The Rivalry Begins and British Frustration with Elmo

Two quick cute stories from our most recent adventures:

1. Background- Ian is very competitive, and Nicky, though very sweet, is still the little princess and likes to get her way. Nicky has learned and is still practicing 3 Christmas songs for her preschool Christmas presentation. We all know them by heart now, too. :) She also sings a song about a firetruck that isn't too exciting, which we're sure she learned at her evangelical preschool as well, (lyrics, "I love the firetruck" repeat three times, ended with "of the Lord!"). We're still wondering where this sacred fire station is. Ian loves the firetruck song because he sings along with her, mostly the end part "of the Lord!" Are our children blasphemous? We're working on it, but anyway, on the way back from a trip the other day, Nicky was belting out her chorus of Christmas songs for the 9th time. Ian asked her, then told her, then yelled for her to sing the firetruck song. Nicky, the little princess, did not want to sing the firetruck song again and continued another round of her Christmas songs. Ian then pulled out his "momma's boy" card, and cutely turned towards Claudia, and in his super-cute-little-boy voice mumbled, "Mama, gibberish gibberish Nicky no gibberish gibberish, FIRETRUCK peese [please]." Ah, yes, let the rivalry begin. Nicky didn't care either way and just kept singing.

2. Last night Ian struggled to sleep well and so Claudia brought him to sleep with us. He sometimes mumbles a bit in his sleep. He is also picking up a bunch of vocabulary from the Thomas the Train show, including little British phrases, his favorite of which expresses frustration, saying, "Bother, [name of someone]!" He does this to just about all his toys, and occasionally us. However, he had a cross over of t.v. shows during his sleep, mumbling, "Bother, Elmo!" He has just recently seen a few episodes of Elmo, and loves him, but apparently in his sleep Elmo got on his bad side. Oh, well. Hope you're not finishing this entry by saying, "Bother, Glenn!" (Ian does say "Bother, daddy!" quite a lot, but hey, I'm changing a lot of his diapers now). Take care, Merry Christmas everybody!