Satisfecho

I was asking the boys today if they wanted to move (don't read anything into that). Rees gave an emphatic no.
"What if we could have a bigger house?"
"No."
"What if we could have a bigger yard?"
"No. I am thankful for what I have."

Rees Wrote Me a Note

Rees gave me this note this morning. He wrote it at school yesterday.

It reads:
Dear Dad
You know a lot of things we have alot. of fun togeter.  Right? Right. You do love me. Right? Right! I love you. You love me. Love Rees. You always know I love you.
You love me. I love you.

The Invention

Jess made some picture slide shows that she has been displaying on the TV lately. Rees saw a black and white wedding picture of Jess and I and commented, "That's a picture of you and Jessica when you got married. Before they invented color."

Is that a rock?

The boys were throwing rocks in the pond. Rees said to James:
"If it sinks, it's a rock. If it floats, it's cow poop."

Do Something Else

The kids were playing in their room this morning when the noise began to crescendo, culminating in James screaming. He came trotting into the front room where Jess was:

Jess: James no screaming. If you don't like what Rees is doing then use your words to tell him or go do something else.
James: Ok.

James then went back in his room.

James: Rees, I'm going to do something else.
Rees: Ok, I'll do it with you.

Monsters vs Aliens

Rees and I went to a movie today: Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. Decent enough movie. Rees didn't take the glasses off from beginning to end. My favorite part was when the Monsters escaped the spaceship and Rees, who at this point was standing attentively in front of me, raised is hands above his head and yelled, "Hurray!!". I never want to forget the image of a five year old with his hands in the air silhouetted against a giant movie screen.

Cannonball!

I was playing with the boys in their room today and took a break to lay down for a bit on their floor. I looked up just in time to see Rees standing on the arm of the green chair with a devilish look on his face.

"Don't jump on me Rees!"

Continues to prepare his jump and grin.

"Don't jump on me!"

I should mention that we play games like that often. Sometimes he will jump off the bunk bed and I will catch him. His jumping style is just as unique has his pooping style (picture the crab stance). After he jumps, he pulls his legs up and comes down in a cannonball pose.

"I am serious Rees! Don't jump!"

With that he launches and lands square on my chest, landing with enough force to pop my back three times. I then look up just in time to see James lined up ready to jump next.

Fun with the Scanner

When I was a lad (5 maybe?), my mom photocopied my hand and then framed it. I have it somewhere. I tried the same with the boys last weekend except using the scanner.

Digging in the Dirt

Rees was helping me out in the yard this afternoon. I was weeding and Rees was busying himself waiting for me to be done. "This is taking forever!" he kept saying and then letting me know what time it was. While I was weeding I unearthed several worms and called Rees over to take a look. He asked me some questions about them which I don't remember and then announced, "I am going to call this one... Marvin." We buried them and he went back to whatever he was doing. Every once in a while he would come back and ask if Marvin had dug his way back out of the dirt pile. We would then unearth him (or one very similar) then bury them again. During one of these unerathings, Rees found a small snail shell. He examined it and then told me:

I am going to put this shell back. That way a slug will find it and turn into a snail and stay safe from predators.

He spent the rest of the time making his snail shell collection. All those lucky slugs!

Rees' Prayer

Rees:

Our Father in heaven,
thank you for this day.
Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Reesie and Jamie.
Thank you for Percy's claws.
Thank you for Funniest Videos.
Thank you for Little Einsteins.
We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

James:

Don't forget the library Rees!

Rees:

And the library.

Rees is 5!

Happy Birthday Dude!

Ouch! My nipples!

I don't remember how it started but the kids began yelling "Ouch! My Nipples" the other day while in the bath. I think that Rees has taken an unhealthy fascination with the word nipples ever since we tried to get him to stop pinching and otherwise manipulating his nipples.
Every night we talk about something, usually the same three things. Tonight Rees asked to talk about all the regular things and then threw in for good measure "nipples". I asked how that went and he yelled,"Ouch! My nipples!" with James joining in with the same chorus.

Once I get the audio off my phone, I will post the sound clip.

Rees' Birthday Puzzle

Rees loves jigsaw puzzles. I can spend all day putting together a puzzle, taking it apart and then putting it back together again. He has several large floor puzzles. One of his favorites is one that his Grandma has. It is the United States where every piece is a different state. I bought one similar to it for him and gave it to him today. He spend the rest of the morning putting it together and then taking it apart. I helped him on one of the iterations and at the end we were missing two states.

"Rees, we are missing two pieces." I informed him.
"Where are they?"
"I don't know. Let's look for them. Stand up."
He stands up and shakes his body violently.
"Nope. Not there. How many pieces are there Daddy?", he asked while looking for the answer on the box.
"70 pieces."
Then without skipping a beat he said, "That means we only have 68 pieces."

That is one sharp kid.

Today is Rees' 5th birthday.

Today is Rees' 5th birthday. Hard to believe. Wouldn't trade him for anything. Happy birthday buddy!

10s, 100s, 1000s

One of the things I gave Jess for Valentine's Day was a 4.5 lb of Mike & Ike candy (hopeless romantic I know). When I was gone this past week, Jess put the candy in a large jar and placed the jar in the middle of the kitchen table. Rees was really excited to tell me about it when he picked me up from the airport.

"Dad, guess what?" he asked.
"What?"
"Mom got a big jar of jelly beans. There are hundreds. Thousands. Millions. Billions. Trillions."

After each quantity, both Jess and I were wondering how high up he would go. I am not sure how he learned to go beyond thousands.

New Toilet and Training

We got a new toilet recently. It is a corner toilet. Took a bit of effort to install it. One of the features is that it is dual flush or as we explained it to Rees, this button for pee-pee and this button for poop. I was helping him clean up after using the toilet the other day when he stopped to think and then said, "I think I did both." He then pushed both buttons on the toilet and the same time.