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Parenting website Quotes

Memorable humorous quotes from our kids 2009-2012

I looked through my Facebook timeline and thought I would paste here for posterity a number of humorous quotes from the kids I have been posting to Facebook. I also include today’s photo of the kids.

 

Ryan (7), Jacob (4), and Allie (2) with Duke basketball players Tyler Thornton and Nolan Smith (now with the Portland Trail Blazers) at the home opener of the #1 ranked Duke women’s soccer team.
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4 year-old Jacob, “I saw the women’s bathroom at church and it is way nicer than the men’s bathroom.” 7-year-old Ryan, “Maybe that’s because women didn’t used to have rights.” 
Andy Rowell
Amy Steinfield Rowell asks 7 year-old lying on his bed after a long day of swimming: “Ryan, are you tired or hungry? Are you ok?” Ryan: “It’s just my mind is blank.” 

 

While cutting up 4-year-old Jacob’s waffle, he opens up his mouth wide and points to it saying, “Dad, here’s how big my mouth is. Now you can cut up my waffles the right size.”
Me: “Allie, was there a kiddie pool?” Allie (2 years old): “Yes, a cat pool. A kitty pool.”

 

Today is Ryan’s last day of first grade. He woke up this morning and wrote a note to a friend in his class. — with Amy Steinfield Rowell.

 

 

 

Me: “Jacob, you are in need of sanctification.” Jacob (age 4): “No, you need a vacation.”

 

 

Our six-year-old Ryan really wants a dog. Sigh. Gotta love the phonetic spelling though. — with Amy Steinfield Rowell.

 ‎”I am saving my many for a chiwwa dog. It cost 70¢ and 70 dolers.$ I will trito wat until my sisttr gross up.”

 

Me to the kids: “We don’t like commercials and advertisements because they are always wanting us to do stuff we don’t need to do.” 4-year-old Jacob: “Daddy, you are kind of like a commercial.”

 

Jacob (4), after the Duke hockey game, watching the players shake hands. “Do they get a parent tunnel?”
A couple good lines from 3-year-old Jacob: “The disciples said, ‘No.’ But Jesus said ‘Let the monkeys come to me.'” And unrelated–As Jacob is attempting to put on his pajamas: “Is that the shirt or the pants?”
Andy Rowell
April 9, 2011

 5-year-old Ryan on my career, “You’re nothing yet. How should I put it? . . . You’re still learning.”
Andy Rowell
March 16, 2011

 3-year-old Jacob watching the Duke game on TV on Saturday after playing 3-4-year-old basketball at the YMCA, “Hey, they are letting the daddies play.”
3-year-old Jacob on the deck listening to the birds, “The birds are saying ‘rebound, rebound’ to the Duke players . . . No, they are saying ‘chicken, chicken.'” Hmm . . .
5-year-old Ryan praying for food he is not excited about: “Thank you God for the food I guess.”
Five year old Ryan seeing a peace sign: “That means Hannah Montana.”
At breakfast, five year old Ryan: “I’m not sure if Santa will know whether I want a real or pretend puppy from the letter I wrote him at school.” At lunch, Ryan: “Do we have a chimney?” Me: “No.” Ryan: “Is that why we go to other people’s houses on Christmas eve?” At dinner Amy prays: “Thank you God for baby Jesus.” Three year old Jacob: “And thank you God for Santa.”
Ryan, our new kindergartner, who does not speak any Spanish, on his friend Ken from school who does not speak any English, “He says my name in English. He understands me. We’re friends.” [Sadly, after two months of school, Ken’s family is moving to Mexico this weekend].
Four year old Ryan, “There will be five in our family once the baby hatches.”
Andy Rowell
December 26, 2009

 On our way back to Durham from Charlotte, two year old Jacob recognized our neighborhood Starbucks: “There’s mommy’s house!”
4 year old Ryan today: “That [the Christmas story] is a good story except there is this one bad part. The king says he wants to worship the newborn king but he wants to hurt the newborn king. The king is LYING.”
Ryan (4) left his stuffed animal Fanny the Fox at church tonight. Amy: She can sleep at church. Ryan: Oh no, she will be cold! Amy: Someone at church will cover her up. Ryan: No, they will think she’s pretend!
Jacob turns 2 today. When he woke up this morning I told him: “Jacob, Happy Birthday.” Jacob: “Pizza.” He has learned a few things about life these first two years.
2 quotes from Ryan (4) today. “I don’t want water on my hair–I don’t want it to grow fast!” and “My tummy is full–am I becoming a mommy?”
Ryan (4): “Jonah was always going to to go to Nineveh. He just wanted to ride in a whale.”
Ryan (4), “Goliath wore flip-flops.”
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Books Parenting website

Magic Tree House books especially on audio are good for 5-6 year olds

Our 6.5 year old son Ryan has listened to the first 35 Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne.  There are 46 so far.  I just ordered from the library the next 10.  Besides the first one which I read to him, he has listened to them on audio.  I recommend them for introducing general knowledge about history and different countries in a tame way suitable for 5-6 year olds.  The CD’s are available from the library or you can download a number of them from the library or buy them.

My only caveat is that there is some glorification of mysticism, gnosticism, and native religions in some of the books that if you are a Christian, you are going to want to quash.  That is to say Jack and Annie sometimes get out of jams by quasi-religions figures (medicine man, ninja master, etc) advising them to meditate, focus, concentrate, become one with nature, etc.  As a Christian, I would say that these tales need to be supplemented or overwhelmed by immersion in the biblical narratives (see my recommendations of Bible story books or NIrV, What’s in the Bible) so that our children can grow in their sense of how the God of Jesus Christ acts in history and develop the ability to detect dubious imitations. 

Still, the Magic Tree House books provide a basic working knowledge of people and places from dinosaurs to George Washington to India to Thomas Edison.  The kids like it when they can look at the pictures in the books while listening to the audio CD’s–though ours don’t follow along in the books carefully–instead mostly just listening.  Our four year old can sort of follow them but I would recommend age 5.  The author, Mary Pope Osborne, reads the books and does a good job giving voices to the different characters. 

When you have the chance to read out loud to your kids, I would recommend working through some of the kindergarten books recommended by Jim Trelease and buying his guide (see How to choose which books to get at the library or see my categories Books and Library Books).  Trelease recommends the first book of the Magic Tree House series but they are not superbly written in the way that Charlotte’s Web is so I would say use the audio for Magic Tree House as almost-educational-TV-entertainment and read to them more quality books with your read aloud time.

My sister-in-law who has older kids said they enjoyed the non-fiction books that can be read as background for the books–the Magic Tree House Fact Trackers but we haven’t gotten into those. 

The first 28 titles are short while 35-46 are almost twice as long but you won’t really notice.  The latter have the subtitle: “A Merlin Mission.” (Source: Magic Tree House website).  

Our local University of North Carolina Morehead Planetarium and Science Center has a Magic Tree House Space Mission Planetarium show.

 

Categories
Parenting website

Basic baby monitor review

Our old Fisher-Price monitor broke so we sent it back and got a new one.  See my review below of our new one. 

 

 

5.0 out of 5 stars A good choice plus advice on monitor shopping, April 23, 2011
By 
Andrew D. Rowell (Durham, NC) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Secure Coverage Digital Monitor – 2 Parent Units (Baby Product)

Summary: This monitor, redesigned in 2010, is a solid basic monitor with two receivers and has clear sound quality. We have had four monitors with our three kids. Here are six pieces of advice I would give after buying this fourth monitor.

(1) Baby monitors, which are on every night and for naps during the day for years, tend to wear out so it is worth keeping your receipt in case it breaks. With the continual use, it is perhaps understandable that they wear out faster than phones and other electronics.
(2) The documentation on this unit says “copyright Graco 2010” and all of the Amazon reviews are from 2011. This suggests to me that this was redesigned in 2010 so that those who review this unit and say things like, “We had this unit years ago and it broke” are probably talking about an earlier version of the product. Here’s hoping it has been improved. It seems solid so far.
(3) This is a basic audio monitor with two receivers. It is simple. You set up the transmitter near the baby and then you have two receivers with which to hear the baby. We put one receiver in the kitchen and one in the parents’ bedroom but of course you can put them anywhere and move them around wherever. The receivers also light up and vibrate to notify you the baby is awake but in my experience parents rarely rely on these features. Most all the products have at least the lighting feature.
(4) A basic audio monitor is probably all you need but I would probably get a video monitor today if we were having our first baby because as a new parent you want to see what the child is doing in the crib. Back in 2005 when we had our first baby, video monitors were more expensive and rare.
(5) In addition to this Graco model, Sony, Fisher-Price, The First Years, and Safety 1st have similar audio monitors with two receivers for a similar price on Amazon. (Motorola, Philips Avent, Angelcare and Levana all have basic monitors that come with a single receiver on Amazon).
(6) From my perusing of the reviews, all of the monitors receive mixed reviews–half very good and half very bad. The manufacturers acknowledge that phones, cell phones, radios, televisions, microwaves, wireless networks, and neighbor’s electronics can interfere with the monitors. We have all these sources of potential interference and none of our monitors have had problems with interference. If the monitor you get has interference problems, I would send it back and try a different manufacturer and see if you have better luck. It seems to me from the reviews that all of the products sometimes have these types of problems. I would try to judge the products based on other issues besides interference since the reviews seem to be so contradictory on this issue.