A Sandwich By Any Other Name

My kids are not sandwich people. They will eat the occasional PB&J, and they seem to like grilled cheese, usually. Your typical meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard sandwich, though. Not for a million bucks.

Hamburgers, of course, fall outside the category of sandwiches. Hamburgers are always gooooooood.

I went to an art show with some friends this morning, taking Baby, but leaving Sven in charge of the others. On the way home, I kept thinking, "I hope Sven fed the kids. Hmmm, I wonder what he would think to feed them." I shouldn't have doubted.

When I asked Sven what they had for lunch, he said, "Hamburgers!"

At this point, I was slightly boggled, since we are 100%, completely out of ground meat, and Sven was car-less.

"Yep," Sven continued, "Z-monster insisted he wanted a hamburger for lunch, so we got out sandwich rolls, and put ketchup, mustard, and mayo on them. Then we added pickles and onions. I washed up some lettuce and tomato, and added those. The Z-monster and Didi both wanted cheese on their hamburger, so I gave them a slice each. Then we closed them up, and the kids had their hamburgers."

It's all in what you call the food.

Monsterisims

The Z-monster said "hot sauce" yesterday. It was so very exciting. At Christmas time he wouldn't even have been able to say "hot". A month ago any "s" sound still would have been out of the question. But yesterday he just up and said it. YAY!

On another note, reading is starting to interfere with some of his vocabulary pronunciations. "Up", one of his very first words, is now being pronounced "uppy". This confused me at first, but I have deduced the reason. "up" is spelled: U.P. and therefore pronounced UH-PEE. (insert image of me smacking my forehead in frustration)

In the department of farm animals, a horse is a "whoosh", a sheep is a "whip", a pig is an "ohnk", and a cow is alternately a "dow" or a "moo".

I'd love to take some whoosh-back riding lessons.

An Update on Feeding Trains

In a recent discussion involving trains, we have learned that not only do trains enjoy eating eggs and apples, but also the occasional hamburger with cheese.

When asked directly, The Z-Monster did concede that trains did usually eat coal. Except for when they are at home, in bed.

Home at Last!

Well, we made it!

The rest of the vacation was wonderful. We had a lovely dinner for my grandparents at The Sea Ranch, a nice restaurant on South Padre Island. I learned that my kids love deep-fried onion blossoms, but not waffle fries. I also discovered that I like scallops, but only if they are grilled. AND, pan grilled is NOT the same as char-grilled. Pan-grilled is a fancy way of saying fried-blech. See? You learn something every day.

We went to Schlitterbahn Waterpark with the whole gang. The kids loved it! Didi went on the rapids three times with me, and was very enthusiastic about going again. The Z-Monster was very nervous about the whole situation, he doesn't like getting water in his face. He went on one ride with me, and then did all of them with Daddy. By the end of the day he had a total blast! Baby had to be content with a few trips under the fountains, since I was (justifiably, I hope) too nervous to take her in any deep water. She didn't seem to mind.

The trip home was waaaaay too long, but we made it . . . mostly. Poor Buzz Lightyear got lost somewhere along the way. The Z-Monster is heartbroken. We left a message with the airport lost and found, and we're hoping it will turn up.

We're back at home, only part of the way unpacked, have our cat back, and AAAACK! it's time for the return to real life.

Beached

Greetings all people reading this post from somewhere other than the beach. Didi and I just got back from building sand castles and playing in the water. As soon as Z-monster wakes up from his nap he'll head down with Sven, while the girls and I have a swimming lesson in the indoor heated pool. Mwa-ha-ha-ha.

Our trip here was pretty uneventful. On Saturday we flew to San Antonio, TX. The Z-monster was duly excited to ride an airplane, especially since he had a window seat. His excitement wore off about half an hour into the flight when he was "all done flying" and ready to go home. He was a little worried to look out the window and not see the ground below him. The Z-monster's favorite part of the airport experience was riding the moving walkways. He also loved riding the shuttle bus to meet Grandpa at the car rental office. We rented a couple of minivans and drove to Corpus Christi, TX, where we spent the night.

Sunday morning we joined the rest of the family for breakfast, and drove down to South Padre Island. After we checked in at our Condo's office, we moved our stuff in, and went to eat dinner with Aunt Nanna and her family. Uncle S made a massive quantity of delicious barbecued chicken, beef, and sausage, along with his home-grown corn and potato salad. YUMMY! Monday morning we went to the beach, and then went to Brownsville to the Zoo. It was altogether too hot, so we decided no more big outings in the mid-afternoon.

We've had lots of fun playing in the water and sand. Didi and The Z-monster especially enjoy playing in the pool having "swim lessons" with mommy and daddy. The Z-monster was initially afraid to come off the steps of the pool, but when he saw how much fun Didi was having he got brave. Didi is just a little daredevil in the swimming pool (as long as she's got Mommy or Daddy firmly in her grip)

More Updates Later!

The Proper Care and Feeding of Trains

The Z-Monster approached me today to talk about the train he could hear going by in the distance. The conversation went something like this:

Z: Mommy! A train! A train!
Me: Yes, I hear the train.
Z: The train is going away. Away to it's house.
Me: The train is going home?
Z: Yes. Home.
Me: Well, what will it do there?
Z: Eat!!!!
Me: It's going to eat? Wow. What do you think the train will eat?
Z: Eggs. Eggs and apples.
Me: Eggs and apples. How interesting.
Z: Train is going bye-bye to sleep. (pantomimes sleep and snoring)
Me: Wow, really? Where does the train sleep?
Z: In a bed, Mommy. With a blanket and pillow. (giving me the "DUH" look)
Me: Oh, I didn't know trains sleep in beds. Do train sleep with teddy bears?
Z: No, with Buzz Lightyear! (gasps and looks around) Buzz! Where is Buzz? (runs off)

Word of the Day

The Z-monster's new word of the day- REACH.

Didi's word of the day- UP. (not new, just frequent)

Twister!

Ok, just kidding . . . kind of.

Yesterday was an unforgettable Mother's Day. It's pretty hard to forget spending an hour in the chapel halls waiting for the all-clear.

I was in the nursery with Didi and The Z-monster (Baby was sleeping through Sven's Sunday School Class), when all the sudden we were charged with a stampeding herd of Mormon mommies coming to fetch their children. We couldn't hear the siren in the nursery, but there were funnel clouds being sighted all around, and some reported touchdowns in the area. It was nuts! Eventually things lightened up and we left, but even as we were leaving the sky over the city looked like someone took a giant spoon and stirred the clouds, it was beautiful, but very unusual.

I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day!

Happy Monday!

Buy a Shotgun

That is now a high priority item on Sven's to-do list. Why? Well, because Didi has discovered kisses.

I don't mean kisses as in, "Good night, sleep tight." No, I'm referring to the "get out of jail free" kind of kisses. Didi was in trouble for climbing on top of the dresser (again) and Sven was telling her that it was a no-no. She knew she was in trouble, and about to get put in time-out, so she changed her tune. Instead of her usual (cover her ears with her hands, sqeeze her eyes tightly shut, and shake her head "NO"), she gave an affectionate smile, leaned in, kissed her daddy, and gave him a hug. Whereupon she calmly walked off. She has since tried the same stunt with me three times.

Much to her distress, Mommy does not accept kisses as bail. So far, failure does not seem to have deterred her.

And now, for the nature segment

Squirrels are interesting creatures. The way they run, and jump, and twitch, their tails going up and down as they go catches the eye. Despite that, I've never payed them a great deal of attention.

The Z-monster, on the other hand, has been watching them with great scrutiny. He now has a pretty accurate impersonation of a squirrel in his repertoire of "things that make people laugh". He bounces around on all fours, and paws at things, twitches his "tail" in the air, and "eats" his mega blocks, then subsequently buries them in the couch. Didi now imitates Z imitating a squirrel, and Baby loves it. The two of them parade back and forth in front of her, while she giggles and coos at them.

No need to hire a clown for the birthday party, just call Z!

My Diaper Changer finally arrived!!!

I ordered one of these about 3 years ago. and it finally happened.

Yesterday as I was changing Baby's diaper, Didi sat down in my lap and started "helping" me. She cleaned Baby off with a wipe, and then put the diaper on her. Baby thought it was just wonderful to get all that attention from Didi, and Didi felt like such a big girl.It was soooo funny. Very little of what Didi used the wipe on was actually in the diaper area, and she worked very hard trying to get that diaper to stay on without the velcro. Baby just adores her big sister, so it's great to see Didi giving her some real attention instead of just jealousy.

So now, with Didi to change diapers, and the Z-monster to fetch and dump, wow, I could almost retire!

My Littlest Princess

Well, I've been telling every one about how Baby is growing so much- and it is wonderful. However, according to her pediatrician, she hasn't grown all that much. She weighs 13 lbs 7 oz, and measured in at a petite 23 inches long. She is officially in the 1% percentile. That's down from 5% at her last checkup. She is growing, and healthy, and doing all those things babies her age should be doing, so the Dr. isn't worried. She's just . . . well, little.

I have been worried about the fact that Baby keeps spitting up/gagging on her rice cereal. It turns out that she just wants some better food. I can't say that I blame her. She smells chili or spaghetti and gets . . . rice??? So we started her on peas today. Those were a BIG HIT. No spitting up, or gagging, or further fussing. Just ate them right up.

Tongues are amazing pieces of muscle, and there is a lot that goes into learning how to use them. Today at the dinner table, Didi was experimenting with her tongue, and the different noises she could make by sticking it in different places (mostly) in her mouth. la, wah, da, etc. Bby was watching this, and during her post-dinner diaper change, started sticking her tongue out at me, and going off in a miniature fit of giggles. Thank you, Didi.