Silence is never golden.

The kids have been playing together well lately (for the most part, anyway). They're really starting to collaborate in ways vaguely reminiscent of my & my little brother....which scares me.
Yesterday, they were playing in J's room (which will be their shared room eventually). No screaming, banging, crashing, or crying. All was well, and since I was doing dishes in peace, more time went past than I realized. This was worrisome.
My suspicions were confirmed when I entered the room to find J's bed as taken apart as a preschooler and toddler could make it: sheets and blanket everywhere, mattress off and shoved against a wall; even pillow removed from the pillowcase. The bed-frame was in the center of the room, with two children on it, looking very pleased with themselves.
"J! What are you doing?!?"

Big smile. "Is a boat!"

Everything's a wonder.

We recently got a couple hanging plants for the apartment, and put them in front of the living room windows (it's starting to look like a home, yay!). Since it's nice and cloudy today, I decided to water them now, before I forgot. J watched with fascination.
"Hey, what you doing?"
"I'm giving the plants some water."

He stewed this over for a minute, and then eagerly began trying to climb the gate near the window.
"Hey, hey! Needa pick up! Needa see a plants drink a water!"

Also known as "bad joke device".

I was going about my business this morning, when I heard an odd beeping. Lots of the kids' toys make noises (thanks, Gmas & Gpas), so at first I didn't think anything of it. The beeping seemed to be wandering around the apartment, but neither of the kids had any of the usual suspects--J was playing quietly with his trains, and B appeared to be "talking" on a toy phone. The beeping followed me from the living room into the kitchen, as did B. Then I took a closer look at her "phone".
She'd somehow gotten ahold of the stud-finder.

Pronunciation: Not a Three-Year-Old's Strong Point

We went out to eat tonight to Long John Silver's (not our proudest moment, but it tastes good once every few months), and J got a kid's meal with chicken, fries, and a hush puppy. It's been a while since we've been to Long John's, so he wasn't too sure about the hush puppy. He refused to try it at first, even after seeing me eat one of mine. We got him to try it by telling him its 'kinda like a doughnut.' He happily dipped it in ketchup and started munching on it. It seemed to be a hit, though he didn't want another one after he finished that one. Anyway, he kept talking about the doughnut. I decided that since he already liked it, he could know what it's actually called. The following conversation ensued:

Me: It's called a hush puppy.
J: Yeah! I eat a dog!
Me: No, its a *Hush Puppy.*
J: Yeah! You eat a puppy!
Me: *Hush Puppy!*
J: You eat a pus puppy!

At this point, I dropped the hush puppy I *had* been eating and we started laughing. Not quite enough to put me off my appetite, but close.

Литл Баттхеда

Yesterday, we took the small ones to the mall. While there, I needed to go to the ATM, and since J was done eating, and getting antsy, I told him to come with me, and he could push the buttons when I told him to. He generally does pretty well; I let him do this at stores often. The ATM in the food court is all new and fancy and smart. It even remembers what language you want, so that next time you use a networked ATM, you don't even have to tell it. So, of course, when the language selection screen come up, what does J do?
He jumps up, and hits the touchscreen, selecting Russian.
Guess I'm not using Bank of America ATMs anymore.