In case you had trouble telling...

Bug: Do you know what bad guys look like Mommy?
Me: I don't think there's an exact dress code.
Bug: Bad guys don't wear underwear.
Me: They don't?
Bug: NO! They are only wearing pants.

So now you know.

Mother's Day Mad Libs

Last year, I had an awful lot of fun reading what Bird thought about me... this year both kids had the chance to do some Mommy Mad Libbing in their classes.

My Mom - by Bug

Her hair is brown.

Her eyes are white. (It could have been worse. One kid said his mom had pink hair & orange eyes.)

She is 14 years old. (Well, at least an improvement from last year's 1500!)

Her favorite food is all the food. (Um....)

Her favorite color is pink. (No, but his is.)

Her favorite TV show is all the movies. (I had to laugh at this one. Other kids were naming actual TV shows. My kids don't watch live TV... neither do I, really so he was right.)

Her favorite thing to do is whatever she wants to. (How right he is. Husband couldn't stop laughing at this one.)

I love my mommy most when she plays with me!


My Mom is Special - by Bird

My mom is special because she cooks eggs. (My cake baking doesn't even hit the list. But the eggs I made for her once or twice... home run!)

I like it when my Mom plays with me. (I'm sensing a theme here.)

I like to make my mom smile by liking her. (Awww....)

My Mom is smart! She even knows that there's flowers in the cupboards. (Yeah, I don't get it either. Maybe it was supposed to be flour? Except that doesn't really make sense either.)

Happy Mother's Day!!

I swear he doesn't watch horror movies...

Earlier this afternoon, Husband was sitting on the couch & talking to a friend on the phone. Bug wandered over and asked who he was talking to. Husband replied "Mr. B.", at which point Bug began to have a conversation with Mr. B through Husband.

Bug: Tell Mr. B I'm going to throw a snowball at his house!
Mr. B: A snowball at my house?
Bug: Yes, and then your house will turn upside down!
Mr. B: But where will I sleep?
Bug: On the roof!!
Mr. B: The roof? But it will be lonely.
Bug: Don't worry, there will be squirrels there.
Mr. B: Oh, nice friendly squirrels.
Bug: NO! Mean squirrels! They'll eat your eyes and nose and ears!!!

How To Make An Alligator Cake

Bug has known for quite some time now that his birthday was in January. Fortunately, he also knew that January came after December and after Christmas.

Unfortunately, his birthday is towards the end of the month, so for a few weeks we had to endure "Is it my birthday YET? It's January! I should be turning four!"

About two weeks before his birthday, we asked him what kind of cake he wanted. The first thing out of his mouth? "Alligator cake mommy!" Not only that, he wanted CHOCOLATE alligator cake.

Huh.

All I have to say is - thank heavens for the Internet!! Turns out that this particular endeavor isn't so hard.

I baked 2 boxes of cake mixes (Duncan Hines devil's food in case you were curious); one in a regular 9x13 rectangular pan, and one in a fluted pan (bundt pan, but not a 'real' bundt pan). Oh, and I also baked lots of cupcakes for Bug to take to school; 6 of them were used for the legs & eyes.

I cut the rectangle into a Christmas-tree like shape (the mouth is the top of the 'tree'), and the bundt cake into thirds. With the leftovers from the rectangle, I added a 2nd layer to the head, and used a bunch of pieces to assemble a tail.



Kind of ugly, isn't it? Very uneven! This is where frosting is your friend. After whipping up a batch, I used it to glue things together & level things out.



Once I'd finished that, I tinted the rest of the icing green (light green mama! dark green alligators are BAD gators! very scary!), I used my icing squirter (how do you like my use of technical jargon) to squirt the stars. Honestly, that's the quickest part of the whole endeavor!

Here's a slightly better overhead shot of him:



I used bamboo skewers (cut into thirds) to anchor the eyes to the cake at the proper angle. The spikes down his back (and the eyeballs) are some generic gummy fish. Because there's nothing like flavored plastic to complete a cake! The teeth & claws are mini-marshmallows. Turns out that if you cut them in half diagonally, they naturally have that 'sharp' point.



And we end with a shot of Bug not-so-patiently waiting for his party to start so he can eat his new friend.

Four

Dear Bug,

On the day of your actual birthday, the modem celebrated by frying itself. So this is written just a little late. Oh well.

Happy Birthday, Big Boy!! Now you are four years old. And you have been oh-so-excited to tell everyone about it too. Any new ability you have is due to your old age. (My feet touch the floor! It's because I'm FOUR!!) I'm starting to wonder if FOUR is really a verb & not an... adjective??

You requested an alligator birthday cake, so we celebrated by pretending the house was a jungle & had some of your monkey friends come join us. Or maybe we all just acted like monkeys. Whatever. There was laughter & sugar & fun & energy galore!! In fact, between the cake we had at home & the cupcakes you brought to school, you're due for a good old-fashioned sugar crash coma any day now....

It's been lots of fun Bug. I can't quite believe I don't have a toddler in the house anymore. But, if I'm being honest, you've been a toddler in name only for quite some time now. I suppose you do have to grow up sometime, as you are fond of reminding me.

I wish a wonderful year for you Bug. I hope you still want to snuggle every so often.

Love,
Mommy

Sound Byte

With Bug:

Bug: Okay, I'll be the baby and you be the Mommy?
Me: How do you know I'm the Mommy? Maybe I'm an alien? (yeah, I have no idea why I said it either!)
Bug: You're not an alien. You don't look like TE!!

How the child remembers ET when he's only seen him at Universal Studios is beyond me.

With Bird:

Bird: Mommy, what day is tomorrow?
Me: You tell me.
Bird: MONDAY!! Do we have school?
Me: Actually, no. Tomorrow is a special holiday.
Bird: Oh, okay!!

....

Bird: So who's going to come over?
Me: Erm...

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for these two turkeys.


(that's Bird on the left, and Bug on the right)

What amazes me is that they are almost 2 years apart, yet their hands are almost the same size.

Wordless Wednesday - Hiding

Bird: Smile Bug!

Bug: You can't see me!


photo courtesy of Bird

What goes on behind those doors?!

When Bird started preschool last August, her teachers celebrated when she began talking in class in October.

Bug, it seems, does not have that issue! Apparently, if he acts even remotely quiet, he might require hospitalization. Or maybe just some really good meds.

Let me back up a bit... I received a phone call from Bug's teacher in the middle of a Chemistry class. (note to self: turn up ringer volume! I'm still amazed I heard it from the depths of my tote bag.) She was calling to let me know that Bug had been feeling strangely quiet, had a slight fever (only 99F), and was complaining that his ear hurt. She was about to feed him snack, and said she would call me back to let me know how he was doing and if he needed to go home.

After I gave her Husband's cell phone number & asked her to bother inform him instead of any new developments, I just started emailing him myself. (After I finished explaining today's lab to my class and got them started, in case you were wondering. No free time for them!).

Husband decided to just go to the school and pick Bug up, since his job is a good 45 minutes away. When he arrived, he ran into several people who commented to the effect of "Oh, I hope Bug is okay/he seemed so sad this morning/I guess he's not feeling well!!"

I bet you can guess what Husband found in Bug's classroom. That's right: Bug, without a trace of any problem! Husband asked him about his ear. Bug's reply? "Yes, my ear hurt. It not hurt now!"

I mean, what is this kid doing that one slightly quiet morning on his 4th day of school is cause for alarm?!

Alternate closing thought: WHAT THE HECK were these people thinking, calling me for a 99F temperature?!?! (I know, I know, better safe than sorry...)

Their Interpretation

BUG

Bug: Goodnight Mommy!!
Me: Goodnight Bug. (actually looking up from my book to kiss him) Bug, where's your pajama shirt?
Bug: I don't want to wear it.
Me: Oh honey, you might get very cold tonight without a shirt. Go put one on.
Bug: Okay! (runs off)

(a few minutes later)
Bug: Goodnight Mommy!!

I look up to see a boy in his pajama shirt, but now with no pants.


* * *

BIRD

Bird: What does my shirt say?
Me: Daddy's Little Girl
Bird: (incredulously) Daddy was a little girl???!!!

Bug Logic

(Yes, the typos are on purpose. That's how he talks.)

Bug: Mommy, I want to nuggle. (crawls up into my lap)
Me: (happily snuggling my arms around him) You're my little baby Bug.
Bug: I not a bady! I not two years old! I three years old! I big boy!
Me: How do you know you're a big boy?
Bug: My feet! (sticking them out & showing me) They're very big. They don't touch the floor though.

We Love Cows!!!

Two Fridays ago, two of our favorite places were giving away free food & drinks: 7-11 and Chick-fil-a. Naturally, the kids & I had to make the rounds!

7-11 was easy - all you had to do was go in and get your free 7.11 oz Slurpee (mmmm.... Slurpee). In order to get our free food from Chick-fil-a, however, we had to dress up as cows.



How do you like my tropi-spotted cows?! Funnily enough, the kids' costumes are from several different birthday parties. And yes, I admit that Bug's wearing puppy ears, but at least they were spotted. I think they count. As for Bird... she remembered how the cows dressed up like bunnies at Easter. There was no talking her out of those ears!!

And yes, we may have visited both places for lunch & dinner. Separate stores, of course!

Humor in the Bathroom

I always find it amusing to learn how things are sometimes processed in my children's heads.

On the road, Bug had some very interesting conversations with Husband. In two different bathrooms, of all places!

Bug: Go in there?
Husband: Well, somebody's in there, so we have to wait our turn.
Bug: (in a singsongy voice, complete with flourishing hand motions): Abrete!
(Spanish for open in the command tense - for lack of proper grammatical terminology!)

* * *

Bug: But I don't want to go potty
Husband: That's okay, just stand there & wait.
Bug: Oh no! A bug!
Husband: That's a fly. Just leave him alone.
Bug: But it's a baby fly.
Husband: ???
Bug: He wants his mommy.
Husband: ???
Bug: (to the fly) Your mommy's not here! Go to the girls bathroom!!

Wordless Wednesday - Life's a Beach

Awwww.....

Camera Dump - Part 2

Here we have Bug helpfully sweeping out the garage.



Bug's beloved Elmo. Taken during a show at Sea World.



A Curiously Fun Birthday Party. (It was a Curious George theme. The birthday girl is the Man in the Yellow Hat, and she led her guest monkeys on a wild & crazy game of follow-the-leader around the playground.)



One of the houses constructed by my physics students. It was their 4th quarter project - build a house & wire it! (They had a specific list of circuits to build).



A close-up of my prom dress. I was one of the chaperones. And wow did I dress up - this dress was $30 on clearance! And Husband got to come too, but he just wore a really nice suit. And we looked goooood.



And in today's final image.... I am sooooo glad this wasn't my car!! :)

Sometimes, the bright lights are too much!

Sometimes, when we go to Tar-jay the kids don't get along. (I know, it only happens to me, right?!) On this particular day, Bug was being terrificially horrendous to Bird. Since we were actually there to do some shopping (as opposed to Mommy just wandering around & pretending that window shopping is exercise), I chose to separate them instead of just leaving the store.

Next thing I knew, his end of the cart was eerily silent!

Wordless Wednesday - Singing in the Sunshine

Whatever Runs your Engine!!

This past weekend our local police department/firehouse held an Open House. I took the kids, and we spent a few hours looking at the exhibits (i.e. filling our bags with free plastic stuff), eating, watching canine demonstration, and jumping in the bounce house. The last thing we did was wander over to the firehouse side where they had little trucks for the kids to play in.

It took Bug a little while to realize the thing had pedals!!

Hide and Seek

Hmmm.... where could Bug be hiding??