Mary...

Today Mac pulled a picture of Aunt Erin and Uncle Evan off the shelf. The following conversation ensued:

Mac: (showing me the photo) What's that?

Me: Mac! You know who that is. You tell me.

Mac: Aunt Erin and Uncle Evan! (sounds like: Aunt Air and Uncle Ev-on)

Me: That's right. That's the day they got married.

(Long silence)

Mac: (quietly, to himself?)...had a little lamb.

Me: Did you just said "had a little lamb"?
Mac: (With a sweet and slightly embarrassed grin) Uh-huh.

Get it? Mary had a little lamb?? This made me laugh so hard. But I guess he doesn't know what it means to get married. The only reference he has is the song. I think he knew it wasn't right--that there must be another use for the word. It's so cute to seem him trying to figure things out!

Traffic from Mac's Point of View and Some Fun Pics

Mac is a chatterbox during our car rides. He is watching everything--mostly looking for ambulances and bulldozers (but happy to see any emergency vehicle or construction equipment)--and speaking every thought that crosses his mind. This evening he brought a smile my face during the following conversation after we saw a motorcycle pass us and speed out of sight.

Mac: There's a motorcycle!!!! He's going FAST!!

Me: Yes, he's going too fast. It's not safe to go that fast, so he might get in trouble with a policeman.

Mac: He's gonna get spanking!!

Me: No, Mac grown-ups don't get spankings. They get worse things that spankings when they get in trouble. He might have to pay lots of money, or sometimes grown ups who get in lots of trouble have to go to jail.

Mac was quiet, apparently considering this information. I don't think it's ever occurred to him that grown-ups can get in trouble. I'm pretty sure he has no idea what jail is. The car ride continued normally, until another car passed us (this one was not speeding at all) and I hear from the back seat, "He's gonna be in TROUBLE!"

For the rest of the ride, any car that passed us (even if it was pulling up beside us at a red light), Mac exclaimed that that person would be in TROUBLE. Funny.

Got some cute pictures of Arden the other day...

Not a lot new in Arden's world. She's still a happy girl.

Loves her fingers. She's five months old now. 5 MONTHS!?!??! Wow.

And she rolls over now! So cute!

We went to a birthday party today. The girls were supposed to dress as princesses and the boys as knights. We had planned to be out of town this weekend but changed our plans at the last moment. So I whipped up a costume for Mac just before the party. He loved it--though he has no idea what a knight actually is. (And, he doesn't look like he's loving it in these pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it.)

When we arrived at the party, one of the other moms said, "Oh! A little crusader!" It's obvious, but I hadn't thought of it! I just put the red cross on his chest because I knew I'd seen it. I'd forgotten where I'd seen it. Is that a little un-PC of me? To dress my child as a crusader? (Wasn't there even a children's crusade? Did I dream that?) Is that offensive to people? It's not the brightest point of church history, to be sure. Hmm...oh well. It was done. I was thinking KNIGHT...not a certain kind of knight. He had a great time regardless.

Anderson Life

A few "day in the life of Kelley" pics...and two funny stories:

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Yesterday before church, Brad sat down on the couch and looked at me seriously while I was feeding Arden. I think he even sighed.

"Well, babe," he said, "You're going to think I'm the worst husband ever."

Hmmm...I'm thinking. What could this be? Usually, when Brad prefaces something this way, something he did that was kind of spacey follows: I left the sunroof open in the car and it rained last night; I forgot to put the clothes in the dryer and now they smell bad; I didn't see that the milk I picked up on my way home expires tomorrow. Stuff like that. Not SERIOUSLY bad husband stuff...but annoyances nonetheless.

"I just completely forgot that today is Mother's Day. I'm so sorry."

Huh? But today ISN'T Mother's Day.

"Brad--today's not Mother's Day. Mother's Day is in May--I think it's the second Sunday in May? Usually? You know--everyone gets mad at you for having youth group on Mother's Day? And then Father's Day is the next month?"

Brad paused. Considered this. "That's so weird. You're right, it is in May, isn't it? But all the facebook status updates were saying things about Mother's day. So I thought I had it wrong."

He pulled out his blackberry and clicked on facebook. "So strange. A bunch of people are saying 'Happy Mother's Day' on here...oh...wait...they're all my friends from Wales...It must be Mother's Day in the UK today? Yeeeaaaaahhhhh. Okay."

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Mac was very excited about going to the grocery store today to get more cinnamon. So I let him hold the new (big) jar. While he was sitting in the truck at the front of the card. Like this:

(These truck carts save my life every week, by the way.)

We got the cinnamon pretty early in the trip. Mac was quiet and content driving his truck. I thought all was well. As I walked down an aisle for my last item, I noticed that the floor seemed dusty under my feet...unusual for Publix. Then, somewhere in my mind, I was had the thought that Publix really smelled nice today...

In an instant, it all came together. The silence from Mac. The feeling that the floor was dusty under my feet. The wonderful smell. My huge mistake.

Mac opened the sealed cinnamon.

I gazed down the aisle we had just traveled. A trail of dusty cinnamon, leading right to our cart. I walked to the front of the cart to survey the damage. Mac had PILES of cinnamon on his lap. Piles.

He gave me his trademark wide-eyed look of confusion mixed with some fear that he may be in trouble. A heart-melting look, actually.

Publix, of course was so sweet about the whole thing. I apologized profusely and offered to help clean the mess. Oops.

Daddy go to work!

It's funny to gain some insight into what Mac thinks Brad does when he goes to work. A few days ago, we had the following conversation as Mac was perched on the chair by the window, watching Brad get in the car to go to work (and waving furiously)...

Mac: Bye Daddy! Bye-bye Daddy!

(pause)

Daddy go to work!

Me: That's right Mac. Daddy's going to work.

Mac: Daddy go work see big kids!

Me: Well, Mac, sometimes when Daddy goes to work he sees the big kids. But a lot of times he has to work in the office on the computer and use the phone.

Mac: (seems to consider this) Daddy work at church!

Me: Yes, Daddy works at church.

Mac: (pauses again...seems to be weighing this) Daddy play toys at work?

It makes sense I guess--since most of Mac's church experience is in the nursery, and he knows Brad works at the church, he therefore assumes that Brad goes most days to the church and plays in the nursery. It's just a funny mental picture to me--Brad and his youth staff, playing with nursery toys all day.

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Another, unrelated, cute thing: Mac kept looking at me tonight and saying, "Guess what, mom!" I would say, "What?" And he would just say, "Guess what!" again. On and on it went. It's funny how he picks up patterns in our speech and repeats them, without even knowing what they mean. He also lately says, "Oh my goodness" and "let's see".

More Macisms (He's on a roll)

(Fun picture from a month ago when it snowed)

1. We ran into Piggly Wiggly yesterday for a couple of items. The girl at check-out gave Mac a balloon (he was thrilled). He cannot, for the life of him, say the words "Piggly Wiggly". So when we ask where he got the balloon, he replies, "Piggle-wiggle-wiggle-wiggle". SOOO cute. I should record it.

2. This morning, I had Arden on the floor on her belly and was laying on the floor talking to her and playing with Mac. Mac was being his rough-and-tumble-boy self, and nearly rolled over Arden. I put my arms out to keep him from crushing Arden, and said, "Mac! You have to be careful! Arden is a little baby and you cannot roll on top of her. It would hurt her very badly."

Mac stopped and looked at me. Then he replied, "Get new one store!"

I wasn't sure I heard him right. "Get a new one a the store? Get a new what?"

Mac looked directly at me, and with a look of complete seriousness said, "Get new baby Arden at the store."

Wow. Guess it's time to teach that not everything (indeed--the most important things!) cannot be bought at the store!

3. Tonight, when Mac was praying before bed, he began his prayer "God, thank you for TV. And thank you for cookies."

Well then.

Today's Macisms

Mac: (While eating a cookie shaped like a train and playing with it--a party favor from Samuel's party) wards (moves it forward)...backwards (moves it backwards)...wards ...backwards...wards...backwards.

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Me: (watching Mac sit on a balloon--another favor from Samuel's party) Mac, it's okay to sit on the balloon, but realize that it might pop. It might scare you.

Mac: Balloon might pop!

(Some time passes. Mac 'pretends' to bite my leg.)

Me: (very seriously) Do NOT bite. If you bite me you will be in big trouble.

Mac: Yes ma'am...bite mama, mama pop!

Isn't this a cool shot of the new bridge in Charleston? We went last week to visit a friend, and though the day was cloudless with blue skies, there was a beautiful, mysterious fog hanging over the Harbor. I do regret not taking this with the panoramic setting on my camera!

Taking Matters Into His Own Hands

BOY!

Don't be alarmed...
It's marker. We let Mac play with markers today and he was in heaven. So were his feet...his hands...his cheeks...and his ear lobes. The flamingo had to lick it all away. (That's code for--the pink washcloth had to scrub it. But he's much, much happier to let a pink flamingo lick it than for the washcloth to scrub it, so.)

The only reason he was allowed to play with them was because I couldn't find a highlighter and used a yellow marker instead to highlight all our medical expenses in 2009 for tax purposes. So he got to play with the rest--otherwise there is NO WAY I could have helped Brad with our taxes during toddler waking hours.

(Speaking of which, our medical expenses were INSANE, but at least they passed a certain threshold where we get more on our tax return. I was certain that we'd be $5.00 too short!)

Other random updates on our boy:

Mac refers to anything in the past as "yesterday" (sounds like "yet-der-d-aye")--even if it happened this morning.

Me: Mac, what did we do today?
Mac: Go park yesterday! (still the standard first answer, even if we have not visited the park in days.)

Me: No, Mac! We didn't go to the park! What did we do today?

Mac: See people working on roof! (We have had at least 3 houses in the neighborhood have new roofs put on recently. Mac LOVES to see people working on the roof.)

Me: Mac, what did we do today?

Mac: See bulldozer yesterday!

And on it goes.

Another funny thing Mac has been talking about this week is the penguin at the zoo. We took a quick trip to the zoo Wednesday, just looking at a few of the indoor exhibits since it was cold. For the first time, Mac was not afraid of the penguins! Yay! But as we were looking closely at a few of them swimming (right at Mac's eye level), one of the penguins pooped. He will NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT! Every day since, several times a day, out of the blue, I hear, "The penguin pooped a little bit!" Mac is such a BOY!

Speaking of which, I saw a cute quote the other day:

"Boy: A noise with dirt on it."

True of our house now...probably true for the next--um?--16 years? I'm okay with that!