

Please note: no babies ingested any coffee in the taking of this picture or otherwise.

And, of course, everybody loves Brad:

Matchy purple

And, perhaps most importantly, I got these stair-steppish pictures of the girls in their matryoshka dresses that Mom got them for Christmas. Can you even handle it? I can't.

Look how happy Hallie is!

March signaled the end of our Year at Home and ushered in hope for the beginnings of a return to normal. I'm so glad I had this crew to keep me busy and laughing!*

*Maybe a little too busy at times and sometimes crying instead of laughing. It's a win-some-lose-some situation.