Overheard in the Merritt household last month

Setting: Colin has had a runny nose for about a week--constantly running.
Mommy: "Colin, tonight we are having one of your favorite soups for dinner!"
Colin: "What soup, Mom?"
Mommy: "Tortellini soup!"
Colin, completely elated: "Yay!!" Then, in about 2 seconds, his face dissolves from elation into utter disappointment, and he says:

"Oh mom, I can't eat soup tonight....my runny nose will run straight into the soup!"

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Cameron's new phrase: "What's that all about mommy?" (which sounds more like, 'what sat all bout, mommy?')

Setting: O'Charlie's restaraunt.

Date: Valentine's Day. Mommy and the boys come over to Champaign to surprise daddy and take him out to a special Valentine's lunch. The Merritts are seated at a table that is right in front of a utility closet. The Merritts are all seated and eating semi-peacefully. Enter waitress, who comes by the Merritt's table and then opens the door to the utility closet, goes inside, and closes the door.
And....Action!

Cameron, looking at the waitress, and watching her every move, sees her go into the closet and proclaims loudly: "What sat all bout, Mommy?" for all the restaraunt to hear. Nearly everyone sitting around us laughs, which he notices, and then he lets out a giant laugh, which made them all laugh more.....vicious circle.

This has since become Cameron's favorite phrase, and he says it constantly.

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Colin has recently been working on numbers, and has become very aware of the number 4. He knows that he is 4 years old, and knows that he wears a size 4T. He has to check everything he puts on--his coat, his pants, his shirts--and make sure they are his by making sure they say "4T."

Since I have begun my quest to lose weight, I have kept the scale out and on the bathroom floor. This has been an object of fascination, of course, and the other day I was teaching them what the purpose of the scale is.

Mommy: "See, you step on the scale and it weighs you--it tells you how many pounds you are in numbers!"
Colin decides that he wants to see how big he is, and steps on the scale. He looks at me, puzzled, and says:
"Mommy, this is wrong."
I am puzzled, because while Colin does recognize many numbers, I know that he doesn't know how much he weighs to know if it is wrong or not.
Mommy: "What do you mean it is wrong?"
Colin: "Well the numbers are wrong.....why does it not say 4T?"

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Colin loves to compliment me, and has found a new word to do so: Expensive.

Colin (when I am all dressed and ready for church): "Mommy, you look so expensive."
When I am actually dressed with makeup on and my hair done (could be any time of the week, but do you get the feeling it doesn't happen often, since he is asking me this question?)
"Mommy, you look so expensive....is it date night?" or "Mommy, you look very expensive, is it church today?"
Obviously, those are the two occasions that Colin has learned gets me out of my PJ's.

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Words Colin still says wrong but that I don't have the heart to correct because I know it won't be much longer that he is still my 'little boy':

Explorer: kasplorer
Refrigerator: fridge-a-frator
Vanilla: ranilla
Surprise: kaprise
Kiwi (as in, the juice that we drink is strawberry-kiwi): weegi (Can I have strawberry-weegi juice mommy?)
And one of my favorite phrases: "You scared me out of death, mommy!"

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Cameron has this new thing where no matter what you say to him, he says, "I'm a gock" which, in translation is, "I'm a shark." Then, he pretends to be biting you while making what he figures is a good biting noise, which sounds like someone trying to hack up a lung....it really is very funny. He loves anything with fish and loves watching Nemo and seeing the part with the sharks.

While sitting at the lunch table:
Mommy: Boys, we are having tacos for lunch today! (I was getting rid of leftover taco meat)
Cameron, looking unsure, begins what I believe is going to be some protesting over my choice of lunch, so I quickly say, "Sharks love tacos Cameron!"
Both boys quickly get all into this game. You can just see on their faces that they are thinking, "Yay! We are going to pretend we are sharks and eat all of our tacos!"
The boys are at least 1/2 way thru their tacos, and loving them. The game is working really well, until my smarter-than-he-should-be-4-year-old says,
"Hey! Sharks don't like to eat tacos.....so, I am just going to turn back into a boy so that I can finish eating my lunch!"

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Colin was examining my nail polish in church one night. Now, he knows that blue is for boys and pink (which I currently have on my nails) is for girls.
Colin (who, remember, is my nail biter): "Mommy, I think I am going to let my nails grow out so that I can wear nail polish too."
Mommy: "Well, you know how only mommies wear make-up, not daddies? And how only mommies have purses?"
Colin: "Yeah..."
Mommy: "Well, it the same way for nail polish. Only mommies wear nail polish. Not daddies or boys."
Colin, thinking for a minute, then says: "Even if I wear blue?"
Mommy, smiling and holding back a laugh: "No, bud, even if you wear blue."

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Cameron was asleep in his bed at naptime one day, and Colin had woken up. Ethan was awake as well, and I needed to take a shower. So, I asked Colin if he would play with Ethan in their room while mommy took a quick shower. He of course said, "Sure!" so I gated them off in their bedroom and hopped into the shower.

I had the door open, so that I could listen to them playing, to make sure they were okay, when all of a sudden I hear Colin yelling. I listened, and quickly discerned that it was a play yell, and not and "I need you right now because something is wrong" yell. Shortly after Colin began yelling, Ethan started in....I am thinking to myself, well, I guess Cameron will be up pretty soon!

Several minutes goes by and I get out of the shower. Amazingly, I walk by the room to find that Cameron, despite the intense hollering, is still asleep! Colin then comes out of his room and says to Shane:

"Dad? I was playing with Ethan in our bedroom, and we were both hollering really loud....It's a miracle, but God kept Cameron asleep the whole time!"