Stick-Swords and Creation

A visit from TT means that Sam and Mommy get some time alone together. This weekend Red Power Ranger got to go to a Halloween party, swing stick-swords at the park, and build every Lego creation in the house. There is still some disagreement about what to do with the complex creations after they're finished, so Mommy keeps buying more. And now that we've discovered the Lego minifig surprise packages for $2.99 at Target, we may need to build new shelving to contain it all.

Eva's Birthday Surprise from Auntie Annie

Nuggets

Mommy, why is there a chicken on the side of the box?

Because they are chicken nuggets.

Are they made out of chicken?

Yes.

[pause]

That's not nice. They shouldn't do that.

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Mommy would you like to be an alien?

I don't know. Probably not.

I would. Then I could ride on a shooting star. I'd have to wear my sunglasses though so I don't burn my eyes.

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Mommy, I'm excited to see Grandma. Are you excited to see Grandma?

Yes I am. I love TT. I love her very much.

I love her too. She's my favorite. You need to be nice to her, Mommy. You need to not be mad at her because she's my grandma and I love her. Don't be mean at her.

The Ravioli Experiment

We're planning to attempt this with friends soon, possibly experimenting with the ingredients (maybe a gorgonzola pear mushroom rosemary?), so we tried it ourselves this weekend to work out the bugs. Who knew homemade ravioli could be so simple and fun? And delicious!

Worms on the Kitchen Counter

Yes, he was wearing short pajamas and winter boots. He's 3.

On my kitchen counter is a small, clear Rubbermaid container filled with black dirt, six earthworms, and a tiny yellow inch worm. Sam collected them this weekend as he “helped” me dig up the gravel that lined our driveway. I started this project in April. I anticipated replacing the gravel with fresh grass, planned to relocate the rocks overgrown with sandburs that stuck to our clothes and caused endless tantrums when they found Sam’s bare feet. But with a baby and a three-year-old, the opportunities to complete even a simple landscaping project are few and far between, and it got to be September before I finally said out loud to my neighbor, “The goal is to get this done before the snow falls.” When I said it out loud I suddenly became focused on getting it done, and despite a late bedtime the night before and being up twice to feed the baby and once to change Sam’s sheets, when the baby went down for her morning nap, Sam and I headed out to the driveway.

Read the rest here.

Pink Cupcakes

I can hardly believe it's been a year already. Happy Birthday, sweet baby girl.

Eva Therese

Born 10/18/10 at 12:12PM
9 lbs 10 ounces
21 1/2 inches

Here's a flashback.

What He Hears

From the Sometimes-He-Hears-What-I-Say Department:

#1

"Look, Mommy. Look what I did!"

Sam is at the dining room table building with Tinker Toys. He has built a locomotive that looks almost exactly like the one in the picture on the instruction booklet.

"That's cool. Where'd you learn to do that?" I say.

"It's because I ate that avocado and my brain got bigger and now I'm smart," he says.


#2

Sam is sitting at the kitchen counter drawing and paying no attention to me. After discovering that we're out of coffee, I am desperate for caffeine. In the back of the cupboard I find a few packets of chai black tea that are at least ten years old. I say to myself that I should look up on the internet how much caffeine is in black tea and I sit down to the computer next to Sam. Yahoo is telling me that there is a must see video of Lady Gaga having her Marilyn Monroe moment with Bill Clinton, so I start the video and Sam actually looks up from his drawing.

"I like that music, Mommy. Is it about tea?"

#3

Sam has been in bed for ten minutes when I sink myself into a hot bubble bath. Just as the bubbles reach my collarbone he opens the door and tells me he has to poop. I tell him to get his potty seat from his bathroom and bring it into Mommy's bathroom so I won't have to get up to clean his butt when he's done. After he is settled on the potty seat he tells me he needs something to read so I hand him the Scholastic Parent & Child magazine that came home from pre-school last week. He thumbs through it looking at pictures of Halloween costumes and toys he wants for his birthday while I read the Time magazine about the new silent majority.

"This is awesome. I love this magazine!" he says. "This magazine is awesome! I need to make more time to read it."

River Walk

The beginning of our afternoon walk in the woods was not my shining moment as a parent. We had arrived early and when I didn't see the other moms and kids, I drove up and over the bridge and parked near the park sign. And after ten minutes passed without anyone else arriving, we started our walk back over the bridge.

"Maybe everyone is meeting somewhere else," I said. "Maybe they are by the beach. Maybe Mommy has it wrong."

The bridge was just too exciting and new for Sam to cross it quickly, even with the promise of Hamilton on the other side. And Mommy was focused on finding Hamilton, and more importantly Hamilton's mommy. Any mother of a 3-going-on-4-year-old might understand how desperately I needed to find another Mommy to talk to, how tired I was of negotiating every, single, little, thing. And I'm not proud of the way I rushed Sammy across the bridge. But in the end we found Ham and Ham's little sister, and my savior, Ham's mommy. We enjoyed some brief adult conversation in between races along the bridge despite my insane fear of the bouncy balls going down the bridge drains and in to the river to be lost forever. And when Sam went in the water shoes-and-socks-and-pants-up-to-his-knees, I just sat in the sand and exhaled. A beautiful afternoon for a hike along the river that left me wanting more time with these friends.

Our NEW Pizza Farm

October is our favorite time of year for trips to the Pizza Farm, but this year Suncrest Gardens had their final Friday night of wood-fired pizza and local music in September. When our two families (meaning the two moms) decided not to push our exhausted children (and mommies) into a late Friday night venture to make the final pizza night last week, we instead started planning to create our own pizza farm experience complete with horses in the pasture and feral kitties circling the pole shed. The boys flew kites in the wind across the prairie and raced machines with wheels around the yard. Everyone enjoyed the bonfire and the eight different grilled pizzas. The hits of the evening were the battery powered kids' ATV, bottle rockets and s'mores, and the rosemary pear mushroom gorgonzola pizza. And two bottles of Los Dos made the mommies very happy to have a new local pizza farm that has indoor plumbing

Thanks Holthaus's for a fabulous evening at our new favorite pizza farm!

Eva scoots on the deck

Zachary stops running for a few minutes to help Eva with the phone

Sam loves the toys at the Holthaus "farm"

Rosemary-pear-mushroom-gorgonzola
Grilled-chicken-sundried-tomato-zucchini-feta

Sam loves the bonfire

Sam and Nathaniel

Zachary and Eva

Star gazing