• Do you know about the Veggie Tales? If so, do you know the Silly Songs CD? If so, do you know the song, "Oh Santa!"? Well, if you don't the song, it is about Larry the Cucumber, who is waiting up (with cookies) on Christmas Eve for Santa to come. Three different people (veggies?) come to his door: a bankrobber, a Viking, and an agent of the IRS. Larry shares his cookies with them...and at the end of the song, Santa finally arrives. The song is catchy and really fun, the first 300 times you hear it. After that, it becomes one of those earworms that, when you wake up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, gets stuck in your head and causes you to not be able to go back to sleep. Well, at least it does that to me. Because guess whose favorite song it is! Yep! And guess why it is his favorite song?! If you guessed because it is about Christmas, then you are correct.
  

I say all of that to tell you that Iliya always asks to listen to the song by singing part of it to us. He gets the words way jumbled up, and it is hilarious. He says the word "cucumber" like "koo-pudder" and I just love it. The other day, he argued with Nathan on the correct way to say "cucumber." You know, many times, kids hear the words correctly, but they can't say them correctly (for instance, an adult might ask a child to say, "run" and the child says, "wun" but doesn't realize he is saying it incorrectly). Anyway, Nathan was singing the song, and Iliya stopped him and said, "Daddy, don't say it like that! Say, koo-pudder." And Nathan said, "I did! I said cucumber. Can you say, "KYU-cum-ber?" And Iliya said, "No, that's not right. It is koo-pudder."

• Iliya has begun using his manners when he is being rude. How does that work?, you ask. Well...he employs the use of the word, "NO" as sort of a knee-jerk reaction to many things we say. For instance:

Me: Iliya, it's time to put your shoes on.
Iliya: NO!

-or-

Nathan: Iliya, go put this toy in your room.
Iliya: NO!

(he's not saying it as though he doesn't want to do these things, it's just more of an instant...knee-jerk...response. drives us crazy! which is probably why he does it)

Lately, this has changed up a little bit...added some manners into it.

Me: Iliya, it's time to put your shoes on.
Iliya: No MA'AM!

-or-

Nathan: Iliya, go put this toy in your room.
Iliya: No SIR!