Where is Tinkerbell?

For the last few days, Roxie has been wearing her white dress with the fairy wings and has been insisting that she is Tinkerbell, the sugarplum fairy princess.

Today, she was playing with "Uncle Map" and started calling for help on behalf of some of her toy ponies. I suggested that maybe Tinkerbell the sugarplum fairy princess could help. Roxie explained to me: "No, her can't come. Her has a 'pointment. Her at the dentist."

Jessica, master namer

Jessica comes up with the best names for things. Here are a few off the top of my head. I will try to add to this list as I think of more.

Popo/Daddydoodle/Doodle/Deedle/Diddle - me

Mommy Moomoo - Amy

Baby Bashoo - Phoebe

Baby Dingus/Dingsasu/Gingus/Gingasu - Roxie

Wiggerpip - a small house or hut.

It's your birthday!

At some point, the girls devised a rule whereby I was only allowed to play guitar if it was my birthday. A common scene in our house is me sitting on the couch trying to play guitar, and either Phoebe or Roxie coming up, muting my strings, and telling me: "No daddy! It's not your birthday."

Occasionally (but definitely more often than once a year) Phoebe will tell me: "You can play your guitar daddy. It's your birthday!"

Today, I told her I wanted to play guitar and asked her when it would be my birthday again. She answered that it was my birthday today and tomorrow.

The stink is on the other lala

The other day I turned the whole stinked lala thing around on Roxie.

Me: Why did you stink my lala the other time while I was 'leeping?

Roxie: I was mad at you because you took my lala.

Me: So you stinked my lala?

Roxie: Yes.

Me: How did you stink it?

Roxie: I sat on it and I made a skunk smell.

The Big Boom

Phoebe has been interested in science lately. I was explaining that no one knew what happened before the big bang. At that point, she became even more animated than she already was:

"Oooh! Oooh! I know what happened! At the bottom of everything there was a big grumbling. And then it cracked, and pieces falled off. Then it exploded! And that was the big boom."

Apples don't fall far from the tree

The girls and I went out for pizza in the city with Matt, Dan, Erin, and her brother Sean. After we had waited for a while the waitress appeared and apologized that the there had been a snafu with the kids' pizza and that it would be a while longer still.

Phoebe's reaction was like an inborn reflex: "Are we going to get it for free?"

Roxie's favorite song

A few weeks ago, the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home from someplace and I was carrying them into their beds. Roxie woke up while I was carrying her and demanded that I sing her a song.

I started up: "Rockabye baby, on the treetop..." Apparently this wasn't to her liking. "No, no! My other favorite song."

Not knowing what she wanted, I tried something I had heard her singing to herself several times in the past:

One little girl
Jumping on a log
Her falled down and broke her arm

She fell asleep and I put her in bed.

What do Phoebe and Mommy have in common?

A few days ago Jessica, Amy and I were talking about similarities between the kids. Jessica had a flash of insight: "I know something that Phoebe and Mommy have in common -- they both have pointy heads."

You stinked my lala!

One morning Roxie woke up very mad at me: "I don't like you daddy! I like mommy better." I asked what I had done to deserve this. Apparently in her dream I had "stinked her lala". I tried to argue that she couldn't hold me accountable for what happened in her dreams, but she would have none of it.

Today, months later, I asked her about it and she was a bit more reasonable:

Me: Did anyone ever stink your lala?

Roxie: Daddy stinked my lala last time while I was 'leeping.

Me: Was that my fault or was that just a dream?

Roxie: It was just a bad dream.

Roxie's Spell

A couple of days ago I was cooking the girls breakfast, when suddenly Roxie danced in waving a wand. While continuing to dance, she chanted "abra-fadabra-Mabra-Deeabra! Schhhhhhh!!!" and then, quite pleased with herself, informed me "I turned you into a daddy with one more toe."

Pajamas of the Mist

After Will and Nancy's wedding, I came back and stayed with the kids while Amy went to the after-party at the Hampton. Phoebe and Roxie were amped from the excitement of the day and continued to play even after Jessica had fallen asleep.


Although awake, they were both quite delirious from exhaustion. Toward the end of the night, Phoebe began rambling semi-coherently about something called "the pajamas of the mist". Here are some of the bits and pieces I overheard:

"Roxie you've got to get the pajamas of the mist"

"They're pajamas, and they're in the mist"

After a while it came out that they were "in a crypt", and for a short time they became "the pajamas of the misty crypt". I tried to learn more about them, but was told very sternly that we couldn't get to them "because it's LOCKED."

I'll post again if more details on these fascinating pajamas become available.

Welcome to our blog!

Amy and I have decided to set up a blog to document stories about our kids that may otherwise be lost forever. More to come soon.