Archive for the 'Funny' Category

Just Because You Know “Thanks” in Two Languages Doesn’t Mean You’ll Use It

September 17, 2007 @ 12:52 pm | Filed under: Funny

Rilla is playing with the toy phone. Wonderboy wants it.

WB: I have pone?

Rilla: Nuh.

WB: Gib pone!

Rilla: Nuh. NUH!!

WB (offers remote control in exchange): You hab?

Rilla: Nuh.

A brief silence. Wonderboy is deflated. Then, for no visible reason, Rilla holds out the phone to her brother.

Mom, coaching Wonderboy:
That was so nice! She gave you the phone. What do you say?

Wonderboy: Dat MY pone.

9 comments  

The Question Speaks Volumes

February 15, 2007 @ 7:56 am | Filed under: Funny

"Honey, do we have an iron?"

7 comments  

Best Silly Kid Arguments

February 1, 2007 @ 7:16 am | Filed under: Funny

Okay, I stand really, REALLY corrected. Have you been following the comments about dryer lint? Turns out this stuff is gold! Besides clay, you can turn it into paper, firestarters, stuffing, a source of income, and even art. (I love the little lint angels.)

My poor deprived children. No wonder they had to fight over it! Ha.

I also greatly enjoyed your stories about stupid kid fights that have taken place under your roof. The brothers fighting over who got to wear the garbage can on his head is a classic!

Anyone else got a Kids Fight Over the Most Ridiculous Things story? Send ‘em my way!

12 comments  

And Here I’d Been Worried the Orca Was in Danger

October 24, 2006 @ 11:16 pm | Filed under: Funny

Today’s unpacking marathon revealed treasure in the middle of one box: the small plastic shark and orca that Beanie and Rose love as dearly as if they were made of a precious material like, say, chocolate.

Of course this meant they had to take a bath RIGHT AWAY OH PLEEEEASE MOMMY. Since we’d spent an hour in the middle of the afternoon at a local park, where there was actual SAND on the ground instead of that spongy recycled tire product used on our favorite playground in Virginia, I enthusiastically supported the bath idea.

So there I was washing grit out of Beanie’s curls while her shark made shark-like lunges at Rose’s orca. Beanie was singing, and it took me a minute to realize I was hearing one of Scott’s favorite Beatles melodies.

"What did you just sing?" I asked Bean.

"It wasn’t me," she said. "It was my shark."

"Oh. Right. Could he sing it again?"

"He’d be delighted to!" When you’re Beanie, even sharks are obliging. She lunged him at the orca again, singing louder.

"I wanna hold your fi-i-iiin, I wanna hold your fin!"

2 comments  

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Moms

August 16, 2006 @ 7:22 am | Filed under: Family, Funny

Last Saturday night: The girls wanted to watch the meteor shower. Sure, why not? I agreed to set the alarm for 2 a.m., which was when the viewing was supposed to be best.

We woke up the next morning at 6. What happened??, they wanted to know.

Me: "I have no idea. You SAW me set the alarm. I’m so sorry, girls, I must have done something wrong."

Such as (it turns out): Set the alarm for 2 a.m. WEDNESDAY. As in last night. This morning. Whatever. Don’t ask me how I managed that. My brain can’t formulate a response on this little sleep.

UPDATE: Bummer. According to Chris at Notes from the Trenches, we missed something priceless.

2 comments  

Overheard

June 16, 2006 @ 2:08 pm | Filed under: Funny

“I did NOT hit you! I threw something at you and IT hit you!”

5 comments  

How to Panic Your Children

June 14, 2006 @ 8:39 am | Filed under: Family, Funny

And here I thought I was just being efficient. I decided to get a jump on dinner so I mixed up a marinade for the chicken. Now I’m listening to an intense and fear-tinged conversation:

Rose: “But we didn’t have lunch!”

Beanie: “I know that.”

Rose: “But Mommy’s making dinner! That means we missed lunch!”

Beanie (gasps): “What???”

7 comments  

A Bean by Any Other Name Would Be as Sweet

June 2, 2006 @ 11:33 am | Filed under: Family, Funny

Beanie’s hair is like an eighth member of the family. (Oh my goodness. We are a family of seven now. I am still getting used to saying that.) This time of year, it embraces the humidity and exhibits more personality than ever. In certain weather, the child looks ready for a Welcome Back Kotter reunion. It is glorious hair, the kind you can’t keep your hands off, the kind no passing stranger can resist commenting about.

Today we were headed home from the pool, depressingly dry. Thunder and lightning had commenced just as the kids kicked off their flip-flops, and the life guard somberly shook her head. We turned to trudge home, the rising wind whipping Beanie’s curls into a frenzy.

Our friend Lisa met us in the parking lot. “Hey, Fuzzhead,” she greeted Beanie affectionately.

Beanie (who seldom glowers) glowered. “I don’t like being called Fuzzhead,” she said quietly.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” said Lisa. “What do you like to be called?”

Beanie pondered. Her eyes brightened and she nodded with satisfaction.

“Monkey!”

Well, of course. Monkey is ever so much more dignified than Fuzzhead.

6 comments  

In Which My Mattress Springs Heave a Sigh of Relief

May 29, 2006 @ 11:38 am | Filed under: Family, Funny

Our neighborhood pool opened on Saturday. So far we’ve clocked a good seven hours there, and that’s not even counting today; we aren’t going until Wonderboy gets up from his nap. We really shouldn’t be going at all until we make tomorrow’s planned excursion into town for new swimsuits: my kids have been a pretty ragtag bunch at poolside this weekend. Jane’s suit is too small, and the other two girls wore out their suits through almost-daily use last winter. And I don’t mean at a pool: I mean right here at home. I don’t know what it is about a swimsuit that gets my kids so excited, but all winter Beanie and Rose kept wanting to get into their suits and “go swimming” on my bed. Maybe they were inspired by my blue comforter.

They’d swim for hours, burrowing under the sheets and calling it diving. They fished for the stray socks that always seem to accumulate at the foot of my bed. (This drives my husband nuts—the accumulation of socks, that is, not the girls fishing for them. What can I say? I go to bed with cold feet. Sometime in the night they must warm up and I guess I kick them off. Whenever I change the sheets, socks go flying everywhere. Or they did, until the swimming game started.)

My pillows are the diving board, and this has not been great for the pillows nor the bedsprings. But there’s no denying it’s great for the kids. They’re in their own blue heaven, two little Esther Williams minus the bathing caps. You can almost hear the soundtrack of cheerfully splashy music behind them. They float, they thrash, they chat with fish. They dance with mermaids and they shriek at sharks. They adorn themselves in seaweed (more socks) and take rides on passing whales.

The last time it rained, they spent the whole afternoon this way. Later, after dinner, I called them in to take a bath. Their faces fell.

“Do we HAVE to?” wailed Beanie. “Baths are boring. There’s nothing to do!”

I guess the sharks only live in the bedroom.

1 comment  

Welcome to

the Bonny Glen—

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children's book author

Melissa Wiley




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Where to Find Unabridged Martha & Charlotte Books


My Bonny Clan


Jane, 14 yrs old
Rose, 10 yrs
Beanie, 8 yrs
Wonderboy, 5 yrs
Rilla, 3 yrs
Huck, 5 months old

and Scott, the love of my life



Every Face I Look at Seems Beautiful






Book Log 09


June already??


The Chosen One
by Carol Lynch Williams

Sweethearts
by Sara Zarr

Catching Fire
by Suzanne Collins

Genesis
by Bernard Beckett

The Bite of the Mango
by Mariatu Kamara
with Susan McClelland

Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card

Chocolate Unwrapped
by Rowan Jacobsen
(notes)

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
by E. Lockhart

The Actor and the Housewife
by Shannon Hale
(notes)


May


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
and Annie Barrows

George & Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism
by Charlotte Moore

Gilead: A Novel
by Marilynne Robinson

Shakespeare Wrote for Money
by Nick Hornby

The Rosary
by Karen Edmisten
(review)


April


The Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart
(notes)

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
by Laurie Viera Rigler

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
(notes)

The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey
(notes)

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
by Nick Hornby
(notes here and here)

Elephants Can Remember
by Agatha Christie

Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis
by Rowan Jacobsen
(notes)


March


Little Brother
by Cory Doctorow

"The Sisters"
by James Joyce

Damosel: In Which the Lady of the Lake Renders a Frank and Often Startling Account of her Wondrous Life and Times
by Stephanie Spinner
(I interviewed her in this post)

The Film Club: A Memoir
by David Gilmour

Stolen
by Vivian Vande Velde
(notes)

Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor
by Mike Costa and Fiona Staples

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
(notes)

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
by Cory Doctorow
(notes)

Rules
by Cynthia Lord
(notes)

The Plain Princess
by Phyllis McGinley

The Sherwood Ring
by Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Polysyllabic Spree
by Nick Hornby


February


(notes)

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir
by Cylin Busby and John Busby

Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie

Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen (yes, again)

Austenland: A Novel
by Shannon Hale

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Washington Square
by Henry James


January


(notes)

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi

Daisy Miller
by Henry James

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov

The Twilight of American Culture
by Morris Berman

The Music Teacher
by Barbara Hall

The Moving Finger (Miss Marple Mysteries)
by Agatha Christie

The Ten-Year Nap
by Meg Wolitzer

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
by Alan Bennett

World Made by Hand
by James Howard Kunstler



Book Log 08



Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars?

They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.






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    A Word about How I Blog

    Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.

    (Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)




    Be Like the Bird


    Be like the bird
    Who, pausing in flight
    On limb too slight,
    Feels it give way beneath her,
    Yet sings,
    Knowing she has wings.

    —Victor Hugo










    My Big List of Booklists


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    The Quiet Joy


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    Meta






    “Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.” Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away? And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?

    (from a post called Way Leads on to Way)