September 2 – I found a game on my computer that Daniel wanted to play on his computer. I was left speechless when on his own he just copied the URL and IM’ed it to himself.

September 5 – Was in the car with Daniel and told him we were headed north. I asked him which way was east, west, and south and he got them all correct. I think he learned that from a Disney Junior game.

September 5 – At a restaurant at lunch there was a little Italian boy probably just shy of two that Daniel interacted with. Tonight I was having him tell his Papa about it. I asked if he knew what language the boy was speaking. Daniel chuckled at me like I was so silly. “He was speaking English but you can’t understand him because he’s a baby.”

September 5 – The bedtime routine took a little longer than usual tonight because Daniel needed a full scientific explanation of lightning.

September 6 – “When we go up to God, will we still have tickle spots?”

September 6 – Just had a typical conversation with Daniel while watching PBS on TV –
Daniel: “Do you think Word World has games?”
Me: “I’m sure they do. Do you want me to look that up on your computer?”
Daniel: “Look it up on your computer and send it to me.”
Me: “E-mail or IM?”
Daniel: “Send it to my IM.””

September 8 – “I dreamed there was a parade but you wouldn’t let me join it. You told me they just needed to do it themselves. Then I drank my sippy cup and said, ‘Yuck. What is in this?’ When we got home we found sand in it. And that was all my dream.”

September 11 – Daniel was pointing out that his hair is long and bothering him. I told him he had an appointment to get it cut soon. “I’ll tell you one thing, is that her velcro itches.”

September 11 – Performing for the Walgreens security camera.

>> Watch in high quality at YouTube

September 12 – Making “Pa’s soup”

September 13 – Daniel wanted to know the meaning of the word “flash” on his phone. He did a pretty good job of writing it.

September 14 – Daniel was breaking up vegetables to put them in the crock pot and starts singing “I’ve been working on the railroad.”

September 14 – “I will tell you all the creatures in the ocean. This is a dolphin. This is a whale. And this is undefined.”

September 14 – “Give me a great big tickle. Put an exclamation point at the end of it.”

September 16 – Pointing to switches on the hood of the stove: “I know which is the fan and which is the light. I have a sequence in my brain.”

September 16 – “Let’s play dodge ball. Now how you play dodge ball is you have to avoid the ball.”

September 17 – Daniel is always getting these temporary tattoos out of vending machines and we don’t know what to do with them. We finally found a good place.

September 18 – Identifying the Sweetgum tree by the seed pod found in the Target parking lot.

September 18 – Looking at the picture of today’s groundhog sighting: “He’s cute. I just want to tickle him.”

September 19 – Sporting a new much needed haircut.

September 19 – Ordered food at the counter at a restaurant and they hand us the little order number sign for our table with 7 on it. Daniel shows his geeky side by saying, “That says 7. That’s like Windows 7.”

September 21 – “If you know your party’s extention you may dial it at any time.”

September 22 – Daniel asked if when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on their escape from Egypt if they could drink from the walls of water on the sides if they were thirsty.

September 23 – Friday Daniel planted one of the seed keys from one of our ash trees in the front yard. This morning he pops out of bed and runs to the front door. “I’m going to see if my tree has growed [sic]. I prayed about it.” Right after that, speaking of our neighbor he says, “Mr Denny has big trees. That’s because he is old.”

September 23 – Daniel was reading the word “gnat” and thought it should be pronounced “gat”. I explained the silent g and he says, “So it’s just there for decoration?”

September 24 – “Don’t love on me. LOVE on me! Love on me for ages.”

September 24 – The three of us sang Row Row Row Your Boat in round and nailed it!

September 29 – At Toys’R’Us

August 1 – Daniel: “Where’s Pa?” Me: “He went to work.” Daniel: “Why’d you make him do that?”

August 2 – At Whole Food Market

August 2 – Faith of a black bean seed? Daniel has a bowl of macaroni and dried black beans to use to create objets d’art. He and Poppy planted some black beans in a mug and put them in the kitchen window. Since these were black beans meant for consumption, Poppy and I had assumed they were of a variety that wouldn’t reproduce. Daniel, on the other hand, had continuing faith. He watered and kept check on his beans and notified me this morning that they had sprouted.

August 3 – Daniel wanted Papa to pretend to be various bugs, which he did. As an ant he said that he liked to eat sugar. Daniel: “But sugar isn’t good for you because it doesn’t have any minerals in it.” Later in this conversation Daniel was saying that he liked to eat bugs (not sure how it got there). “Bugs taste like meat and juice. Lady bugs taste like licorice.”

August 7 – “When can we go to Sodor?” (The Island of Sodor is where Thomas the Train Engine lives.)

August 7 – Trying out the desks

August 7 – Pretending to read a book: “And this says ‘Girls, he’s and womans'” Papa: “Which one are you?” Daniel: “I’m a he. I guess I need to read all this mess.”

August 8 – Demonstrating a funny noise when holding one side of his nose: “I think there’s a cricket in there.”

August 8 – Got on ear muffs to see Ice Age at the theater

August 10 – I was singing Mahna Mahna. Daniel: “Why do you like to sing that song?” Me: “Because I think it’s funny.” Daniel: “Don’t sing it, but it is quite funny.”

August 11 – Playing with his leapfrog explorer before going to the market.

August 12 – ‎Olympic training‎

August 12 – Studying the clouds: “That one looks like God walking around.”‎

August 13 – ‎Playing with a water sprayer on a pretty day

August 13 – Drying his hands on my shirt: “You’re a towel, right?”‎

August 14 – Typing and clicking on Papa’s laptop: “Whoopsiedaisy! What’s all this mess?”‎

August 17 – Wanting the camera I keep in my purse: “Where is that thing you used to take pictures at the park one time? It’s a phone that doesn’t make calls.”

August 18 – ‎The lady working in the deli at Publix was already very amused with my conversational four-year-old. As she was having trouble getting the tamper proof wrapping off a bottle top she said her hands didn’t work as well as they once did. She really cracked up when Daniel said with empathy, “I know how it is.”

August 20 – ‎Last time we were at Kroger, Daniel asked the self checkout attendant for stickers. This is one of the ones she gave him. On the way home he asked me what this and that said, which of course I couldn’t read from the driver’s seat, so I had him spell them for me. He spells “integrity”, “honesty”, and “respect”. After each I would say the word and define it for him. Then he spells “noisulcnl”. I can’t imagine what this word could be. He spells it two more times. I have no idea. Only later do I look at the sticker and not only realize it was “inclusion” backwards, but what lead him to spell it backwards in the first place.

August 20 – ‎Daniel: “I don’t want to be smart.” Me: “What do you want to be?” Daniel: “Boring.”

August 22 – Daniel had lunch with a view of the ducks.

August 22 – ‎Me: “What kind of girl are you going to marry?” Daniel: “She will be sweet and nice. She will be funny. She should know how to cook. She should know how to do everything.”

August 23 – Daniel to me while standing on his head: “Did you do this when you were a little boy?”

August 23 – “Mama, can we go back to Target any time we want?”

August 23 – “Can you just hang out with me?”

August 24 – ‎Daniel is descended from several wood workers. He demonstrated that part of him this morning when he assembled a screw driver, loaded it with an allen bit, removed 8 screws and disassembled his step stool.‎

August 24 – ‎Me: “What’s wrong?” Daniel: “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s talk about it tomorrow.” Me: “OK Scarlett”

August 25 – ‎Poppy reassembled Daniel’s stool yesterday but Daniel is very quickly took it apart again. “Poppy left that bit in there because he knows I like to make messes.”

August 25 – Daniel interrupted me while I was singing to tell me something. Then he said, “OK. You can resume that song.”

August 27 – ‎Playing in a weeping willow‎

August 27 – ‎Coming home with the erector set‎. Hoping this will cure the need to disassemble his stool.

August 27 – At Toy’s R Us Daniel was playing sweetly at the train table with a barely walking baby girl. The girl’s mother asked him if he had a little sister. “No, but I have a Mimi. She’s a grown up, but she’s really little.”

August 28 – Daniel just used the Walgreens automated line to order two prescription refills. He will take good care of his elderly parents.

August 28 – ‎My poor baby with his runny nose and low grade fever. He’s sitting on the erector set bucket taking apart things I’m making.‎

August 29 – ‎My funny little snotty nosed Scarlett. Me: “Can you blow out that side of your nose?” Daniel: “No! I’ll do it tomorrow.”

August 29 – ‎My pitiful sick boy taking it easy on the couch.

‎‎‎

July 2 – Daniel: “A long time ago I lost a balloon. I thought it was funny” Me: “I’m so glad you thought it was funny. I thought it was sad.” Daniel: “The reason I thought it was funny is I laughed so hard it made me cry.”

July 3 – Daniel hiding under the covers on our bed: “I went that way. I’m not here. Pa said that.”

July 3 – Tried to talk Daniel into watching some Gilliagan’s Island. “No, I don’t want to. Maybe when I’m 40…  or 7 or 5 or 6.”

July 6 – Daniel playing restaurant: “”They have the wrong kind of corn. It’s not organic. It’s French.”

July 6 – “I learned how to speak in Spanish. See I can count in Spanish. Cinco, mayo, twenty, tango!!”

July 8 – Me: “King David wrote a lot of songs and they have a lot of them in the Bible.” Daniel: “Did he write Jesus Loves Me?”

July 9 – “You! Tickle Pa rather than me.”

July 10 – Daniel was pushing a mini cart at Kroger. I was in a near run behind him. He says, “Why do you keep grabbing things?”

July 10 – Today at lunch: “The peas are yummier than you can imagine.”

July 11 – “Do you never get tired of loving on me?”

July 13 – At Starbucks

July 16 – I love Daniel’s mixed metaphors, especially since I’ve been known to mix a few myself. This morning’s was so cute: “hot as a whistle”.

July 18 – Daniel can always ask some pretty interesting questions, but he was in particularly high form tonight, leaving me mentally exhausted. Topics included naming my maternal lineage as far as I could, how did Adam and Eve live without a refrigerator, do bad people like pretty things in nature, why does Poppy not have Facebook, and are men sad that they can’t have babies. There were so many others I just can’t remember. Somewhere in it he had us pray that God help him not pick at his lips.

July 19 – Daniel had his annual checkup. When we got back from the doctor he promptly called everyone he knew and told them his blood pressure was zero.

July 23 – “When Jesus was a baby was God a grown up everywhere else?”

July 25 – Yesterday Daniel used his gift card from Aunt Christina to buy a light sabre. Despite all of Poppy’s efforts to convince him otherwise, he’s still calling it a light “saver”. My son hasn’t really used it as a sabre, but it has so far been a cell phone, remote control, microphone, vacuum cleaner, weed eater and a giant pen.

July 26 – at Harris Teeter

July 27 – “When I was a lima bean, was all I could say was ‘waa waa’?”

July 28 – Daniel to Papa: “You be the princess. I’m the king.”

July 31 – Daniel talking about his secret spy wrist communicator: “I can talk to people through their TVs. I talk into this and that weather thing pops up on their TV and I talk about the weather.”