Odds 'n ends

I had Ben call Mom on her birthday, but she was out. Of course, their answering machine picked up, and the message said "...leave your name and number..." So Ben waited until he heard the beep (like I told him to), and then he said, "Hi Grandma. It's Ben and our house number is 15. Happy Birthday. Goodbye!"
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Leading up to Halloween last week, the place where the kids take gymnastics encouraged the kids to wear their costumes to class for a little extra fun and some pictures. And then at the end of class, every kid got a ghost - a sucker with a kleenex tied on top of it. On the way home from Ella's class, I unwrap the sucker for her, and her eyes widen and she said to me, "Dank oo so mush Mommy! I so sited!" ("Thank you so much Mommy! I'm so excited!") And then, "Mmmm, tasty!" "I so sited!" (lick) "Mmmm, tasty!" over and over and over again. And we live only 2 blocks away from gymnastics, but she said this about 6 or 8 or 20 times. It was very, very cute. ___________________________________________________________________

Later that evening, I was taking Ben to his swimming class when we had the following conversation: "Mommy, guess what?" "What is it Ben?" "I think I'm growing my first beard!" (trying not to laugh) "Really? You don't think you're a little young for that?" "No, I can feel a couple of hairs here on my chin!"
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Ella is (finally) talking up a storm and loves to sing her ABCs. Typically, the ABCs are like the song that never ends - she just starts all over again, again and again, and again. She came up with something different though - the end verse, instead of "Now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me?", according to her, is "I know, I know EFGs, H I J K Ewwa Bee!"