leaning tower of milk

Benjamin, in all of his efforts to be helpful, was putting a container of strawberries away in the fridge. Somehow, this resulted in a gallon of milk coming out of the fridge. He carried the milk to the living room and told us that he couldn't get it back in the fridge. Jeremy told him to put the strawberries under the milk, meaning the shelf under the milk. Ben went back to the fridge.
After a few grunts and groans, he came trudging back into the living room with the milk.
"Jer," he said, "if I put the milk on the strawberries, it makes a tower and falls down."

I laughed until I cried. I hope everyone else finds this as funny as I did!

holding a grudge

A few weeks ago Jeremy had some of the guys over to play poker. Ben always gets to play with the Jokers. At one point in the evening he was throwing the jokers back on to the poker table. Uncle Andrew folded those cards in half so that they would know which cards they were and they wouldn't get mixed in with the rest. As you can imagine, Benjamin was NOT happy and yelled at Uncle Andrew for breaking his cards.
For the rest of the weekend he would tell me about how he was mad at Uncle Andrew. A few days later (as we were getting ready for a funeral) Benjamin walked into the room and said, "I'm so mad at Uncle Andrew." Being that I am in a class about child discipline and communicating with your child, I decided to engage Ben in his feelings about his uncle.
"Why are you mad at Uncle Andrew?" I asked.
Ben's reply, "I'm really mad at him because he ripped my cards."
I knew that Andrew was home so I asked if he would like to call Uncle Andrew and discuss it. I really was interested in what he would tell his uncle. After a few minutes of telling Andrew how unhappy he was, he concluded the conversation with "I hate you, Uncle Andrew." That prompted my crisis mode and I quickly explained that we don't hate anyone - especially Uncle Andrew - and that was never an okay thing to say. We talked about it for a while longer and the issue settled. He hasn't talked about it since.
Tonight we read a devotion about how God heals our hurts - inside and out. I asked him if anything made him sad. He thought about it for a second and said, "I got really mad at Andrew when he tried to rip my cards."
Apparently, he hasn't given it up. And YES, Andrew, I have told him he needs to forgive you. I am NOT encouraging his anger!

Hadley's developing personality

I know that I have talked before about Hadley picking on people. The older she gets the "worse" it gets. She likes to get a reaction and once she knows she's going to get one, she repeats whatever it is. She's also developing a great sense of comedic timing.
Today she woke up from her nap and Jeremy and I were sitting together watching TV. I carried her over and sat back down and she snuggled up in my lap. We talked a little bit and she realized Jer was there. She leaned in toward him, gave him a sweet smile, and smacked him right in the forehead. It was such a clean hit it sounded like she was clapping. Neither one of us knew what to do, but because we laughed she kept smacking.
After she brushed her teeth tonight, I told her to go tell Daddy she had pretty hair (I'd pulled her hair up in a pony). She walked over, smiled at him, and - you guessed it - smacked him in the forehead! This time she followed up with a big hug!

Straying from the norm

I know that I usually use my blog to showcase the funny things that go on in the Burnett house. Truly, there are days when things happen that I really don't think anyone else would believe. I suppose that's true in any house.
Today, however, in light of recent events, I am simply overcome with gratefulness for my family.
When I was a kid my dad coached baseball. I spent a great deal of time in and out of the Badger High School Varsity Baseball dugout. I remember spending long hours playing baseball in my yard with my dad and some of the players when they'd come over. Thus, I was introduced to Cody Betts. Fast forward like a million years, and I'm following the progress to bring Cody home to spend his last days with his family. How crazy is that. My Facebook lights up every 5 minutes with posts of people updating his status or donating money or creating events.
I cannot begin to fathom the pain of this family. While I have faced a number of events throughout my life, I have never been through anything close to this. I am grateful that my children and husband are healthy. I am grateful that I am healthy. It truly gives me pause to reflect on the reasons why things happen to some and not others. Selfishly, I wish I had answers - for my own peace of mind. Things like this make me crave more time with my family, my children, and my husband. I want to build walls of protection around them to keep all of the bad out. I have to trust my life, the lives of my children, my husband, and my family to our Creator. I know that he has a plan, a purpose, and love. I don't have to understand, but I guess that can make faith difficult; because we don't understand.
As I ramble, I realize I'm only posing more questions and leaving less answers. With that, I'm done.

learning the rules early

A few weeks ago, Jeremy and I bought a new TV - our attempt to upgrade our technology. Jeremy gave Benjamin a somewhat stern lecture about the TV remote only belonging to Daddy. Benjamin has since taken this talk VERY seriously.
That day he brought me the remote and said, "Mom, this is Dad's remote. Only guys can touch it not girls."
Most days, I'm not even allowed to use it to turn up the television! If I move it, I get in trouble. If I ask for it I get a lecture, "No, Mom, that's Dad's. It goes here" and he puts it away!
So much for gender equality in this house!

You're my hero

I must start with a confession. This is an old story, but nothing stuck out in my mind as "blogable" today. Although, sometimes that's a good thing!

We were sitting at dinner one day and Jeremy did something great for Ben. Ben is into us keeping him safe. For those of you who followed early facebook statuses, we have an on going battle with squirrels and Ben has now decided that we need to keep him safe. So when Jeremy promises protection, Ben things it's wonderful.
On this day, Jeremy said, "I'm I a superhero?"
Ben's response: "Yeah, your just like Super Grover!"

reigniting my blog with a "dinger" of a story

At the request of my sister, I have decided to become a faithful blogger once again. Although life is crazy, this is the easiest way for me to catalog the funny things that happen in our house. Most of these things you wouldn't believe unless you were here.
This story has a number of punch lines, so make sure you read to the end!

We were sitting at dinner having a grand time and eating tacos. Ben said, "I have to go pee." Jeremy replied, "Go ahead."
Exasperated, Ben climbed off of his chair and said, "Ugh, my dinger hates me."
Jeremy and I proceeded to laugh almost falling off of our chairs. Ben ran half way to the bathroom and turned around and asked Jeremy to come sit with him.
Jeremy answered, "I don't want the wrath of your dinger on me."
Ben's response: "Jer, I won't put my dinger on you."
While I continued to laugh uncontrollably, Ben looked at Jeremy and said, "Dad, Mom's a creepy lady."

Aaaaah! Life in the Burnett house!