Sweet Memories, With All Five Kids Now

November 8, 1997: Murray was getting ready to go somewhere with Caleb and Rebecca, who were playing with Legos on the dining room table. When Murray said, "Okay, let's go," Caleb looked reluctant to leave his building. Sarah tried to be helpful, and told Caleb, "I'll play with that for you."

 

November 19, 1997: Kathy was cooing and gooing to little Benjamin. Caleb told her, "Other moms don't talk like that to their babies."

 

November 21, 1997: While searching for a space in the parking lot at the grocery store, Sarah unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up. "Go slow, because you don't want me to get killed."

 

November 22, 1997: Last night Sarah hugged me tight and said, "I heart you so much!"

 

On the way home from the public library today, Sarah repeatedly yelled out the car window, "Hello, partner!"

 

November 24, 1997: At supper tonight, Caleb asked, "What if my school was built out of onions?"

 

November 29, 1997: Murray and the kids were getting ready to go out this evening, and Rebecca had put on shoes but no socks. Murray yelled in her direction as he went up the stairs, "You, if you wanna go, socks." While he took off his work shirt in his room, Rebecca looked in and said, "You, if you wanna go, shirt." A few minutes later, as he prepared to put on his shoes, Rebecca said, "You, if you wanna go, shoes.”

 

Ping-Hwei's new nickname is Boss. The other day we were calling him Boss, and he said, "Benjamin, Little Boss."

 

December 13, 1997: Yesterday I couldn't find my hair brush, and I asked Sarah if she knew where it was. She asked if I'd asked Daddy. I asked why he should know. She said, "He could know. Daddy knows everything."

 

December 22, 1997: The other day Sarah was noticing how many fingers and toes she had, five on each hand and foot. After she'd added them she said, "We have twenty things we can wiggle."

 

Sarah was playing with Benjamin's little musical bunny this morning, and noticing that its hands and feet and ears moved, She said, "He's moving his arms like he's praising the Lord."

 

Last week, Murray took the kids to see a Christmas musical. As soon as they came in the door afterwards, Sarah said, "It was fun! It was about Jesus!"

 

December 25, 1997: The other night we had vegetable juice to drink for supper, but for simplicity sake, we told the kids it was tomato juice. Caleb picked up his glass and said, "I smell celery." Sure enough, when Murray checked out the ingredients, one of them was celery.

 

Last night we went to Shoney's, and Rebecca said, looking at the sign, "In the daytime, it says Shoney's, and it's for people. At night, it says Honey's, (she had seen the "S" burned out several days before) and it's for bears."

 

I gave Murray a giant chocolate kiss for Christmas this morning, and Sarah said, "That's a nice gift to give your husband."

 

Sarah didn't give us anything for Christmas, and she was a little sorry about that. So she said, "I'll give you your present right now. Are you ready?" And she gave us a big hug.

 

December 29, 1997: We were marking the kids’ growths on the wall in the laundry room tonight. We showed each of them how tall they were one year ago, and two years ago. Caleb said, "Now I'm taller than myself."