Where are your brains, Aaron?

This used to happen about 6-8 months ago, but I just recently got around to sharing it with the world.

I have always posed redundant questions to my kids: What's your name? Where do you live? How old are you? What color are your eyes? Where's your nose?

In the past, I've usually taken the opportunity to ask these questions when I have a captive audience, like when I'm changing a diaper. I recently added a new question - Where are your brains? I aksed this question of Aaron and he immediately pointed to his rear end. Hmmm, that was weird (and funny).

I decided to show my new monkey trick to Jean. We had a good chuckle after which I commented "I wonder where he picked that up from?" Jean is smart. She pointed out that it probably stems from many of the diaper changing sessions. When I encounter a particularly stinky diaper, I'll say "Ohhhhh, KID'S NAME HERE, you pooped your brains out." I guess I've said this enough that Aaron has associated brains with poop.

For a while he claimed to have poop for brains or at least that's what you could conclude from his response.We've now taught him the correct anatomical location of his brains. Now when asked about his brains, he'll begin to point to his hind quarters, smirk and then point to his head. But, we didn't correct him until we got it on video.

Here's a video of one of my interogations that included the "Where's your brain?" question:

Awesome.

Aaron's "Be Nice" Ring

Aaron has been going to nursery at church for some time now and has earned the reputation of being a wild-man. A couple of weeks ago, Aaron wore a CTR (Choose The Right) ring to church and decided to show the adults that work in the nursery. Upon arrival, Aaron walked right up to one of the nursery leaders and said: "Look at my ring. It says 'be nice'" at which point Aaron followed his statement up with a pummeling that included a blazing right-handed jab and a couple of left-handed hooks. So much for 'be nice'.

On a related note, we were flipping through the channels on the TV earlier this week and came across some olympic events. This particular event immediately caught the attention of Aaron as he exclaimed "OOOOOOOO, Punching!!!!" Most people call it boxing, Aaron, but yeah, you could call it 'Punching'.

Here's a Wii-inspired video of Aaron and Danny 'punching' each other in the Cox Family Gymnasium (we're accepting memberships now):

Now you might think that such an activity would lead to contention and a spirit of dischord, but that's not the case. See, they're still friends, at least until the rematch:

Super Crazy Fast!

This morning, Danny and Aaron were talking trash about how fast they could run. Aaron was adamant that he could catch and beat Danny in a foot race. Danny said that there was no way this could happen as he is "the fastest in (his) class." From nowhere Rachel decided to enter the debate and throw her support behind Danny's claim by stating: "Danny can beat you, Aaron. He's as fast as a Cheeto!"

At the rate that those orange, crunchy things disappear in our house, it's as if Rachel was saying that Danny is super-crazy fast.

You can see how a virtual race would pan out between Danny & Aaron by watching this video:

Oooo that was close. Is it me or was that just a lot of fancy footwork with no substance? Kind of like eating a Cheeto - fancy shape and taste, but it earns low marks for substance and nutrition.

"Do I have underpants on or no?"

That is a direct quote from Aaron today while we rode home from the car wash. I panicked--"You have underwear on don't pee!". He didn't. I guess he was just checking out his options.

Aaron is potty-training. And he's doing awesome. He initiated it himself. A couple of days ago I went into the bathroom to find Aaron with his diaper off. I asked why he was bare-bummed and he said "because I want to learn how to go potty in the toilet". I was skeptical but I put underwear on him and figured it would last until his first accident and then we'd go back to my original plan, which was to wait until the other kids were in school to potty-train.

But there were no accidents! He used the toilet twice that night. Then the next morning we put the underwear back on and he did perfectly. He's had one accident to date and now we're even venturing out of the house in underwear. He was obviously ready to shed the diapers. He says our next baby can use his left-over diapers.

Even Mexican People

We are expecting a new little baby in February! We told the kids about a month ago and they are so excited! Aaron goes through the toy box and finds old baby toys and says he's going to share them with the baby when it comes. We asked him this morning and he said the baby is going to be a boy and have orange hair just like him. (We think it's a girl). We'll find out in a few more weeks.

But we hadn't told anyone except the kids before our trip to California. So the morning before we left I told the kids that we get to share the news with Grandma and everyone else because they didn't know yet. Rachel got so excited about that. She said, "No one in the world knows! Not even Jaclyn (her best friend), not even Mexican people!". Yes, Rachel, that's true, people in Mexico don't know I'm having a baby.

Our trip to Disneyland

We had a great trip to CA. The kids and I stayed at my parent's house while Bob kept up a busy schedule with the brothers. We got there on Tuesday night. Then Wednesday Bob went to Magic Mountain and Thursday and Friday were filled with hiking and camping. The kids and I took it easy with my mom.

Then Saturday we went to Disneyland. We were a little worried that it would be too crowded since it was a Saturday in the summer, but it wasn't bad at all. We never waited longer than 30 minutes for a ride. Aaron and Rachel both took naps during the day (we wish Danny would have). And they did great and had plenty of energy for our 14 hour-long day.

Rachel's favorite part of the day was watching the parade when Ariel waved at her. She was really brave on the rides and her favorite was Space Mountain. She liked how fast it went.
Aaron's favorite was riding on Dumbo with his dad. He loved controlling it up and down.
Danny's favorite was Star Tours. He liked R2D2 and C3P0.
They all loved the Buzz Lightyear ride where they got to shoot with their guns. Aaron even bought one of the guns in the gift shop later. He's been shooting it ever since.

Bob and I loved it. We had so much help! There were 8 adults to 3 kids. There was always someone to entertain or distract or carry the kids. We fully enjoyed the trip.

Four Corners Trip

Since Danny & Jean beat me to the punch, I'm here to fill you in on the 'real' trip report for our 3-day, 1,200 mile trip through NV, AZ, UT & CO.


Danny, Aaron and I started out early on the 19th of July (Saturday) for St. George, Utah to pick up Jorge (my friend from Norway - nice rhyme) and Travis (served a mission in Norway a couple of years after I left). From that point on it was nothing but driving (the moniker of Cruise-Control Bob has been revived), McDomald's Happy Meals (Transformer toys + french fries + sprites + car trip = my boys), pictures, outdooooooorziness and speaking in Norwegian.

Danny and Aaron at Cedar Breaks NM, UT

On our first day we conquered Cedar Breaks NM, Bryce Canyon NP (home to the $12 footlong, not to be cofused with the $5 footlong; we also experienced a dead car battery at the park), Capitol Reef National Park and ended the day by making camp in Goblin Valley State Park.

Aaron with his adoptees

Welcome to the Valley of Goblins
Jorge from Norway and the Goblin Royal Family

Sleeping in Goblin Valley was miserable - nothing like my previous wintertime trips to the area. We ended up sweating out the night, not to the oldies with Richard Simmons, but to the warm air inside the Sienna.

Day 2 took us through Arches NP, Newspaper Rock State Park and finished in Cortez, CO, just outside of Mesa Verde NP. When we experienced high winds and rain at Mesa Verde we decided that it was best to overnight in a hotel in Cortez. This was good because I had to wash the processed french fries and hamburger out of Aaron's clothes. Too many windy roads.

Our final day took us from the cooler weather of SW Colorado, past Mexican Hat, through Monument Valley (where I told the kids that Lightning McQueen lives here), over the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, AZ, by Hildale, UT and Colorado City, AZ and through the woods to grandmo . . . . I mean, to Las Vegas.

Monument Valley, Home to Lightning McQueen

I'm proud of my boys - they behaved admirably and said they enjoyed trip. Well, they enjoyed the Happy Meals. And sprites.

You can view more pictures of our trip here or here if you'd like to see where each of the pictures was taken along our trip. Maps are cool.