The Talcott Family Blog: April 2009

I thought that this weeks post I would share with you some language issues that we have been having with the little boys lately.

So, it is 8:00 am. and I am sitting at my desk at work and Chuck just calls me and tells me that Alemu just told him that I let them drive my car last night after prayer meeting in the church parking lot. Oops! I confessed and said "yes" that I did. He goes on to tell me that Alemu is trying to convince him that I said that he can drive all the time in the church parking lot. Every time they go to the church. Which for our family that is many times a week. I then had to clarify that I didn't say that but what I did say was that they can only drive in the church parking lot and not on the street until they are 16 yrs. old. Once Alemu was reminded what I said he said "yes, that is what I said to you dad". You see he confuses the words "only" and "every". It takes a while but we all finally figure out what is trying to be communicated.

Here is another example. When they want the television turned on they ask if someone will "open" the TV. I have tried to explain many times that you "open" a door and you turn "on" a TV. Now we just chuckle to ourselves and open the TV.

Israel loves tomatoes! I mean really loves tomatoes. Most kids would not even try bruchetta, this kid devours it. He loves anything made from tomatoes. Marinara sauce, pizza sauce and especially ketchup! One of his favorite snacks is ketchup on a slice of bread. He told Chuck yesterday that "this is berry good"!!! Autumn suggested that we get him his very own bottle of ketchup for his birthday. Sad thing is...he would love it! As long as it is new. Not new...not good.

Both the boys have been given "used" bikes from people in our church. Nice bikes. But they have this idea stuck in their head that because they are not new than they are not good? I am not sure where they got this idea that a new bike is going to be so much better than the ones that they have, but they are saving their money for new bikes. So far they each have $4 dollars. It will take them a while to save enough and probably by then they will need a new bike because they are growing like weeds. We have deliberately tried to not buy them many new things because we didn't want to spoil them right off the bat. But nobody needs to teach children the desire to want.

Last weekend we had our friends Jeff & Amanda visitng from Hood River, Oregon. Jeff loves to goof around. I told Chuck that he should bring home the adult size gorilla costume that we have at the church and we will have a little fun with it. So that evening it is getting dusk and we have Alex get the costume on and just start walking around (like a gorilla) on the patio out back. Israel first sees the gorilla and trys his hardest to explain to us what he just saw. He is even acting out how the gorilla was walking. Alemu at first didn't see it and was trying to tell Israel that it was probably a dog. Israel insisted that he knows what he saw and he saw a gorilla! At this point we are all laughing. Eventually, Alemu saw the gorilla as well and we all played along that it must have escaped from the San Diego Zoo. This went on for about 30 mins. before we decided that it needed to end (they were truely getting concerned). So we had Alex come in the front door and sit at the kitchen table pretending to eat a banana. When they glanced over and noticed the gorilla in the house they freaked out! We quickly had Alex take the head off and they looked confused. Israel then wanted to put the costume on (and he did) but Alemu wouldn't even touch the costume. The next morning they woke up and said that they wanted to play gorilla again. We explained that their new cousins Morgan and Shelby were coming for a visit that day and when it gets dark we will play gorilla again. Oh my gosh!!!! This was the best night ever. The boys were so excited to be a part of the joke. Shelby (age 12) and Morgan (age 14) fell for the joke hook, line and sinker. Shelby wanted us to call animal control and Morgan wanted us to get the only gun we owned ( a bb gun) and shoot it, or at least scare it away. The best part of the night was when Shelby called her dad and told him that there was a gorilla in Aunt Ann and Uncle Chuck's backyard. She insisted that she knows what she saw, and she saw with her own two eyes a gorilla. After literally an hour of this I told Chuck we need to end this, I need to put the little boys to bed. Both Shleby and Morgan were good sports about it but I know that they are planning to get us back next visit. Now everytime, the little boys know that someone is coming over they ask " do they know gorilla?" They are ready to play gorilla on our next victims. They are true Talcott's.

This picture was taken at the Annual Kiwanis Easter Breakfast which has been a family tradition for the past few years. The little boys were not real sure about this giant rabbit but they hung in there. I am not sure how much they understood about Easter but they said that they liked it and wanted to play more egg hunt games! Saturday night Autumn was trying to explain to them that the Easter Bunny was going to come to our house while we were sleeping and leave them a surprise. They weren't to sure about that. Israel actually slept at the foot of his bed so he could keep an eye on the bedroom door at all times. He wanted to know how the Easter Bunny was going to get into the house. We said we didn't know but that it was magic. He suggested that maybe he was going to break down the sliding glass door and then fix it with magic when he left. All in all it was a really fun day and the weather in San Diego was perfect to be outside.