water fight

here we were, first day back from st. george, and pace requested we have a water fight.  it was me against the boys.  david and pace each had one of those squirters, and after some blood, sweat, and tears, i had both hoses, had knocked over their primary water source, and usurped the other container as a helmet.  i had a stripe or two of water on my clothes while both david and pace were soaking from head to toe.  david still would not agree i won that fight.  pace knows, though.  he ended up saying, "next time, mama, me and you are gonna win and beat daddy!  i want to be on your team!"

a couple other really fun pace-isms, before i forget:

• i love witnessing pace applying what he is learning.  pace fell and skinned his knee the other day.  he was very concerned about the scab that formed.  i explained the purpose of the scab, and that it would fall off when new skin formed underneath.  "like a gila monster!  scabs are good guys like white blood cells, right mama?!"  when we saw the gila monster at the visitor's center in st. george, it was shedding its skin, and pace could see its new, pink skin underneath.  so we talked about the difference between humans and reptiles, and how reptiles shed their skin and grow new skin underneath.  so, yes, scabs are like gila monsters!
• pace says "this day" for today, and "another day" or "the next day" for tomorrow.  yesterday he said, "mama, on the next day when daddy is home, we can get in the jeep and go high in the mountains, up there!"  "we could!  would you like for us all to go on a jeep ride in the mountain together and have an adventure?"  "no, mommy.  just me and daddy and maxwell.  you can stay home and read books."  he's right on track with mama and adventures...
• we were weeding our garden last night, as it had become slightly overgrown while we were out of town.  i was showing pace which plants were weeds, and said, "weeds are bad news, huh pace?"  "yeah.  and good news comes from news helicopters."  pace says "yeah" like he's laughing the first syllable.  very funny.
• david and i went to the temple tonight, and got back an hour later than we had planned--it was a huge session.  david had taken pace's binkies away earlier in the day, but forgot to put  them on his bed for bedtime.  so our sitter had quite the bedtime escapade with pace.  as it turns out, pace was still wide-eyed awake in bed at 1045, when we got home.  i went up to say goodnight and pace said he had been crying for me.  then he said, "mama, claire [our babysitter] doesn't belong to me.  only you belong to me."  melt.  your.  heart.