Misc.

Asher's fave expressions of the moment:
'ight dere!' = right there!
'tank oo mommy' = thank you mommy
'Owen, TOP IT!  NOO, Owaaaaan! Don't do dat, Owen!' = self-explanatory
'NACK!!!' = Give me a snack now, woman!!  Or I'll throw a fit you won't believe!
'bekfast, uch, and upper' = in the same vein as 'nack'
'Mon-ter' = Monster, accompanied by Asher making a scrunched-up face and growling
"DA-EEEEEE" = DADDY!!!!
'Moo-bie, Mommy?' = Movie, please?
'Doing?' = What are you doing?
'Gwate!' = Great!

And a million other little phrases, but these are in extremely regular usage :)  Asher is seriously cute and a barrel of laughs right now.  Wish I could bottle this stage up and save some for later!!  He laughs and keeps us laughing all day.  He's turning into quite the ham, turning around to see if he's gotten us to laugh or not, and repeating ad nauseum whatever earns him chuckles.

Owen is piecing together a lot of things in his mind at present...very interesting to watch his gears turn and try to make sense of the world.  He's also into joking with us and teasing and experimenting with what constitutes a funny joke.  Reuel had teased Owen a few times by counting his fingers and coming up with 11 instead of 10 and Owen was quite bewildered.  Reuel finally taught Owen how to 'count tricky' and now Owen takes great delight in counting Asher's fingers or toes to 11...or 12...or 25 recently.  Asher just laughs because Owen's grabbing his toes, and Owen thinks he's being royally funny.  An Owen conversation at the breakfast table went something like this:

Owen: [being bratty for the joy of it] You're not my family anymore!  You're not my mommy.  You're not my daddy.  I don't have a brudder.
Me:  Okay, are you going to live all by yourself, then?
Owen:  Yes!  I don't have a family.
Me:  Well, if you don't have a mommy, who is going to make you things to eat?
Owen:  I can cook food.  I know how to cook.  I can make toast.
Reuel:  How are you going to get the food?
Owen:  I can go to the grocery store!
Me:  How are you going to get to the grocery store?  It's far away.
Owen:  [pause]  I can drive the car?  [All of us, Owen included, starting to snigger]
Reuel:  How are you going to buy the food at the grocery store?
Owen:  I will go to work and get some money [said under his hand at this point]
Me:  Mmm-hmm.
New subject.

Tonight as I was tucking Owen into bed, he was having a sentimental moment, and started telling me about how much he likes Clover (seriously, he's holding onto this little crush!) and how she is his best friend.  Then he also included Laura List as his best cousin.  His two fave girls in the world right now!  He went so far as to say, "Mom, I love them more than CANDY!"  I asked him why he likes Clover so much and he quickly answered that it's because she knows how to climb trees.  So apparently there are ways to the 4-yr old male heart other than through the stomach.

His declaration about the relative worth of people and candy was not in line with an earlier event in the day.  He has been scheming for a long while now about spending some of the money he's earned from doing jobs on a toy.  I keep putting him off telling him he needs to save up some more money to buy something actually worthwhile.  Well, today there was a nice opportunity and we were near a Wal-Mart (not common in these parts).  He had $6.  Before going into the store, we put one of the dollars in the seat pocket to take to church and give to God on Sunday.  Then, he knew he had $5 to spend, and kept pulling his wad of bills out of his pocket to count it and make sure it was still there as we headed to the cheap-toy section.  First we hit the nicer toy section, and he was awfully disappointed to find out that everything that interested him was closer to the $20 range.  Then, there were some bins of things more like you'd find at the dollar store, priced $1-5.  He was ecstatic to find so many choices.  First thing he did was pick out a ball that cost $1 for Asher.  I thought that was incredibly sweet of him!  Then, he found a gumball dispenser in his budget, and all the other choices were out the window; that was the winner!  He was absolutely ga-ga about his purchase all the way home, talking and talking about it, looking it over from every angle inside it's plastic packaging, letting Asher hold it, and just proud, proud, proud.  It was quite a bit of wallowing in the joy of a thing...so, Mom starts to wonder if this was such a great idea and says, "You know Owen, there are some things even better than buying yourself a toy.  Even though it's fun to get something, the BEST thing in the world is spending time with people who you love and who love you."  To which Owen promptly replies, "No.  I like my gumball maker WAY better than THA-AT!" 

Owen starts preschool 3 days/week in just a little over a week!  Mixed feelings, though I know it will be great for all of us :)  He's very ready for some more formal engagement of his brain than he's been getting lately from me, and some more structure.  Looking forward to the individual time with Asher, too!  Reuel and Owen will head off together those mornings, so it will be extra-weird not to be the one dropping him off (but lovely to not have to have all of us dressed, fed and buckled in by 8:30, don't get me wrong...I have scored royally in this arrangement ;).