- Out of the mouth of babes: VOL III -

As Scarlett was awkwardly learning to crawl:
"Scarwett! You be careful and never do 'dat again or you will break all your bones next time!"


While driving by a corn field:
"'Dis corn is kinda getting big a wittle!"

After [accidentally] pulling the towel rack off the bathroom wall and creating a not-small hole in the drywall:
"I fink Daddy will be mad a wittle bit..."


While purchasing a baby doll at Goodwill with Grammy:
Harper: "What's 'dat baby's name?"
Cashier: "Well, you can name it whatever you like! Do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?"
Harper [without hesitation]: "'Dis baby's a girl. See, 'dis baby has a 'gina!"
Cashier: .....


After observing a combine parked in a corn field:
"Only some rows of 'da corn are cut down but maybe the workers are tired da-day so 'dey stopped already."

While looking around the house for all her garage sale steals: 
"Mom, where's all 'da stuff we buyed in 'da garage stores?"


After an exceptionally sassy morning:
Me: "I don't like your attitude today."
Harper: "I don't wike YOUR attitude, eiver!"


A couple weeks into our house project, after Brian had been going straight from work to the property for several evenings in a row: 
"Daddy shouldn't go do 'da proper-dee ANY. MORE."

After daycare one evening:
"Mommy, ____ picked a booger out of her nose at school and wiped it on my shirt, 'den when I see'd 'da booger I had to wash my hands 'cause 'dat is SO YUCKY, isn't it Mommy?! I don't knowwww why ____ did 'dat, but I telled her it was so dis-gusten!"


While holding/cuddling Scarlett one morning:  
"I'm such a nice sister 'da she!"


As Scarlett was trying to play with some of her baby dolls:
"Sissy! No! Mommy will get Jude in her tummy for you and 'den you can play wif' Jude!"

While driving to Eckert's [AKA driving farther and farther into the middle of nowhere]:
"Over there is corn ...and over there is beans ...and OVER THERE IS STRAWBERRIES! But sometimes strawberries grow in 'da field and sometimes 'dey grow on trees, Mommy."
 

As we were creeping down a narrow aisle and slowly passing a woman at Wal-Mart [loudly]:
"Mommy! 'DAT woman is OLD! But WHY 'dat old woman have all 'dat junk in she's cart?"


While gathering our things at daycare next to a set of infant twins in Scarlett's class: 
"Mommy, can we have some of 'dose twins at our house?"

While out for an afternoon walk, blinded by the sun:
"'Da clouds better come out and fix 'dat sun, shouldn't 'dey Mom? It's a rullllllly sunny day da-day!"


While playing doctor:
"Hold Sissy rully still so I can wisten to her heart wif' my telescope."

- Eckert's [not] Fun Farm -

Smack dab in the middle of a 93-degree day with a heat index of ~158 degrees, we decided to make the trek to Eckert's with our friends for an afternoon full of [what was supposed to be] FALL fun!

However! Harper was in the sulkiest of sulky moods while traipsing around the fun farm; a total a sucker of a friend for little Owen who was excited to play with her! She was insisting that I hold her or that she ride in the stroller [and of course I only packed the single stroller for Scarlett knowing it would be too hot to carry her all day in the Catbirdbaby]. She usually isn't bothered by the heat, so I have no idea what was wrong with her...

...but luckily she snapped out of it and cheered up once we boarded the wagon for apple picking!

Apples here, apples there, and apples EVERYWHERE! Scarlett enjoyed her first time picking apples!

Harper thought it was the coolest thing ever that she could taste test the apples out in the orchard, and Scarlett thought it was the coolest thing ever that she could pluck a blade of grass and successfully transfer it to her lips before her mean momma caught a glimpse and rushed over to finger sweep her mouth.

After we rode the wagon back and paid for our bag of apples, we sat in the front seat of the car for a few lot of minutes with the A/C pumping full blast so all three of us could cool off and Scarlett could nurse. Both of the kids were zonked out a few minutes into the drive home and continued their naps for another 2! full! hours! after made it back home! HOLY SUMMER in mid-September! Me no likey.

Then! Post-nap smiles from everyone...

...and a freshly picked and washed snack for everyone!

Happy hot-as-Hades fall, y'all!

- Garage Storing/Sailing -

Last weekend was our subdivision-wide garage sale -- AKA a subdivision-sized chocolate brownie with three juicy cherries on top for the 3-year-old packrat that lives under my roof. 

Brian generously topped off Harper's [already coin-filled] purse with three $1 bills to spend on "anything you want!" before he dashed off to work out at our new property...

...leaving me as the solo fun-sucking parent to answer to her continuous and exhilarated requests of, "MOMMYYYY! Ohhhh, come wook! Wet's get 'dis!"

When it was all said and done, she came home with a junky doll house [complete with a full family of dolls, furniture, and accessories], a gaudy Halloween/jack-o-lantern frame, and a collection of crap from the garage of a retired teacher [you know, stickers and paper pads and dice and dry-erase boards from one of those "4 items/$1 type of tubs].

Annnnnnd in light of saving my marriage, I managed to talk her down from a $10 ceramic lawn ornament, a $1 used sock monkey for Scarlett [previous property of the neighbor's dog], and a $5 candle-holding/singing Mrs. Claus [?] juuuuust to name a few. #packratforeverandever #idigress

She was so thrilled to show Brian her loot the next morning and immediately asked him if he/we could take her shopping at "some more garage stores sometime soon!" :)