Bear Legs! Roarrrr...

I know it's winter and I wear nothing but pants, but I think it's time to shave my legs after the following conversation with Luke this morning:

"What is THAT?" Luke asks, pointing at my legs and crinkling up his nose.

"That right there? That's leg hair. I haven't shaved these legs in a while."

(But my armpits are nice and smooth. Always!)

"Oooooh, okay. That's yucky?"

"Well, it's not that yucky. It's natural, but here in America women shave."

"No. NO, mom. That's YUCKY!" He looks at me, gets eye-contact from about one foot away and makes sure I'm listening. He starts over-enunciating and speaking loudly to me at the same volume that some, um, not-so-brilliant older Americans speak to others who don't speak English.

"THAT'S. VERY. YUCKY!"

Okay, okay. I'll shave tomorrow. I have the flu.

Men.

(Update: I just shaved! Do I get a prize?)

First Words?

For today, my issue is....

Is this Aidan's first word? This was recorded when he was 8 weeks old:



Or was it yesterday when we were feeding him rice cereal:

"Mmmmm, rice cereal. We're about to eat. Can you say eat?"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

(Jay and I laugh!)

"Yes! Eat! Can you say EEEEE-T?"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeee-pllT"

(Jay and I look at each other wide-eyed.)

He has also said "yeah" and "hi" to people, but it's just too weird (and early) for speech.

BEST CHRISTMAS, EVER!

I love this girl tremendously and I'm glad she found Eric! Congratulations!!!

The Little Be.

One of Luke's favorite books is  The Little Pea, an amusing story about a pea who does not want to eat all of his dinner, which just happens to be candy. (That's what you eat for dinner every night when you are a pea.) Eventually he finishes all his candy with much disgust and, as promised, gets his dessert...

Which just happens to be a plate of spinach. YUM!

Sorry to ruin the ending for you.

Tonight I made an almost entirely green dinner. We had roasted broccoli, a fresh watercress salad with lemon dressing and diced avocado, green beans with onion crunchies, Swiss Stake, and a plate of garlicky sauteed spinach that I left on a small plate for myself, you know, because I really like lemony, garlicky spinach. Luke ate about half of his dinner and proclaimed he was done. The boy was so far from being finished. Eyeing the extra plate of spinach, I had an idea.

"Hey Luke, don't you want dessert tonight?"

"Yes!"

"If you want dessert, then you need to finish your dinner."

"How many bites?"

"Twenty."

(I'm into big numbers when it comes to finishing food. None of this one or two bite nonsense. Can you tell I'm an American? I am. But I'm not obese or slightly overweight...anymore! Lay off, I "just" had a baby.)

"Okay."

So he ate half an avocado and about 10 green beans. "Hmm...I wonder if this will actually work," I thought to myself. He has been saying, "Maaaaaaaaammmm" with that reprimanding tone quite a bit these days in response to many of my ideas, especially my best ones.

He continued to eat until he met our goal.

"Finish all of it!" he said with a mouthful of food.

"LUKE! GUESS WHAT YOU GET FOR DESSERT?" I tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

"What?"

"SPINACH!!!!!!" I squealed. "Just like Little Pea!"

"Oooooooh!!!!"

To my surprise, he ate all of it and proclaimed, "I lick my dessert plate clean."

There was nothing to say to this except, "Yum. Yum. Extra Yum."

So we did, together, with smiles in our voices and twinkles in our eyes.

Twinkle, Twinkle!

On December 1, 2008, we experienced a real treat!

Right before the sun went down, we discovered that Jupiter and Venus would be extremely close to a beautiful crescent moon. Supposedly you could have even seen Juipter's ring that night, even with a cheap-o telescope.

But ours wasn't performing even to the cheap-o standards that night, much to my dismay. Yes, the lens cap was off. Jay couldn't figure it out, either. Later on we figured out that the focusing knob's screw was stripped. :P

"It's okay!"


Luke was excited beyond belief upon seeing Jupiter and Venus. "Look! I see Jupiter! I see Venus, too! Wow!" Then he repeated this about 30 times with joyful laughter in between each observation. We had to keep reminding him that it was Venus and not Mars that he saw. To him it made much more sense to see those two planets together, not Venus and Jupiter, of course. After he was done looking at these two planets he asked, "Mama, but where is Mercury and Venus and Earth and Mars and Jupiter and Saturn and Uranus and Neptune and Pluto and Ceres and Eris and Haumea and Makemake?" I replied, "I know that Venus and Jupiter are right there, and we are standing on Earth, but as for the others, we'll have to look them up, okay?"

"Oh....okay." He was slightly disappointed. But only for a minute.


Amazing! Venus is the brightest star closest to the bottom in this picture. Jupiter is the one on the right side.


Isn't it beautiful? I loved knowing what I was looking at, but I must admit that it freaked me out. Those planets seemed close! I'm a little bit more comfortable with a little bit more elbow room. You know, should we happen to collide and stuff. I'm just sayin'. I know that's not going to happen...anytime soon!


Even baby brother had some fun, too! (The light you see with the boys is Venus.)


We will definitely be spending more nights under the stars, especially with Luke's growing interest in astronomy.

My Conservative Son

Yesterday I was catching up on some of my favorite tv shows online during my break time when Luke walked into my room and peered at my computer screen. It's funny how it seems people always walk in and check out what you're doing during the most questionable moments. Not that I was watching anything terrible, but it was primetime tv, something we definitely don't let Luke watch. There, on the screen, was a couple embracing in a kiss. He looked and smiled. At that exact moment they started kissing a little bit more passionately. It was definitely a "Holy-crap-I-better-stop-this" moment. Before I could distract Luke or stop the video Luke looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know about this video" and promptly walked away.

Excellent judgement, son.

Happy Birthday, Dear Auntie!

We love you!

I Have the Power: An Experiment!

Today something wonderful happened. Luke pooped. In the potty. Without screaming or crying.

What a wonderful day!

He has shown quite a lot of interest in the potty training thing. Some mornings he'll wake up and want to wear underwear and he usually does pretty well. He'll happily urinate in the toilet until the dreaded pooping comes. For some reason he did not want to poop in the potty. Usually he would start to cry and scream, sometimes he would simply just hold it in an act of sweet rebellion. I don't know if he didn't like the sensation of sitting on a plastic seat while doing his business in contrast to his usual squatting or laying down or what. Today while we were eating gnocchi with a gorgonzola cream sauce, I noticed him squirming in his chair.

"Be, do you have to make poo-poo?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to go on the potty? I bought a special present for you that I'd really like you to have."

"No. No please make poo-poo on potty. Make poo-poo in diaper."

"But you aren't wearing a diaper right now. You don't want that stuff on your underwear, do you?"

"Nooooooooo."

"Okay then, come on."

Off we went. He was reluctant at first, but I knew he was close. Jay had just left and I really didn't want to change another poopy diaper while trying to mind the baby. We just had tacos last night, too. I plopped him on the potty and offered him something to read. I brought him his manners book and his wrapped present. He immediately demanded that I give the present to EJ (his 3 year old friend), but I said no way, that's for you! He sat, but said he wanted to poop in a diaper.

"I'm sorry, but I just don't have one for you right now." Then I walked away. I'm kind of mean, aren't I? I figured that he might need a little privacy. I knew he really had to go and I was just dying to see if one pleasant pooping experience could rid him of the necessity of being able to sit in it afterwards.

Two seconds after I walked away I heard him shout, "Hey mom! Look! Look!" (For a second there I felt like I was reading "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.")

"Yes?!"

"I did it! I made POOP. POOP IN POTTY!!!!" The smile on his face was so adorable.

"YOU DID?!? THAT'S WONDERFUL!!!"

I helped him stand up, all while holding Aidan in my other arm. Then we wiped. And looked.

"WHOA! That was a big one! I'm so glad you don't have that big thing in your pants. Do you want THAT in your pants?"

He looks at me, then in the toilet. "NO WAY! I DID IT! I HELP ERFT! I HAVE POTTY POWER!"

Did it hurt, Luke?

"Noooooo....diapers hurt, not the potty!"

He's worn underwear all day with just one wet accident. I hope it sticks, but we'll just have to see how this goes. All I know is that he'll eventually come around. Until then all I can do is give him all the encouragement he needs to take yet another step in growing up.

While I couldn't find a youtube clip of our potty training video, I did come across this Japanese gem. Man, they just do everything better, don't they?

Que Milagro.

In honor of dead week and finals week for all of our college kids, I'm posting this horrible video that was part of a class requirement. This is extremely embarrassing as my Spanish STINKS, but it's worth saving. My favorite part is when Doris says, "Mi-la-ha-ha-gro."
My friend Juli has been begging me to post this video for the past year. Oh Juli, you wanted to see this video so badly, but I'm afraid you've forgotten how horrible it was... Jason took some liberties and added some titles and some music. That was not part of the original, I'm afraid.

javascript:void(0)

If I had an extra $50 to waste...

Although I no longer waste $50 on things like novelty items since I get to spend hundreds each month on things like diapers, children's enrichment classes, baby clothes, and oh yeah-food, I found a very cool item in the uncommon goods catalog that arrived in my mailbox the other day. When the time comes to purchase an alarm clock, this would certainly be a wonderful option, especially since Jason is the king of sleeping past his cell's alarm. It would seem kind of silly to buy this now, especially since I wake up between 4:45 and 5:45 every day, thanks to the world's best alarm clock, Aidan. Nothing gets you out of bed faster than a diaper leaking poo. In your bed.

Hmm...compared to the morning poo fountain, this isn't a bad alternative! Isn't it cute/obnoxious?

Runaway Alarm Clock With Wheels:


Here it is in its true action: