Put that on the blog!

That's what Joel has been telling me over and over lately, so I guess I'd better do it, before all this stuff falls out of my head. In Joel's own words, "Whenever something is funny or cool, you need to put that on the blog." This comes up even with fairly mundane things that I would never include, for fear of boring all 3 of my faithful readers to death. For example, I pointed out one of Joel's baby carrots he was munching on and said, "Look at that one, Joel, now that is a fat baby carrot." He laughed and said, "Fat baby carrot?! You should put that on the blog!"


Joel actually told a pretty funny joke the other night, although I guess it was more of an impression. We were all munching on popsicles for a treat, and Joel and I were joking around about how the popsicles make you feel cold, but being near the fireplace or wearing socks makes you feel hot. (Joel is always taking off his socks and saying, "I was hot") Silas was listening in too, and he piped up and said, "Silas, hot!" We chuckled and then Joel imitated Silas's intonation and said, "Joel, cold!" (Silas refers to himself in 3rd person, typical for a two-year-old, but Joel has long since grown out of that phase) Hey, for a 3-year-old, that is pretty sophisticated humor. I laughed a lot, anyway, and so did the boys.

Here's Silas with his kitty that he now carries almost everywhere. (This was a gift from Great Grandma Leo from a while back) He calls her meow-meow and she goes with him to the gym, the mall, the park, on car rides, etc.


Joel loves knock-knock jokes, but he doesn't understand what makes them funny. He enjoys the ones Jorie and I tell, where the words actually make a new and unexpected phrase, but he also enjoys completely nonsensical ones. Example of a Joel knock-knock joke:
Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Candle.
Candle who?
Candle refrigerator! Haha-haha-ha!

My favorite knock knock joke: (I think it's from South Park?)
Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting co--
MOOOOOOO! (Trust me, it's hilarious out loud)

A really cute thing I have noticed about Silas is that he is extremely polite. (When he's not having a tantrum, that is) He will say "thank-you" for anything you give him, even if it is intangible, like information or even a diaper change. After a diaper change, he says, "Thank you, Mommy!" And often he'll find me and ask me, "Jo-jo!?" (translation: "Where's Joel?") I'll say, "Joel is in the kitchen." Silas will respond, "Thank-you, Daddy!"

Cedar Rapids held an Easter Egg hunt at the mall and the boys had a blast. This was taken just before the doors opened.

Gotta brag about Joel's genius here for a minute, so please excuse me for going into bragging-Dad mode. The other night, Joel and I were working on puzzles, which is one of Joel's favorite new activities. These are little 35-piece puzzles which we can assemble quickly, so Joel likes to do a few before bedtime most nights. He likes to "race" me where we each work on a puzzle and see who is faster. Even if I work my fastest, he is often about 80% done when I finish. Anyway, the other night, I thought I'd show him how we could make the puzzle a lot harder. I disassembled it and turned over all the pieces, so we could not see the picture. I started explaining to Joel how we could solve it by finding the corners and the edges and figuring out which pieces fit together. While I was talking, I was finding some pieces that fit together. After a minute or so, I had about eight pieces connected, in several clumps, and I looked over at Joel to see what he was doing. I was shocked to see a perfect rectangle of 6 pieces (all middle pieces - no edges) that he had assembled without looking at the pictures. I'm still not sure how he did that.

Some other random quotes:

Joel recently asked this question: "Why don't Grandma and Grandpa have a baby?"

I was asking Silas about his doctor visit, and I asked him if the doctor listened to his tummy with a stethoscope. Joel suddenly piped up, "I'm listening to my tummy with a golden graham!" Sure enough, he was holding a golden graham against his tummy with one finger.

The other night, Jorie was telling Joel about how the shamrock plants (she got one somewhere around St. Patrick's day) close up at night and she said, "They know how to go to sleep." Joel replied, "They go to sleep without any stories?" Awww, poor plants, no bedtime stories for them.

Our family on Easter morning. We enjoyed an excellent brunch at Grandma Rhoda's after the morning church service.