Sunday, July 30, 2006

the police and the mayor

This morning, the boys dressed for church. The oldest came downstairs looking like a young Mormon. White short-sleeved dress shirt with a pen in the pocket, khaki pants, and a black backpack. You need to know his occupation to understand the dress code. He is the mayor, you see. He is learning to shake hands and give speeches.
His brother wanted to know how to spell "POLICE" because he wanted to write it on a scrap of paper. After much work, he spelled the word, handed me the paper and a clothes pin so I could clip it to his shirt pocket. He wanted me to insure that I did not cover any of the letters.
He told everyone he encountered at church that he was, in fact, "the POLICE" and he was there to fight the bad guys. He told me later there were no bad guys in Sunday school today, but there was one person who was not being very nice. humph.
Speaking of the police....a guy rear-ended me the other night. There were three police cars there with lights flashing before I could even give the 911 guy my name.
Ladies, let me say this...do as I say and not as I do... don't get out of the car if you are rear-ended especially at night. Just call 911 and sit tight. My mom told me years ago when I moved to Atlanta that guys would target single females driving.
Granted it happened at a major intersection in front of city hall, well lit and all, but after it happened, my adrenaline was pumping and I had to do something. I also say this for myself as a lesson for next time, because I also heard stories about people impersonating police officers and pulling over females to do nothing but cause them harm.
I was fine, our truck had a little fleck on the bumper, the Pontiac Sunbird that ran into me had a pretty bad bumper and headlight damage.

These cops were great. This in sharp contrast to one of their colleagues I encountered two weeks before. I ended up in a grocery store parking lot one day due to a series of roadblocks that seemed to be dumping all the traffic there. I stopped in front of a cop to tell him the road blocks didn't seem to be making much sense. He came over to the car to tell me that there was a large gas main break. As he said this, I could hear a large hissing sound coming from the construction sight over his shoulder.
I decided to spare my words about the roadblocks and asked him the easiest way to get home. He looked at me and said, "How long have you lived here?"
"Five years," I answered, not understanding how this helped me get home.
"You mean to tell me, you have lived here five years and you don't even know your way around these roads yet?" he said in that smart-alecky "couldn't get cast in 'Dukes of Hazard' as the sherriff" southern drawl.
I wanted to smack his sassy mouth. But I had visions of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Cynthia McKinney in my head, and I thought the boys might be traumatized by seeing their sweet mother cuffed and arrested.
Just as I was about to tell him thank you very much and be on my way. They Bubba in the 4X4 truck behind me yelled, "Hey if you're giving directions around this say it a little louder so I can hear!"
The cop suddenly softened and gave directions in his polite, glad to help you "safety cop" voice.
That is what "the POLICE" do, Q says....help people. Q adds as we drive away, "I'm going to be POLICE too, when I grow up."
razzle fraggle.....Good thing Q can't read minds.


Thursday, July 27, 2006

getting out

I took the boys to our local Whole Foods Market for storytelling time. Teaming up with the library this store holds a weekly time for storytelling with organic snacks and drinks for the kids and really good coffee and pastries for the parents. That, frankly, was the main reason I took them.
I decided to get some really good coffee for the house. Since the coffee I wanted was gone, the coffee bean lady said she would roast me some. She scooped raw coffee beans into a large roaster. Hot air started to pump into the roaster and the result was beans popping up in a tall clear tube. I would guess this contraption was about 9 feet tall. The boys were so thrilled to watch the beans swirl in the tube like a pop corn popper. They thought it really smelled yucky though. What do they know.
I also signed up for a wine class at the cooking school they have there. That won't start until August, but I'm sure it will give me something to blog about.

things you don't want to hear....

...just yet anyway.

You don't want to hear your three-year-old say....."Mama, I cleaned the toilet!"

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

I can fly

Today I broke up an argument. The two were fussing at each other about some sort of thing, "I CAN TOO!... NO YOU CAN'T... YES I CAN...you get the idea.
Q was insisting he could fly. K was adamant that he was the only one in this house who could fly. After I tried to convince the older one that it wouldn't hurt anyone if he would just allow his younger brother to SAY he could fly. Afterall, K couldn't really fly. K insisted with all seriousness that he indeed was the only one who could fly.....he went away silently for a time and came back wearing this get up....
Captain Safety proceeded outside for a flying demonstration. Q was so excited to go outside and see what was going on he forgot he was only wearing underwear.
Unfortunately gravity was not on his side. Being six is really great though, isn't it?
Mr Cutie
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Saturday, July 22, 2006

latest pictures 7/22/06

We made these t-shirts before the baby came. We made little guys out of the boys' foot prints and when the baby came we added his to the right, which you can't really see in this picture. I had to get a picture of these since K is about to outgrow his. My three sons
The evidence for the tooth fairy. Taken moment after K ingested a baby tooth. (see earler post) I tell K I love his jack-o-lantern smile.
Q loves to show off and entertain guests when they come. This is his latest attempt. (This is one of the few show-off pictures I have where he is not wearing underwear on his head. I've go tons of those pictures)
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This is how we do it

This is the best I could do using still pictures to show how the baby crawls. I think you get the idea how he does his push-up-, propel, flop mode of travel.

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Complicated relationship

It is a strange relationship these two have. Either Baka the cat is getting mellower with age or he just likes this baby. With the other two babies, he'd steer real clear of them. With this child since the beginnin, the cat would go over curiously sniff the baby and go about his way. Then slowly he go an lie down next to his feet while the baby was kicking and get the soft whap tap tap of a baby's toes. Now it is getting to be too much than he bargained for. I'm not sure how much longer the love will continue Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 21, 2006

what'll i do

In posing the question of whether to go back to work, I asked my hubby if he as the stay-at-home dad would fix the dishes for the potluck dinners we get invited to. We have two this weekend.
He said simply, "You know me, I'd just run in the store and buy a couple tubs of potato salad. And be done with it."
Tomorrow our Sunday School class is getting together. I'm bringing sweet and sour pork roast with potatoes and rolls, a big ole bag of Doritoes and popsicles.
Sunday we are gathering with work friends I'm doing some kind of salad and something else kid friendly...maybe more popsicles. Tonight Walmart was out of the big bags of broccoli or broccoli stem salad...so I might end up doing a carrot salad.
I'll try to think of something more exciting to say tomorrow

Thursday, July 20, 2006

The woman in the shoe...

I am in quite a spot in my life. I realized that other than some parttime freelance gigs here and there. I've been out of the fulltime working world for SEVEN years.
I've been thinking about going back to fulltime PAID work lately. Because frankly, I feel like I just may lose my mind if I don't. It is not that I don't have enough to do. Lordy no....
The reality of it is that I don't know if the work will necessarily keep me from losing it. There are so many aspects of this to consider.
I'm giving myself a little more time, perhaps it is just the age of the baby, maybe hormones.The problem is that going back to the working world I knew before kids is just not a desirable situation for our family now. I would work a 9 hour day and have a two hour commute. I basically wouldn't see my kids. Then why did I have them?
Anyway, I am going to wait until school starts and see if things get better. For now I just may lie down and wait for the feeling to pass.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

today july 20th

#1 son is quite the reader. He has ripped through the first 25 of the Magic Tree House books. In fact, I picked up three books recently from the library and by the time I had gone to Costco and Walmart he had finished them by the time we pulled in the driveway. We are always looking for something fresh, age appropriate and yet challenging to read.
So last night, I started reading the original Winnie the Pooh to the two of them. Even though the older one thinks Pooh is kinda for babies, the book is really not. So as we read the first part of the book I remembered we had a video that goes with the story. (thanks to my faithful So. California readers! ...Michiko you remember bouncing up and down on the couch shrieking when you got scared or excited during a show?)

Anyway I digress, the Winnie the Pooh video right....#1 son had watched the video ad nauseam when he was 2 and 3 years old. But he must have forgotten, because he was laughing and howling from the comedy.

#2 son is very into music lately and doing shows. He has two new CD's from my cousin which he listens to ALL the time. Whenever someone comes over he makes s/he sit and watch his show, even though he doesn't really have the music down yet.

We spent about an hour at the pool first thing in the morning. That is the only time I can really bare the heat, plus with a baby and all, we need the shade and the cooler temperatures. The baby slept for a brief amount of time, which gave me an opportunity to do part of a sudoku puzzle. Someday I'll be one of those moms who sit by the pool reading and sipping a Diet Coke while the kids play in the pool. But for now, I'm in there holding a baby, encouraging Q who is still getting the hang of the swim thing and playing underwater communication with K. (usually not all at the same time)
Thanks for leaving your comments, I really look forward to them. It helps to know that someone is reading these mundane thoughts and I'm not writing into the darkness.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

life's mysteries

Why would a 3 (almost 4) year-old boy pick up a television remote, stick his tongue out and lick it from bottom to top like a big ole drippy ice cream cone?

Why does the bathroom scale read just a little bit on the heavy side for me and on the light side for a small child?

I just don't get it and probably never will.

Monday, July 17, 2006

church video

This is a video we recently worked on for the church. One of the high school kids that goes to church with us shot it and edited it. He even helped me post it on my blog. kids these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKvA01tvJII

Sunday, July 16, 2006

crawling and crud

KC is all over the place. He continues to do his push-up and then propel himself into a belly-flop on the floor to get around. We've been trying to move his legs to get him to do the standard baby crawl, but he really just has his own way about things.
I am entering that really rough time when I have to super safety guard everything and clean the floors like crazy.
Since he is all over the floor he has begun to find the stuff you never knew was there. Q came over to me while they were playing on the floor and said "Mama, the baby is chewing gum!"
Turns out it was a pink rubber band. Luckily I got it in time.
Also you know how worms look after they get baked on the concrete. KC had one of those in his mouth once, turns out it was a dried old piece of spaghetti.
I also found a small blue piece of crayon wrapper that had made it through his system. Seems that the passing through the system is a theme around here lately.

Click

Hunka Hunka Hubby and I went to see a movie today. He's been an Adam Sandler fan since way back when Sandler was doing the really goofy movies.
Hunka is not quite the movie guy like I am. So whenever there is a new movie of his out, I take the opportunity to get him there.
Hunka's dad and step mom are visiting so we took full advantage of skilled babysitting and headed out.
The movie's message was surprisingly well taken, especially for the stage of our lives. Though I don't think the movie will be winning any awards. (Except maybe for makeup)

Saturday, July 15, 2006

sweet baby

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handsome prince

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the handsome prince

After much deliberation. #1 son decided he would attend his girlfriend's birthday party today. Birthday parties normally don't cause him pause in the decision to attend or not, but in this case the girlfriend is a twin, so it was double whammy estrogen packed gathering of princesses. Every kind of princess, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and even some kind of flapper girl. He decided he would go in his boyfriendly supportive role.
The attendees were encouraged to dress as their favorite character. Seeing as it was about 134 degrees outside, the full blown padded black masked Batman costume was out of the question.
So off he went in street wear to a party complete with 40 six year old princesses and one neighbor boy who was dressed as a sweaty spiderman. He asked me to hang around for a while, until he felt comfortable being left with a backyard full of beauties. I finally left him, though I don't think he was really ready for it. I promised to return early.
As I returned life-sized Cinderella and Tinkerbell were leaving with their boxes of face paint in hand and a relieved look in their eyes.
This girly gathering stands in stark contrast to a birthday party which we crashed yesterday. As we approached our next door neighborhood pool in the morning, the 5 year old birthday boy was standing at the gate beaming saying "come in there is pizza and cake coming!"
The gathering had a "army guy" theme complete with a real GI Joe, army reservist in camouflage. Everyone played and swam in the pool with camo beach balls, ducks in military garb and ate great pizza, and yummy salads. I never thought I'd say this but the military themed birthday party, which we weren't even invited to, out-ranked the princess ball, hands down. I am so glad I have boys.

Friday, July 14, 2006

can't see the RR for the 4 hour drive

This morning my two older boys were in full land of pretend doing shows and playing ship. I thought it may be inspired by a show we saw yesterday. I loaded up the three boys and took them on a road trip to my talented cousin's childrens play.
So during some moments of rare quiet, I asked my oldest boy what he liked best about yesterday. "Ahm, probably riding in the car," he answered.
WHAT? Are you kidding me? The RIDE IN THE CAR?
Flash forward to 9am yesterday morning as I attempted to set up a laptop computer with a DVD movie for the trip. With everyone buckled in their seats and the steamy sun starting to beat down on us in our driveway. I sweated and swore for 40 minutes while I tried to get the durn thing to run. I called the techno hubby who offered no help. I finally turned it off and headed down the road videoless.
I also remember the trip home when at about 9pm the three year old while still strapped in his booster seat had managed to stretch horizonal to stick his feet in his older brother's face. To retaliate for something that I'm sure I didn't see happen to him earlier. Then I issued threats I never thought I would make....something about pulling the car over (in 7 lanes of metro highway traffic) and inflicting dire consequences on the inhabitants of the mini-van.
So funny that among this and other things "The Ride In the Car" should rank up there in the highlights of the day.
Well I gathered myself, what was it about the ride in the car he enjoyed?
"Oh I saw a railroad track," he said. And then at somepoint he looked back and saw the RR sign that marked it. (We don't have railroads of note where we live.) We also crossed a very memorable bridge at some point. Because he went into full detail about the fantastical structure of it .
I don't remember seeing a railroad or that amazine bridge I told him. That's because, he said, mama you were too busy driving.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Comforts of home

I'm about to talk food here. Slimy raw food, so if you are squeamish, now may be a good time for you to look for some bargains on ebay.
People ask me if growing up my mom made Japanese food for us. The truth is even now with a few years behind me and some worldly travels under my belt, I'm not sure. All I know is what I see other families eating and let me tell ya, it ain't nothing like my house.
Times have changed the way we eat and cook food. I remember my mom taking chicken or hamburger out of the freezer and it sitting out all day in the sink until it thawed. I would never dream of doing that now. Or Easter, hello, how many of us ate those hard boiled eggs out of the basket after they had sat on the kitchen table all week?
So we grew up eating lots of rice of course. But one of our staples was hot rice with a raw egg cracked and mixed in with a dash of soy sauce. Even my brother and sister, who I can safely say are waaaay more picky about the food they consume than I am, eat this quick easy dish.
I hadn't eaten this egg/rice mixture for about 20 -25 years, then suddenly when I was pregnant with son #3....I HAD to have that.
So as you know there are tons of things you cannot have while you are pregnant and raw eggs is clearly one of them nowadays. But I discovered pasturized eggs, which kills all the deadly stuff without cooking them.
They are more expensive, but when I get a hankerin....that is where I go. And if anyone is even THINKING of trying this at home, please step away from the Uncle Ben's or any other minute rice. No one will get hurt. Please do not do this to yourself or your family. Life is too short to eat terrible rice or drink bad wine.

So this is what I had today. The baby was asleep the two older ones watching some show. I was on my own with my raw eggs and rice. It is heaven. It is home. It is my comfort food, through and through.
I also recently made a trip to the Japanese grocery store for a bag full of tsukemono, which can only be described as pickled seasoned veggies and such.

To my Japanese readers, what do you call that raw egg/ rice/ soy sauce mixture????

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Swallow your pride

This morning while eating the first of several installments of premade blueberry pancakes. (see earlier post)
K was panicked. "WHERE'S MY TOOTH?!" he shrieked.
After an extensive search, it was no where to be found. It seems that he devoured them with his mama's deeeelicious pancakes.
He was caught between a flurry of laughter and tears. The tooth fairy the tooth fairy.....what to do about the tooth fairy!!!??
I explained we could just write a note and explain the situation. Surely the tooth fairy would understand after all this could not be the first child to swallow a tooth.
He appeared somewhat relieved but demanded that we document the situation with photographs to accompany the note.
After eating, he felt the tooth may be ready to make another appearance, which lead to a detailed explanation of the digestive system and how it won't be appearing that soon.
Rest assured we (at least I) won't be looking for it.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Diversions

Today's diversion from the real world...Dark, dark chocolate and Sudoku.

I've just discovered sudoku. I'm hoping it will curb the brain decay that comes from my mommy-brain. (sure I can multi-task....but I repeat myself, I say the same thing over and over again. I've been known to apply hair gel to my face because I thought it was moisturizer. I've also put things in the microwave that needed to go in the refrigerator. I've also applied a face full of makeup and then put moisturizer on top of it. Oh and sometimes I repeat myself)

The dark chocolate is just for the antioxidant properties. right.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

House of Blues

So what to do with 3 pounds of blueberries? The answer this morning is blueberry pancakes.

You should know this about me, I am the queen of bulk. It would surprise most that I put off getting a membership to one of those big discount warehouse places until last year. Having three boys that can really put the groceries away feeds my compulsion.

This morning I made an entire box of pancake mix and sprinkled blueberries in each one. After feeding the troops, I finished cooking the rest of the pancakes and let them cool on racks. After they cooled I put them in the freezer. Then all we have to do when we want pancakes is pull a few out, put them in the toaster hit the defrost button and voila. Hot pancakes without the mess. (I am all for consolidating messes when I can too)

Q and K have come up with a new imaginary play. It is called "Mayor/Police." It involves speeches by the mayor and crowd control by the police man. Q also made a sign that we taped to his back that identified him as the policeman.

Many of K's statements start with "Do you know?...."
This morning it was "mama, do you know..... I am an inventor?" This morning he and his brother came up with parachutes....actually walmart bags tied together by the handles with a rescue hero guy in one. They threw him off the two story foyer to see if the "parachute" would work. I'm not sure all the different methods they tried. I just kept hearing the crashing sounds while I was making the 1200 pancakes. Somethings are better left unseen.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

An amazing creature

This an actual picture from my actual camera on the Henry's farm. What a beautiful bird Posted by Picasa

Blueberry morning

To take full advantage of the milder weather we've had for the past couple days. I decided to take the boys to the blueberry farm to pick berries this morning. When we left the house it was 68 F (20C) the boys decided to wear hats because that is what they determined farmers wear. In fact, when Q saw a man picking berries without a hat he couldn't believe it.

"Why doesn't that guy have a hat on?" he asked.
"Because he is not a REAL blueberry farmer, " I told him.
"Ohhh right," he whispered.

The boys ate tons of blueberries and a few blackberries. In fact, we ate more and spilled more than we brought home. Q, who has been known to take tumbles or walk into stuff, fell down a couple times dumping our booty in the tall grass.

It reminded me of growing up in Ohio. My mom would take me strawberry picking every year so she could make her year's supply of jelly. I had to get up at some absurd hour of the morning and plunge into the damp sluggy fields to pick the berries. After that we would go to breakfast, which was the best of all.

Frankly blueberry picking is much better. No bending! In fact there is the opposite problem, the really great berries are way up high. Someday the boys will be taller than me and can pull the branches down to get the really good ones.

Blueberry boys

The boys are prepared for their morning of blueberry picking. They don't spray pesticides on the blueberries so you can eat them off the bushes. And boy did we!
Q ate way more than he put in the bucket. Whatever he didn't eat, he smeared into his shirt.

We put the baby under the mosquito netting and he took a nap. Posted by Picasa

On the farm

Our friends have a fabulous farm. The boys think the place is better than Disney World. They have horses, cats, dogs, bunnies, peacocks and even wild buffalo!!!!
We stopped by there on the way home from picking blueberries to say hello to the animals.
One of the horse boards let K and Q pet his horses.
The boys were a bit tentative around the huge horses, which was fine by there mama
Can you believe this awesome farm even has buffalo! We were lucky enough to see a couple as we were leaving.
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An amazing peacock closed up his feathers shortly after I started taking pictures

This little bunny was in the same cage with the peacock couple. The boys loved looking at the bunnies.
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McWorld

KC was a little fussy during lunch. He ate something while his older brother played in the play place. But he was actually pretty tired. This little tike kept coming up to KC with dirty grubby fingernails wanting to touch the baby, his food and his toys. argh.

KC learns to feed himself.
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McWorld

McMama took her McKids to McDonald's today after blueberry picking. Nothing like a day in the country followed by a trip to McDonald's. A mom with her act together would have packed a healthy lunch to picnic in the country.

Friday, July 07, 2006

small world

Interesting that the first person I heard from soon after I posted my blog was my cousin Kouki in Japan. I am just amazed how the internet has made our world that much smaller. Communication that would take weeks (especially if I'm the letter writer) now takes minutes or seconds.

Baby inch worm

KC started to kind of crawl today. Actually he looks a little more like an inch worm. For not crawling he sure can work a room. The kid is all over the place. See related photo in an earlier post.

Tomatoes in the garden

Q and I went to the garden today to look for tomatoes and blueberries. We had very mild temperatures today with the high around 82. I admit that I am a spring and fall gardener because the summer is just too hot for me to be messing around outside. The tomatoes I planted have come up, as well as tomatoes that have sprouted from last year's tomatoes that rotted and seeded into the ground. We have a ton of tomato plants, but since we haven't had much rain this year they are pretty skimpy. Oh I should mention that I don't water gardens either.

So since the temps were great today I was outside with Q. We filled up his play wheelbarrow with dozens of cherry tomatoes and a couple smallish regular tomatoes. Q calls the cherry tomatoes "Chick-fil-A" tomatoes since he always asks to eat them from my salad when we go there.
Rarely does this opportunity come along...three kids looking at the camera at the same time with pleasant looks on their faces. Nevermind that I had to take about 40 pictures to get one, that is the beauty of digital I suppose. Posted by Picasa
I love this picture. It really captures Q's personality. Posted by Picasa