Ponytail

 

I can't take a picture of one child, without taking a picture of the rest.  :)  So, here is Hannah displaying a lovely little ponytail along with the other two acting silly. 

 

Hannah is 10 months old and is so cute.  She can cruise along furniture, she still prefers to crawl.  She loves to say dada and mama.  She tried to say 'Jess' the other day when Jessica was on the phone.  She likes sticking her tongue out all day long. 

 

She has four teeth on the top (they all came in at the same time) and two on the bottom.  She LOVES water.  She would stay content in the tub all day if I let her.

 

Mercedes and Luke love trying to pick her up and carry her.  They are dismayed when I see and stop them.  Luke is so funny.  The other day in nursery he was reading books with a nursery leader.  The nursery leader was asking him what all of the animals in the book said.  What does the cow say?  Moo.  What does the chicken say?  Cluck.  What does the sheep say?  Baa.  And so on.  Luke answered all appropriately, but then the leader got to the fox and asked Luke, "What does the fox say?"  To which, Luke answered most emphatically, "Hatee hatee hatee ho!"  Of course, this would not make any sense to someone who was not familiar with the ever popular song called, "What Does the Fox Say".   

 

The other day Mercedes was holding a peeled banana and studied it carefully.  Then, she said, "Mom, bananas look like poop.  They are long like poop, and curve like poop. But, my poop is a lot heavier than this banana."  It was potty talk in every sense of the word, but she wasn't trying to be naughty, she really was just doing a comparison. 

 

Finally, the other day Joshua was playing a game with his younger siblings.  From what I gathered, Mercedes was the mom, Joshua was the dad, and Luke was their baby.  There was some sort of bad guy who had broken into the house and Joshua was preparing to fight him.  Mercedes was close behind and was going with Joshua.  Then, he did a protective stance between Mercedes and the imaginary bad guy and said to Mercedes, "This is no job for a woman.  You go back and protect the baby while I go and protect you."  It was sweet.  This seems to be something that is on his mind a lot recently.  As we were driving in the car he said to me, "I think when I grow up I will be a police officer instead of an army ranger."  I asked why, and he said, "because I like protecting, but I don't really want to die.  There are less bad guys shooting at police officers."  He asked me if I would ever die to protect someone, and I told him that I would without hesitation.  He seemed surprised by that.  I told him that I would gladly die for the people I love and it wouldn't be a difficult decision at all, I would just do it.  He wanted an example, and I didn't want to be too morbid, so I told him that if he were to ever fall into the water at the base of Niagra Falls, I would jump in after him, even if it meant I would die.  He looked older.  He kind of puffed out his chest and said with resolution, "Well, you don't have to worry about that because Heavenly Father gave me muscles and made me a boy because it is my job to protect you when dad isn't around."  I wanted to hug and kiss him, but he was acting so big that I didn't dare take that away from him.