Way back when I was little {but not too little! because I have vivid memories of this!} I used to have to be holding my mom's earlobe to fall asleep. Low maintenance, easy going, and normal? All me. My kids' bedtime routine consists of a swift teeth brushing and ensuring that all the sound machines are set to the highest possible volume so ... earlobe lullabies are not a Patton child quirk ... quite yet. And I hope they don't get any crazy and coddled ideas when they suddenly learn to read and randomly decide to peep this post.
But, anyway! The kids do have quirks ... sort of. I guess.
Let's explore them.
Shall we?
JULIA. I've already typed at length about her hoarding but that's probably her biggest bizarre factor.
"look! I have the biggest hand in the WORLD!!"
She also refuses to sleep with any sort of blanket over her body ... no matter how freezing the house is and is such an incredibly deep sleeper that she routinely falls out of bed (onto the carpet but has fallen asleep on the couch and fallen down on the wood floor more than once, oops) and just keeeeeps on sleeping.
It's great.
BASH. Calls everyone, "kids". Me + Phoebe? "Hey kids!!" Julia + Simon? "Wait up for me, kids!!" etc etc.
And is very particular about having two teddy bears and three certain blankets draped over him before he goes to sleep. If I'm in a rush and forget even one of these five elements .... HELL to pay. He's also been known to stick his hand behind a mirror and get very, very confused when it doesn't appear on the other side.
THEO. Is very reticent to leave the house without a hat. A beanie sufficed during the colder months but now that it's warmer he's changed up his look a bit.
He's obsessed with tidying up and puts he and his siblings dirty utensils back in the silverware drawer after most meals. Sebastian went through a similar phase (emphasis on PHASE) so ... I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.
PHOEBE. I'd say she's your pretty standard 10 month old. She's terrible about eating food in her highchair but once it's on the floor and I'm sweeping it up into a pile and it's trash bound? She goes immediately into Parkour mode to get it all in her mouth. Why? why why why?
She's also going through a very serious stranger danger phase and odds are very high that if an unfamiliar human looks at her for a beat too long ...
She'll throw this shade their way.
And then burst into such a loud fit of tears that makes anyone within a five mile radius wonder if there's a baby being starved and/or tortured around the corner.
It doesn't make checking out at the grocery store awkward at ALL. Ever.
Anyway, my very favorite posts are the ones with lots of comments from you because those are exponentially more fun to go back and read.
two favorites:
"I knew I was in labor when ...."
and of course ...
baby names!!
So if your kid has a quirk .... I'd love to hear it. I feel like the Pattons are pretty boring ... there's got to be some pizazz out there, right?!
RIGHT? I hope yes.
But, anyway! The kids do have quirks ... sort of. I guess.
Let's explore them.
Shall we?
JULIA. I've already typed at length about her hoarding but that's probably her biggest bizarre factor.
"look! I have the biggest hand in the WORLD!!"
She also refuses to sleep with any sort of blanket over her body ... no matter how freezing the house is and is such an incredibly deep sleeper that she routinely falls out of bed (onto the carpet but has fallen asleep on the couch and fallen down on the wood floor more than once, oops) and just keeeeeps on sleeping.
It's great.
BASH. Calls everyone, "kids". Me + Phoebe? "Hey kids!!" Julia + Simon? "Wait up for me, kids!!" etc etc.
And is very particular about having two teddy bears and three certain blankets draped over him before he goes to sleep. If I'm in a rush and forget even one of these five elements .... HELL to pay. He's also been known to stick his hand behind a mirror and get very, very confused when it doesn't appear on the other side.
THEO. Is very reticent to leave the house without a hat. A beanie sufficed during the colder months but now that it's warmer he's changed up his look a bit.
He's obsessed with tidying up and puts he and his siblings dirty utensils back in the silverware drawer after most meals. Sebastian went through a similar phase (emphasis on PHASE) so ... I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.
PHOEBE. I'd say she's your pretty standard 10 month old. She's terrible about eating food in her highchair but once it's on the floor and I'm sweeping it up into a pile and it's trash bound? She goes immediately into Parkour mode to get it all in her mouth. Why? why why why?
She's also going through a very serious stranger danger phase and odds are very high that if an unfamiliar human looks at her for a beat too long ...
She'll throw this shade their way.
And then burst into such a loud fit of tears that makes anyone within a five mile radius wonder if there's a baby being starved and/or tortured around the corner.
It doesn't make checking out at the grocery store awkward at ALL. Ever.
Anyway, my very favorite posts are the ones with lots of comments from you because those are exponentially more fun to go back and read.
two favorites:
"I knew I was in labor when ...."
and of course ...
baby names!!
So if your kid has a quirk .... I'd love to hear it. I feel like the Pattons are pretty boring ... there's got to be some pizazz out there, right?!
RIGHT? I hope yes.
Oh man...kids are funny. My 15 month old lives with his hand down my shirt. Just scratching and clawing to his little heart's content and mine is a few sharp nails from being dub out of my chest. I tried getting him more attached to a stuffed animal, but now he just holds the stuffed animal in one hand, and massage/molests me with the other.
ReplyDeleteMy son does that too! It is so awkward when we are in public and he has his hand down my shirt! He is 14 months old ;-)
Deletehahaha. YES! I'm glad i'm not alone. I've had to walk hunched over the grocery cart before just so he can do his groping. Sheesh. Its a phase.....right?!?!?!
DeleteOh thank goodness I'm not alone!!! My 12 month old does this too! And those nipple pinches aren't for the faint of heart ;) ;)
DeleteMy oldest is a total hoarder as well. Her favorite is trash. Drives me insane. She also likes to hoard food, usually the packaged variety. And my youngest can't go to sleep until she takes off all her clothes. It used to be just her pants but lately her shirt must come off as well. I am sure my son has some weird quirk but I can't think of it now.
ReplyDeleteMy 18 month old nice has started saying "za/zem" before her words. "zamama" for mama, "zanana" for banana, "zemball" for ball, etc. She went through a phase where she LOVED tags, like the ones on blankets or toys. She couldn't have cared less about what the tag was attached too, she just loved chewing on it. Especially if it was cardboard and she could rip pieces off and try to swallow them. So safe and normal.
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids, but my boss has a four-year-old who is obsessed with vacuum cleaners/vacuuming (and has been for the two years I've worked with her). He asks for specific brands/models of vacuum for this birthday, watches YouTube reviews of new models, etc. When he came to the office once, he spotted a little Dirt Devil in the office manager's cube and asked "Mom, is this a Bissel?" (He can't read, so he made an educated guess). I think it's completely adorable, but my boss is somewhat concerned about his fixation.
ReplyDeletePS: I recently found your blog, and I love it! Your writing style is so fresh and funny.
My little brother (now 20) was obsessed with vacuums too. My aunt always tells a story of when he went to sleep over and asked to sleep with the vacuum and I think she gave him the hand held dirt devil to sleep with and she had to leave the closet door open so he could always see it. He got his very own plastic one for his birthday. He was about 2 I think. I thought he was the only one out there like that haha
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My son (2 in May) is also a hoarder, of any type of ball out there (used to be rocks, but we've finally moved past that). His favorite at the moment are golf balls. He has a couple dozen of them around our house. And he hates being dirty. His hands, face, if he sees something on his shirt or our clothes or whatever he has to clean it and it HAS to be done right then. He is the cleanest almost 2 year old I have ever met. My other son (5 months) has to fall asleep with a blanket over his face. I HATE it, but no matter what I do, he always some how manages to get his blanket over his face!
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Mine sleep in sleeping bags. Ben is fine in just the sleeping bag, but Claire insists on putting the bag under her regular sheet and blankets. How she doesn't smother herself in there, I have no idea. She's also reluctant to match socks, like EVER. (Oh, for the record, B is 5 and C is 7, and I've been reading since before there was a Theo! I love your blog!)
ReplyDeleteI think the funniest quirks to witness are the ones that are the same as me or my husband. I think my husband has a lot more than me (biased) and it cracks me up when one of the kids does something like him. My son in particular is exactly like his father. Some of his fatherly traits: sucks his thumb (my husband didn't stop until he was in 4th grade!), and he is anal about where things go. My husband is a neat freak and my son (who is only 2) gets mad at me if I put things away in the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteMy middle child (same age as Bash) is refusing to be a big girl and requires us to carry her everywhere as much as we will allow. Sometimes it ends in massive tantrums if we refuse. She gets mad at us if we tell her she is a big girl! Middle child syndrome I think. :)
OH! And the grossest quirk, my oldest, who is 5! has such a sweet tooth that she will pick candy or anything that looks like it's sweet up off the ground and eat it if we don't stop her. One time it was froot loops on the play ground. You would think by now she would know better but I guess she just NEVER gets sweets from us so she resorts to finding them wherever she can!
What is it with earlobes? I had never come across this before but both my kids (3 and 1) have to be fiddling with an ear while falling asleep. I've managed to train them to play with their own, but if they're tired then any passing head is fair game. It also means I say weird things like "it's ok, sweetheart, it was just a bad dream. Play with my ear so you can go back to sleep"!
ReplyDeleteMy one year old claps at me when he's trying to emphasize his point. I feel like my grandma came back from the dead to instill that trait in my child.
ReplyDeleteMary (almost 3) has been memorizing her books for the last year or so. Not just the ones we read thousands of times- library books that she has only heard once or twice. She loves to sit with a pile of books and recite them to herself as she turns the pages. Daniel (8 weeks) will only sleep on me or in his car seat. But he hates riding in the car. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteMy 18 month old will only sleep with Aden and Anais bamboo blankets because she thinks she's the royal effing baby. She's also discovered Barney is her one true love and calls out for him at all hours. She will tolerate Elmo for maybe 20 min and then it's "bah-neeeeee?"
ReplyDelete3 year old eats feta and/or bleu cheese with a fork from the container. It doesn't make our house smell like vomit AT ALL
Goodness, those traits are too funny. We're going through the whole 10-month stranger danger phase too, and it's super duper fun. So far most noticeable weird quirk is that she MUST turn over onto her stomach every time you change her diaper and will scream bloody-freaking-murder if you try to, you know, change a diaper the normal way. It is super entertaining and doesn't lead to gross messes AT ALL. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen my oldest was one, he said all his words twice. "Car car" was a favorite. He was my only kid so I didn't appreciate the weirdness enough. My second son, 4, has worn a superman shirt almost every day for months. He has two and I keep washing them, but almost all our pictures are of superman, which is how he prefers to be addressed - but only when wearing the shirt. He also wore a soft cap 24/7 for a month last year. My oldest daughter, 3, is going through a weird phase (please God a phase) where she can't resist impulses and so has to stay with me all the time. Otherwise she's (justifyably) terrified she'll dump water or throw her food. She wails in terror that she will, and then sometimes she does. All that makes my 16 month old's habit of crying all day for me and being a peach for her dad seem normal.
ReplyDeleteMy 14 month old loves hangers! If he sees a hanger, he will probably hold on to it for dear life all day long. One day in particular we were shopping in a nice boutique baby store, and I had to assure them that we brought the hanger from home!
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ReplyDeletethe weirdest ofour kiddos quirks is from our youngest, (almost 3) who cannot go to sleep before he says "wasn't it funny, in big hero 6, when mumble mumbles mumble" he has said it every bedtime/nap since we saw it when it first came out (Nov? ) and no one can figure out the end of the sentence! If you try to get out of the room before he says it he will sob and scream until you go back and he can say it.
ReplyDeleteI'm dying, that's hilarious 😂
Deletethe weirdest ofour kiddos quirks is from our youngest, (almost 3) who cannot go to sleep before he says "wasn't it funny, in big hero 6, when mumble mumbles mumble" he has said it every bedtime/nap since we saw it when it first came out (Nov? ) and no one can figure out the end of the sentence! If you try to get out of the room before he says it he will sob and scream until you go back and he can say it.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest went through a weird obsession with waterfalls when he was about 3. My parents had one in their pool and when we went to their house he'd zip straight past them (no hugs!) to the back door and demand that they turn on the waterfall. We went to a resort during this time with a bunch of rock that closely resembled the rocks in their pool and Wes got PISSED that grandpa wasn't turning on ALL THE WATERFALLS (they were not waterfalls. Just rocks). One time I was making pancakes and pouring the batter on the griddle and he said, "Pancake waterfall!!!!" I was both sad and relieved when he outgrew that one.
ReplyDeleteMy second insists that he goes to ninja school every night while everyone is asleep. Every morning he has all kinds of stories about the stuff he did in ninja school the night before. One evening I looked in on him a couple hours after he had gone to sleep and he was sort of falling out of bed. When I tried to move him back into bed he karate chopped me in his sleep. I think he might be legitimately dreaming about ninja school every night.
I was an earlobe holder, too! I've never met another. Thankfully for my husband, I've outgrown it!
ReplyDeleteAlways been a heavy sleeper but as a kid it was know for me to sleep through things such as the house alarm going off... Even though my windows were almarmed...
ReplyDeleteMy 15 month old gives the dogs his food from his high chair, but had learned to be sneaky about it since we tell him not to do it. So he will "stretch" with food on his hand to surreptitiously drop it on the floor, or pretend to put food in his mouth to drop it out of the side of his hand. We say he's practicing his magic tricks. It's pretty funny, and the dogs love it.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably not so much a quirk as a totally normal and boring toddler trait, but my 2yo daughter can't stand it if she sees me preparing certain foods for her... even though she LOOOOOVES to eat the foods if they've already been prepared. For example: I keep plain whole milk yogurt in the fridge at all times, but rarely get pre-flavored yogurts. If she wants special yogurt, I just stir in a spoonful of whatever jam we have open. It's pink and sweet, and just like the special individually packaged ones. But if she sees me mixing? Forget it.
ReplyDeleteMy brother did the same ear lobe to my mom! for comfort at random times too. so funny. and weird.
ReplyDeleteI used to fall out of bed and stay asleep...out of the top bunk! No permanent damage and the master's degree to prove I can read good 2. 😄
ReplyDeleteNo kids here - but two nephews! They both have weird sleepy quirks. The oldest is obsessed with earlobe holding - always has been! The youngest HAS to be able to twirl your hair around his fingers. Ponytail? No way - he will yank until it's down.
ReplyDeleteNew Reader!! Your blog is adorable. I can relate a little. I have four kids (all girls!!). And I may not have a husband who is in medical school, but I attended the nursing school (and just graduated May 2014) while having three children and was pregnant with my fourth! Talk about crazy. Gave birth three weeks after my nursing graduation. Sucked. And I still have yet to take my stupid licensure exam which will grant me the title of RN. Anywho, some interesting quirks about my girls.....currently, my third born, who is three years old has to wear her Rapunzel dress (currently obsessed with Tangled while I was trying to knock Frozen out of her system, now it is all about Tangled and "Punzel."). She literally woke up at 3 am when she realized she did not have her "Punzel" on and screamed that she needed it NOW!!!! That is all I got because I'm too tired to think about what other weirdness my girls do but there are tons of them. =)
ReplyDeleteLucy (4) wakes up every morning and declares what animal she will be that day, then proceeds to speak like that animal all day long. The days she is a bird are the worst. We have banned squawking from our house. I've said "pleas talk like a human for five minutes" more times than I can count.
ReplyDeleteHarper (20 months) has to knock on every door before entering a room. If we dare open her door to get her out of bed without knocking and waiting for her to yell "what you want?" we will be told to leave. Little miss bossy pants.
Theodore (7 weeks) hasbt shown us any quirks yet...but I'm sure we will see plenty in his lifetime.
Thanks for sharing your funny kiddos with us. Love reading your blog!
My son was fixated on sticks for a long time. To the point that he found a favourite stick in Kentucky when we drove through there on a road trip and kept it at home for the next couple of years. There were many tears when his sister accidentally broke it one day. He hoards weird stuff too. Lint from the dryer, packing peanuts, wrappers off empty candy bars. He has a whole section of his dresser covered in jars with all his lovely little 'collections'. He goes to sleep with a cloth nappy that he rubs with his fingers while he sucks his thumb. My daughter went through a fixation with our son's ear lobes. We had to have an intervention before she pulled his poor little ears off! He was the younger one. I can't remember any more of my daughter's quirks. She has outgrown them all now and is a super delightful teenager (spot the sarcasm) that has temporarily erased my memories of her adorable toddler years. :)
ReplyDeleteMy kids all have different habits for falling asleep, but I'll just mention one. My third must have her stuffed animal Snoopy to fall asleep with, always. And how does she fall asleep with it? By sniffing it's tail. Oh, yes. Apparently no other stuffed animal smells quite like Snoopy's tail, because there can be no substitutions. She has even schooled me in the proper way to sniff - by settling the tail horizontally across both nostrils and taking several deep breaths. She lets me have a turn when she is feeling generous.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I've had several go through the severe stranger danger phase. To the point where they wouldn't even look at my mom, whom we see at least once or twice a week. She is not exactly a stranger, but whatevs.
DeleteMy almost-four-year-old hates clothing. Except her underpants. Everything else gets torn off and I find it in a pile somewhere. Both at home and at her grandparents' house.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time she keeps her clothes on while we're in public but if she spills a little water (say, when drinking from a cup or a bottle or a drinking fountain) on her shirt she definitely tries to strip.
My 1-year-old son pinches me constantly. All the time. Has to be on bare skin though. Right now I can spare myself some bruises by wearing long-sleeves because we're experiencing a Hawaiian cold snap... but it can't last forever.
My one year old pulls up her shirt and tickles herself while saying, "A tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle." My four year old has a loud fake laugh that she uses appropriately in conversation. She also takes on ever-changing superhero personas and heaven-forbid you forget which superhero she currently is or...gasp!...make it seem as if she is just pretending that Batman is her real brother.
ReplyDeleteEaston needs a hat when we leave the house. He can only sleep with a red night light, there can't be ANY shadows. He can only drink out of his red cup, unless it's soda then he will try to snag a sip from a stranger... He also has to put his hand on your skin when sitting next to you-your sleeve won't do, he will roll it up to touch your wrist or roll down your sock to put his foot on you. :) he also likes things to be picked up and organized, he got out of bed one night because his trucks were in the wrong place in his room!
ReplyDeleteHudson can't sleep or be in the car without his stuffed kitty. He has to have Spider-Man whenever he takes a bath and hates having his hands get dirty!
They both sleep with blankets & have backup blankies just incase one ever gets misplaced!
My 3yo currently refuses to go to sleep unless there's a Kleenex under her pillow. I find them shredded up in her sheets like the bottom of a flipping parakeet cage every morning.
ReplyDeleteAlifeinparentheses.com
Anytime my 2 year old finds sock around the house, his, mine, or the babies, they go straight to his hands. He plays with his toys like that, will eat food like that, so weird…He also goes to bed in pretty much a toy chest every night requesting more and more toys, books, stuffed animals, and blankets to go to bed with him. I'm too exhausted to fight it so a toy chest it is! Julia's hoarding always makes me laugh really hard.
ReplyDeleteMy 2 year old does that too! He wore socks to church yesterday. Not worth the fight!! His favorite are his brother's dirty socks or his baby sister's colorful socks. It's just annoying when he stretches her socks out.
DeleteMy 2.5 year old, Lucy, canNOT see or ,heaven forbid, have someone come near her who is holding a banana. So weird. I eat a banana almost every morning while driving the bigger kids to school and every morning it's the same thing. There's shrieking and "eww eww eww" -ing and "Is that a banana?!?" So weird. All three of my kids just have so many things in permanent residences in their beds and apparently they are all there for very important reasons - books and animals and Legos and water cups and little collections of things. Kids are weird :)
ReplyDeleteTed loves, loves, loves his WubbaNub and for awhile he had three and had to have all three together. All Of The Time. He would have one in his mouth and the other two on his fingers...it was so cute.
ReplyDeleteJust here to say you're not the first earlobe holder I've heard of ... my little brother was one for a long long time. My sister speculates it's because he was weened the youngest due to my mum's thyroid cancer and radiation treatments. But all the same I just laughed to find out you had that quirk. It was really rather endearing with my brother and meant that the older sibs could even put him to bed because -- thank goodness -- we all had two earlobes to lend to the wind down routine.
ReplyDeleteTheo + Atlas would be such good friends (if Atlas liked friends). He's obsessed with hats, too! Not a beanie fan though. Ollie needs his bedtime routine: pee, jammies, some random memory story, a vitamin c chewable, sip of water, his mama shirt, fox stuffed animal, and some other stuffed animal in his bed, his hourglass turned over, fan on medium, prayers, night-night to everyone, then a cuddle from me or Daniel. If we try to forget something he'll be out in a sec to remind us with a tone like we are the biggest idiots.
ReplyDeletePrim is still just baby. Stranger hater like Pheobe. Looks at me and whimpers, biggest frown, then heartbreaking cry with huge tears. I love Julia's hoarding. I wonder how that'll play out in the awk preteen stage.
Gosh, they are the cutest! Carter won't sleep with any covers either. Oh, and I bought that exact magnifying glass (times 3) for my kiddos in the airport, leaving The Hundred ;)
ReplyDeleteFrankie, my oldest is a big time hoarder. Which is awesome as a homeschooler, because she wants to keep every.single. scrap. of paper that she writes or draws or paints on. Or looks at. I have to do the sneak purge frequently.
ReplyDeletePoppy, my middle daughter is obsessed with cutting tiny scraps of colored paper, glueing them together, and making "dolls" or other "toys" out of them. She is so deprived. And she leaves these adorable creations all over the house. It's actually kind of fun to see what she creates, but… all over the house!!
Nici is in the bed hoarding phase. She has dozens of toys in her bed, and insists on keeping one of my cook books and our "puke bucket" in there too. Just in case?
That first picture is perfect. Makes me laugh every time. We all have our weird quirks...like stalking the CP page to get my laugh on. It's not weird or anything...
ReplyDeleteLove these, I think I'll try to do mine for seven quick takes tomorrow. Wait with baited breath ;)
ReplyDeleteMy 2 year old (who talks quite well) has never called me mommy, only daddy If asked to say mommy she says daddy every single time. She calls her dad daddy or tio (uncle). Her poor uncle is the only one who ever gets called mommy. It is quite confusing for everyone except her.
ReplyDeletePhoebe's facial expressions, the melancholy kills me! I don't have kiddos but I hope when I do they come with some amusing quirks :)
ReplyDeleteOk, I can't think of any really crazy quirks and I'm sure my kids have them BUT reading through these comments has me rolling this morning.....so dang funny! Kids, they are weird creatures! Also, those pics of your kiddos, could they be any cuter?!! And Julia's hair is THE cutest!
ReplyDeleteI have a birth related question- your post about being in labor made me remember it. I see in the U.S. when you guys get induced they put you on a drip of Picotin? I think thats the one, and I know when my mom was induced with all four they also put her on a drip but when I spoke to my gynae she said THEY (our hospital, JHB or SA in general I'm not sure) use a gel that they put into your cervix to induce, and they put this gel in once every few hours over I think like 24 hours and if it doesn't start labor then I think its C-section next.. Anyone know anything about it and why they use that over the drip stuff?? trying to avoid being sectioned here haha.
ReplyDeleteSometimes they use the gel first in the US if the cervix isn't dilated enough. Then they use the Pit to speed things along. :)
DeleteThere are a variety of ways to start an induction. Different doctors go about it differently and I imagine it varies by country as well. Each method has its own benefits and risks. I think the best way to avoid a c-section is to try to avoid an induction and just let the baby come when it wants. That said, sometimes and induction is the only option. I'd encourage you to research induction methods (Pitocin, cervical gel, cervical balloon, breast stimulation, etc.) and to discuss with your doctor which methods could be used with you.
DeleteThank you ladies, first baby over here haha. My mom is like a natural birth pro but I mean her last baby was 16 years ago so trying to get a little clued up:) S.A. women seem to know very little about birth (huge generalization but my experience so far) so always find the U.S. bloggers and readers so informative:)
DeleteNot sure if this is Grace-specific or just oldest child traits–she tends to quietly hide whatever she doesn't want Sophie to find in places she knows Soph can't reach, and gets an inordinate amount of joy from tattling on Sophie for her various offenses. She has mostly grown out of her goofy words (still calls breakfast "brefext") but I really miss the days when she called coffee "fockee." Sophie also thinks she always needs a hat and/or mittens, sucks her thumb whenever she sees her comfort blanket, and walks on tiptoe half the day.
ReplyDeleteThe first pic of Bash is all kinds of awesome.
Piggybacking off of Bash calling one person "kid", my 2.8yo channels his inner New Yorker whenever he wants to get the attention of a random gentlewoman at the store (stranger danger is clearly a priority in our parenting agenda). He starts yell/talking "hey lady!" until they look at him and his uber embarrassed mother haha
ReplyDeleteThese are so much fun to read! Great comment thread idea, Grace!
ReplyDeleteJosie (age 5): must hug and kiss us at absolutely the last moment before walking out the door. If somebody forgets something and has to come back in, the whole process must start over. Multiple hugs/kisses all over again, frantically, before we walk out the door again. It's sweet, but a bit annoying when my hands are full and I'm just trying to get to the car. But hey - there's worse problems than an overly affectionate daughter, right?
Will (age 1): not a picky eater at all, just picky about the order he wants to eat things in. If you offer him a bite of the wrong thing, he'll refuse. Then, after he gets what he had in mind, he'll happily eat the first thing. So funny.
Matilda (7 months): if I'm around, she will only be with me. Nobody else will cut it. But if I'm not there, totally happy with anyone. If I leave, she'll cry her little eyes out for about 4 seconds when I walk out the door. Then smile at my husband. He says it's pretty funny to watch.
My daughter (2.5 years) has taken to exclaiming "People on the roof!" anytime she hears a noise outside or feels afraid for some reason. Sometimes this is accompanied by tears. I'm not even sure she could identify the roof.
ReplyDeleteI loved these! It is always fun to see how other kids personalities show! My daughter, Finley, use to be very particular about her bedroom. Everything had to be just right before she could go to sleep. When she was about 2 her hairbow basket was a bit to close to the edge of the dresser and she had a full blown panic attack about it. It took me pointing at different things in her room for 20 minutes before we figured out what it was! We have since desensitized her by leaving things out and open on purpose and now it doesn't bother her.
ReplyDeleteAlso, her sound machine has a digital clock on it. When she was about 3 it had been unplugged for some reason and I had plugged it back in and went to reset the time. She started loosing it! I finally figured out that she liked that it flashed. She said it was "clapping." So there it stayed flashing and on the wrong time for many many moons.
Right now my almost 3 year old son's biggest quirk is that he insists on sleeping on the floor. He also loves to carry around books and pretends to read them (which I love) - he picked out Diary of a Wimpy Kid at our last Costco trip.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter (16 months) who is also name Phoebe seems to be fairly normal so far except that you cannot say "breakfast", "lunch", "dinner" or "snack" unless you are actually going to be giving her one of those NOW because there will be hell to pay if not.
My 4yo daughter does the same thing ( pretending to read books, very loudly at that), in fact, on a few occasions i have been asked by some very impressed parents when she learned to read so well, but i assure you if they took a minute to actually listen to what she is " reading" it would probably answer their question lol.
DeleteThe Patton quirks + these reader comments are awesome! I don't know why I'm blanking right now on my kids' quirks, I know there are/have been many. My 4yo daughter is the one that makes us laugh the most. For most of her 3rd year, we would come upstairs to go to bed, long after she'd been put to bed, and we'd find her sleeping in the weirdest places. Most common location was her closet with the door closed (the first couple times this happened, I nearly had a heart attack when I went to check on her and she wasn't in her bed and readily visible elsewhere.). Other places she's been found sleeping: the crib that we never took down after she grew out of it, the laundry basket in the hall - covered in clothes so she blended in, and butt naked on the landing at the top of the stairs, using the step up as a pillow. Oh yeah, that's another of her quirks - she hates wearing clothes. Even now, a very common thing heard around our house: "Charlie, where are your pants?"
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has shockingly good eyebrow control for a 14 month old. If she thinks someone is odd she will squint one eye and raise one eyebrow at them. We get a lot of "she's so...um...expressive" when we're out. She also prefers food off the floor to food on her highchair tray or plate.
ReplyDeleteWhen my twin boys were about 2 or so, they started getting quirky about giving us hugs and kisses if we left the house. At first, it was just a hug and kiss...then a hug and two kisses...over time, they added a high-five, a fist-bump, etc. They are 8 now, and we still do this every time. We call it "the stuff" (as in, "before you go, give me all the stuff..."). It's like our family's secret handshake. There are 9 elements to it, and it has to be done in a certain order. I even had my friend take pics of us doing "all the stuff" during a family photo shoot a few years ago, so we'd have it documented forever. I made a collage and it hangs in our living room. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have some "stuff" of our own! I love the name you have it. With my daughter (now 5) we somehow got into a routine of giving kisses, bumping heads, and giving a hug before bedtime. Affectionately named Kisses, Heads, and Huggies. She stopped caring anything about the routine a while ago but as my weirdo son (3) gets older he keeps adding things to it. It's now Kisses, Nuzzles (noses rubbing), Heads, Huggies, High five left, and high five right. Of course it must be performed in order or we have to start all over again :)
DeleteMy oldest son (now 18) carried around a cloth diaper FOREVER and called it a "night-night". It had to be in the bed with him. Thankfully, I had stacks of them, so if one got lost, it had 50 replacements in waiting. My next one (16) has two blankies that he STILL sleeps with. He's not embarrassed about this and assures me that he will be taking them with him to college. When he spends the night somewhere else, he just shoves them down in his pillowcase and rolls along. My 3rd has two blankies also (he's 12), that still go everywhere. My 4th (10), has one blankie that he likes, but can live without. However, he has a stuffed lamb and a stuffed duck from GUND, that GUND no longer makes, that's he's had since birth. I live in fear that something happens to them. I would be stalking Ebay and paying one million dollars to replace those things.
ReplyDeleteMy sister, 22 and has a 5 month baby, STILL sleeps with her blankey. I am pretty sure it was white with Winnie the Pooh characters. Now it is dark grey, can't see the characters and looks like it will fall apart the moment you touch it.
DeleteAnd the cloth diaper night night made me laugh haha
duhitsmed.blogspot.com
I have a 4 year old, Chloe, who is also a hoarder. She loves to tear up paper into teeny tiny pieces and fill bowls, cups, purses, cupcake pans, or anything else that can be filled with shredded paper...
ReplyDeleteMy 3 year old, Addi, sleeps with an OLD shirt of mine that she calls her mama. She would NOT sleep unless she was next to me as a baby. My husband snores really loud and would wake her one million times a night, and she was convinced that she HAD to eat every time. I was exhausted and put her in her own bedroom with a shirt of mine laying on the mattress. This thing is covered in holes, but she has to rub it on her nose or her ear to fall asleep. Her other quirk is that she loves tiny animal figurines; especially ponies. She has a felt bowl from Target that she has overflowing with animal figurines and she carries it with her everywhere. She sleeps with it next to her on the bed.
My 7 month old likes putting her toes in her mouth.. super rare, I know.
my 4 year old nephew pretends to faint because a stranger is trying to talk to him, because he isn't getting attention, excited, sad, mad--he faints. i recently told him that i was getting married and he was going to have a new uncle and he fainted. it's a very believable faux faint and people that don't know him or that he does this ask if he is okay. haha he also wears a tie everyday no matter what else he has on.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! My youngest is the quirkiest by far he HAD to have his blankets on in a certain fashion one print side up the other right side up. He wouldn't eat a "broken banana" and would freak out if even one little piece was off of it. And to top if off he wouldn't eat "white butter" that's just butter to you and me...
ReplyDeleteMy almost-two-year-old sucks her first two fingers, crossed, and backwards, with her palm facing out. And she has done that literally since birth.
ReplyDeleteMy quirk when I was a wee one was that I sucked my thumb, but always wanted a piece of tape on my forefinger so I could smell it. lol...
6 year old who twirls her hair when tired, twirls OTHERS' hair when super tired & begged to learn to pee in the woods after overhearing daddy say he could....4 year who writes her name perfectly, just from right to left & will NOT stand to be corrected. She also folds our bathroom cabinet doors like science fair cardboard displays and holds conversations with her many reflections for 40 mins at a atime. 2 year old who was a tiptoe walker for the longest time, and went through a phase of only successfully wearing 1 shoe/sock. Not sure where the sock monster was before I birthed her two years ago...but countless "Nadia left her sock/shoe here" texts on my phone. All 3 girls are climbers, so multiple discoveries of foods/toiletries used as lotions/foods--favorites being peanut butter & lanolin. Mommy's pretty (thankfully laundered!) Underwear used as hats/shrugs. oldest went through a phase of needing a daily "underwear sticker" (pantiliner) just like mommy...baby boys biggest offense is puking on the person he just met/happily snuggled.
ReplyDeleteMy 3 year old daughter totally has to have her underwear "bandaid" too! I'm so glad I'm not the only one!
DeleteMy almost four year old daughter has developed the most elaborate bedtime routine that she can get away with, which includes making several statements that she makes every night as we exit the room...the most bizarre being, "I really like bagels and cream cheese." She says this every night and if we don't acknowledge the statements loudly enough so that she knows we heard her, she will dissolve into tears and continue saying it louder and louder.
ReplyDeleteAlso, both kids insist on having me kiss any bumps or boo boos. Apparently, my half-hearted air kiss magically cures any ailment or injury. Once, my daughter sat on the potty and hurt her bum when she sat down. She started screaming, "Kiss my butt! Somebody, kiss my butt!"
My 4 year old son will only eat "whole" foods. Not half a sandwich, or half a piece of toast, or half an orange...only whole. He has refused to eat bananas for years and we thought he didn't like them. Recently I discovered that he "Wikes bananas just fine, but you NEVER give me whole ones and I can't eat half". My 18 month old daughter will not sleep with a blanket on her, and she likes to gently bang her head against the wall beside her bed several times before settling down to sleep. :/ Her twin brother loves the broom and the vacuum cleaner. He brings me the broom at random times throughout the day, and if I don't gratefully and enthusiastically accept it, he hits me with it until I do. Then he runs off to get the dustpan. If he walks in on me sweeping, he shrieks and waves his arms in delight. He also likes to sit in the closet and touch the vacuum cleaner, and when I vacuum I have to be constantly aware of him so I don't step on him, because he's always *right* on my heels. My three year old always raves about food he does not like. If he tastes his meal and tells me it's delicious or he really likes it, then we know he's not going to eat it.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest doesn't have any weird quirks that jump out at me right now. I loved reading all these stories...I guess we're all odd in our own way.
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ReplyDeleteLoved the baby names post that you linked-- I babysat a kid named Sebastian but i liked to refer to him as Sea Bass. It would bug him SO much.
ReplyDeleteThis post was lolz. Thanks thanks thanks for the entertainment. More kid quotes, please!
My 9 month old daughter Anna is powerless to music. If any music, of any type, at any time comes on she dances and claps her hands. It is so funny, even if she is crying she will continue crying but will clap her hands and bounce!
ReplyDeletePosted all 8 of our family member's current quirks :)
ReplyDeletehttp://martinfamilymoments.blogspot.com/2015/03/you-want-quirks-ill-give-you-them-seven.html
My 20 month old son calls all apples, bananas, oranges, and pretty much any other whole fruit, bopples. He has for about 6 months now and while we will normally ask him if he wants an orange, he will say "yes, bopple". My dad, also know as Pop Pop, has a large white truck, so all trucks of any shape or size are called Pop Pops as well.
ReplyDeleteHe normally has a snack when he wakes up from his nap, which he wants to eat on my lap, however I must be leaning back against the couch otherwise he will push me into a reclining position. Other seats in the house are not acceptable places to eat his afternoon snack.
I don't have kids, but when I was a kid I HAVE to be petting/stroking this one mole my mom has on her lower back in order to fall asleep... Along with that, one of my leg is over a body pillow while the other one is just swinging back and forth, kind of like how dogs wag/swing their tails when they're lying on the ground. I was forced to sleep without my mom's mole once I started sleeping in my own room, and the leg wagging turned into random smaller feet movement.
ReplyDeleteadoseofmoe.blogspot.com
Asa will burst into tears if people laugh at him when he's tired. And he LOVES the reaction he gets from people when he gives hugs, so he'll repeatedly throw himself onto someone's chest just so everyone will go "Awww".
ReplyDeleteOkay there are 85 comments and am so late to game with this + you can probably tell I'm catching up on my blog reading, BUT Savona has one weird quirk after another. She walks tippy-toed most of the time, calls one of my friend's daughters (who she LOVES) "Mama" and looks at me after she calls her that, as if she knows that she's purposefully calling her favorite person ever "Mama" even though she knows it's not. She can't have a speck of dust/dirt/ANYTHING on her feet and insists I pick the invisible "whatever-it-may-be" off her foot or else hell will be paid.. those are just a few goodies.
ReplyDeleteI randomly found this post and I am dying! I'm so glad I'm not the only one with weird kids :)
ReplyDeleteEllie (6) sings made up songs at all times. I wake up in the morning to her singing in her room, she sings loudly in the car no matter what song is on the radio, she has a wonderful compliant personality but her teacher says "the only problem we have is that she bursts into song during class". She falls asleep every night by singing...loudly!
My son, Foster (3) is the real strange bird in our family. When he was a baby he slept on his back and held his feet up in the air and over so that his toes touched his face. Like a human pretzel. He got attached to his sleep sack from that time era (0-9 months) so it became the "blanky". Thankfully I found an identical one online and was able to cut both in half so now we have four of them. Imagine taking your kid to the gym childcare and explaining why his lovey has a zipper down the middle of it, ha! He has to rub it on his cheek and suck his thumb to fall asleep.
He also has to have the exact same stuffed animals in the exact same spot every night in bed. His sippy cup of water must be in the corner and turned so that the spout faces out, and a tiny little Barbie-sized plastic dog must be under his pillow. He also has four blankets that must be placed on him in order, but his feet must hang out at the bottom. So high maintenance!