The Milk Trials

Cheese, I’ve missed you. Milk, without you my cereal has been a little dry. And cheesecake, I’ve been lost without you. Dairy, welcome back into my life.

Malia has been drinking milk for two weeks and thus far we have not seen any negative reactions. Not only am I enormously relieved (we’ll keep watching off course, but the fact that things have gone well so far gives me a shot of optimism), but it means that I have been able to add dairy back to my diet. I can’t tell you how delicious my very first grilled cheese sandwich tasted. Ooey, gooey and just perfectly crispy. It has been a long year.

‘Round and ‘Round We Go

The boys’ last official off-track day just happened to coincide with the opening day of Cornbelly’s, so Kev took the day off and we headed out to the corn maze a bit earlier than usual. In past years, it has been chilly and wet. But it was sunny and warm. The corn had not been trampled down yet. We were wearing shorts. And when we arrived there were only about a dozen other cars in the parking lot. So all in all, a good time to go. We did get lost and ended up going around and around in Obama’s head (note to self-always look at the design for the corn maze before going in so we have some idea of what we are doing) but in spite of that we had a good time. The boys loved shooting pumpkins out of the air cannons (Malia not so much-the noise freaked her out) and the big slide. Matthew was a bit apprehensive at first, but after a couple of times down in someone’s lap, he was ready to brave it alone. We all agreed that it was a fun way to end the boys’ vacation.

They Might Be Avengers

With the advent of iTunes, Matthew has access to our complete music library. And since this is Kev and me we’re talking about, that music library is extensive and eclectic.  Matthew has a tendency to explore our collection and while he has his continual favorites (Michael Buble, Dinosaur Train, Star Trekkin’ from Dr. Demento…apparently his tastes are as eclectic as those of his parents) he is always finding random stuff and loving it for awhile. One of his latest discoveries has been the album “Flood” by They Might Be Giants.

This album always takes me back to high school when they were not singing songs for the teeny boppers, but for the random minded.  In my sophomore and junior years of high school there was this big group of us that hung out all the time and there were media choices that were repeated time and time again…”Flood” and “Return of the Killer Tomatoes” were two of those choices. Gives you an idea of just how random we liked it. But I digress.  Back to Matthew.

Matthew’s favorite song from “Flood” is “Particle Man.”  I can’t say that I blame him.  It is enormously catchy and one of my favorites as well.  He also has a tendency to make up songs…or just new lyrics to songs he already knows. Given his love of all things Avengers, I should not have been surprised when I started hearing an Avengers song around the house. He has verses for Captain America, Hulk, Loki, The Avengers as a whole and even Wolverine, but my favorite verse is this one:

The Many Faces of Matthew

Yesterday Matthew was grounded from screens for lying to me. For him, that is just about the worst punishment in the world. When Malia goes down for a nap, Matthew usually gets to watch t.v. for a bit so being grounded from screens is a blow. When it happens, he usually asks me to print him some pictures to color. When he asked for Avengers coloring pages yesterday, I happened to come across something much, much better. 

 (I love how he always throws out his chest when he has his arc ‘rejector’ on.)

He cut them all out (except some of the super tricky tabs) and this morning I helped him glue and tape them in all the appropriate places. And then Daniel helped him create a Captain America shield out of a cracker box.  If you have a little (or maybe not so little seeing as I’ve seen Daniel in these as well) Avengers fan, you have to check out these masks!

I Made a Total Stranger Snort-Laugh

A couple of weeks ago I was grocery shopping with Matthew and Malia. We were looking for fresh ginger and when I found it the following conversation occurred:

Matthew: “What’s that?”

Me: “Fresh ginger.”

Matthew: “Is it good?”

Me: “If you eat it by itself you go bleeaah (I stuck my tongue out, make a super yucky face, you get the idea), but in stuff it’s good.”

A lady happened to pass by us just in time to hear this conversation and see the face that accompanied the “bleeaah.” I completely caught her off guard and she did the whole snort-laugh thing as she hurried by. It totally made my day that I made a complete stranger laugh simply by having a moment with my kid .

So when is the last time you made a stranger chuckle?

We’re Saucy!

One day + 2 ½ bushels of apples = 30 quarts + 15 pints of applesauce ≈ a years’ worth of a million times better than what you can buy at the store!

Look What I Can Do!

Malia has finally figured out how to pull herself up to standing all by herself. This is one of those skills that she is definitely running a little behind on, but I think she realized that she is able to get to more stuff if she gets herself off the floor. With a little guidance and a lot of cheering from all of us, it has become a daily occurrence to see Malia standing around. Now she just has to figure out how to get back down...

A Sneak Peak

Halloween merchandise has hit the stores and the first wave of sales has begun. Knowing that Matthew's costume of choice will most likely be the choice of about a million other little boys means that I planned to get it early so he won't be all emotionally mooshed in October when I can't find it. He was so freakin' excited that he let me take his picture...and a video. This costume is definitely good stuff!

 

And by the way, the "arc rejector" in the middle of his chest lights up.Once he had his costume on he kept thrusting his chest out and staring at his reflection in the piano. It made me giggle.