Ping Ping and the Peanut Gallery

Lauren and Anna have been playing a lot of “bideo” games recently. For one game in particular, they each have their own little user names so they can log in and “try to make it into the top ten.” Top ten has been a huuuuge deal in our house lately. Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny the other day when Lauren brought home some of her school work and she had put her name on the top of the page as LaurenK4 (her user name). It seemed less funny though when at the park recently she introduced herself to someone as LaurenK4. The little girl asked her what her middle name was and Lauren turned to me and said, “Mommy, what’s my middle name??” I answered. Then the little girls asked for her last name. Again, Lauren turned to me and said, “Mommy??” I said, “You’ve got to be kidding. If you can remember your user name, you can surely remember your last name.” Speaking of names, the girls have been trying to figure out Tyler’s middle name. They’ve come up with all kinds of options and since Tyler wouldn’t tell them until they guessed it on their own, they’ve taken to calling him “Ping Ping”. I’m not quite sure where they came up with that one but as far as they’re concerned, their brother’s full name is Tyler “Ping Ping” Kleist.

Anna was “selling” tea from her tea store a few days ago. Her store is basically a bar stool covered with tea cups, a tea pot, and a ceramic cupcake. There was some debate from Lauren about the cost of the tea. Anna was selling it for a quarter a cup. Lauren asked me how much a quarter was and I told her it was 25 cents. She said, “NO, I mean what size quarter is it??” They finally worked it out and Lauren purchased a cup. She wouldn’t, however, make the trip to pick up her 25 cents worth of tea and told Anna to send the waitress (Mommy) over with it. I was making breakfast and so Anna told her in no uncertain terms, “That girl (Mommy) is the cooker. A waitress is a person who brings you your drinks and food. I am NOT a waitress. I am the store manager.

We had a storm recently and the girls told me it was raining and there were fireworks in the rain.

Lauren keeps asking me to go find her some socks that rhyme. Apparently she can’t find a matching pair on her own.

I was having a rough day the other day and Anna didn't help matters much by asking me if I missed being young.

Tyler has the best sense of humor. He comes up with some real zingers where Lauren is concerned. For some reason Lauren just goes a little wacky whenever we get into a vehicle. She’ll have been good all day but put her in the car and she’s almost psychotic. Lately, she does not want to listen to any music in the car...at all. She’ll start with a whine and build up to a manic scream if you don’t turn the music off. She started it this morning when we were headed out for a waffle breakfast. Tyler sat there for a few minutes and then finally said, “She’s like the Grinch who stole music. “ He also occasionally calls her Lauren AKA “No Voice Control.” She cannot whisper.

While we were at breakfast, the baby was busy banging his spoon on the table, eating his pancake and trying to grab everyone else’s food...all while sticking out his tongue. Doug asked, “Is his tongue stuck like that?” If you notice, he pretty much has it stuck out in every picture of him I post! Too funny.

Anna has been carrying around a ziploc bag full of "treasures".  She decorated the bag herself and scoured the neighborhood for little gems that she as a 6-year old considers to be special.  To some it may look like just a bag of junk but to her it's magical.  I hope she never loses her ability to make the ordinary into something extraordinary.  I learn something new from her every day.