Picky?

Can it be that my (once?) picky eater happily ate sushi at dinner on Sunday?

We went to Wegman's to eat and I had sushi. Logan kept asking to try it and I kept saying no. Finally I let him try it and he said he liked it. He will often say he likes something when he doesn't because he says he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Well, when I announced that I was done he said, "Yay! That means I can eat it!". I handed it over and he happily ate the sushi that I didn't want.
Shaine and I sat and watched in awe as he happily ate the sushi. Did I mention that it had roe...aka fish eggs on it? Seriously, what 6 year old eats this stuff? Apparently mine does!

The little things....

Today I noticed that Lucas had put his flip flops on. I said, "Lucas, did you put your flip flops on all by yourself?". He was very excited and came running over to me with a huge smile on his face to show me. This is what I saw:
I just love how the little things can make him so happy!

6 year old boys....

I don't know about your 6 year old boy, but my 6 year old boy is really pushing his boundaries. This weekend he found himself sitting in time out on the stairs. We were getting ready to run some errands and told him to sit on the stairs until it was time to go. He had found a toy on the stairs and was playing with it. I took it away. After a little while, he said, "Well, you can't take away my eyes".

He was pulling on his eye lids and "making things move". Hmmm, perhaps we should consider a blindfold for future time outs....LOL!


Nope....there is no attitude seen here!

For the record....

Tonight before dinner, Logan was talking to his daddy. I didn't hear the beginning of the conversation to hear why this came up, but I'm sure glad I got to hear this part.

Logan: I'm trying to set a record.

Daddy: For what?

Logan: For fitting the most Word Whammer letters into a toy car.

Daddy: How do you know what the record is?

Logan: A record is when you try to beat someone else.

Daddy: Yeah. I know that, but how do you know who has the record? Who holds the record now?

Logan: Me!

After dinner....

Last week we didn't have all of the meals I planned, so last night we had fish, potato bundles, and tomato/corn salad. Logan doesn't like potatoes, but I gave him some to try along with the fish and some tomato/corn salad. Actually, he doesn't like corn either, typically. I wasn't even sure if he would like the fish (red snapper), as I simply cooked it in a bit of olive oil, lime juice, and put salt a pepper on it. He didn't like the potatoes, but much to my surprise he liked the fish and salad....actually, he LOVED the fish! With corn, he likes the flavor, but he doesn't like the "shell" of the kernel. With uncooked corn, it all stayed crisp and he liked it. (I posted all of that because if you know us, you know I've struggled with my boys being picky eaters. Logan is FINALLY outgrowing it and I am SO happy!)

We were eating in the dining room, but the remodel in there still isn't finished, so we don't have our table and chairs in there. We have Lucas' high chair, a kids folding table and chairs (like a little card table), and one chair that goes with our dining set. Anyway, Logan had finished eating and was throwing his plate in the trash. As he walked past me, he burped. "Excuse me", he said. "I just let out my after dinner burp". My husband and I looked at each other and laughed. A little later my husband passed some gas of his own. "I just let out my after dinner fart." Nice!

All I have to say about that is....

I thought we had after dinner MINTS, not after dinner burps and farts. BOYS!

Obsessed....

Lucas is obsessed with babies. All kids are babies in his eyes. It doesn't matter if they are 10 months old or 10 years old. Recently at the park, a couple of little girls (about 8 years old or so) approached him. "Aw. He is so cute", they said as they reached out and touched his head. "Baby! Baby, Momma!", Lucas exclaimed. They looked at me and I told them that he thinks all kids are babies. They laughed. At Kohl's recently, some little girls, again about 8 or so, were pushing each other in the store strollers. As they strolled past, Lucas exclaimed, "Baby! Baby, Momma!". They laughed!

So, it should come as no surprise that on a recent trip to Borders Lucas chose this book as the one he wanted.


I tried to convince him to get a different book. I even found a kid book about babies, but cartoon drawings of babies just aren't the same. He wasn't having it. He found the book he wanted and nothing would change his mind!

He gives the baby on the pages hugs and kisses. I told Shaine it is probably a good thing we don't have a baby in this house. It might get loved to death! Lucas sits the book on the coffee table and turns the pages and exclaims, "Baby! Baby, Momma!", with every turn of the page. That is, until he turned the page and found a cute little baby on page 86 that has a cute little Elmo sitting next to her. "Elmo! Elmo, Momma!".

Now That is Customer Service!

I think it was 3 years ago (maybe 4) we were at the mall and Linens and Things was going out of business. We had been looking at getting a fan, but hadn't yet. The one I was interested in getting was more than I was willing to pay. I wanted a pretty fan. It was also a bonus that the base was so heavy that the boys couldn't knock it over! So, Linens and Things happened to have this fan that I had been wanting and it was 40% off. To top that off, I had a coupon for an additional 20% off that they let me use! SWEET! I'm pretty certain that the original price was about $140, so we ended up paying about $70 with tax. Still a pricey fan, but I was super excited to be getting a good deal!

When we lived in our apartment in Alexandria, we used this fan in the living room. However, when we moved to this townhouse 2.5 years ago, we put the fan in our room. We like sleeping with a fan turned on for the noise, but it is also hard to keep our 3 level townhouse cool. Well, several months back, our fan started acting up. It would squeak really, really loudly. We had to move it this way and move it that way and finally it would stop. We are so addicted to sleeping with that fan that once we got it to stop squeaking, we refused to turn it off. Well, that is until I was in the shower one day and the smoke detector went off in my bedroom. I could not figure out the cause. I didn't smell or see smoke and none of the other smoke detectors were going off. I turned the fan off because I thought it might be the culprit. It wasn't. After running around the house trying to figure out if I needed to grab the kids and get out, I realized that the smoke detector was now in my hand and was still going off in rooms with other smoke detectors and the others remained silent (I even took the battery out and put it back in each time). I determined that it was not an emergency and took the battery out until I could figure out the issue (turns out it had drywall dust in it).

So, now the fan had been turned off and I feared that it would not turn back on that night without causing problems. Miraculously, it turned on and ran just fine! That worked for a while, but soon enough it was back to its old tricks. Finally one night it had enough and started squeaking like crazy and then it got quieter and quieter until it just stopped! Now, we have to have a fan, so we took the one that was in the living room and moved it up to our room. Sure, it keeps us cool, but it doesn't produce the right amount of noise for our sleeping pleasure. We even went to the store to look at fans and all of them were too quiet!

I remembered that our fan had a warranty and looked it up online. Five years! A few days ago, I called the company. They asked me a few questions and then told me that my new fan would arrive in 7-14 business days (with absolutely no cost to me!!). Yesterday it arrived and I slept like a baby last night! Now that is customer service!

Lately...

Lately, there is something that has been really bothering me. While waiting at red lights, I notice the pile up of cigarette butts along the curb. It is NASTY! So, lately, it has really been irritating me when I see someone carelessly flick their butt out their window. Why do that? The strange thing is these same people would likely not throw a piece of trash out of their window, because that is littering.

Image courtesy of Bob_2006 on flickr.

Lately, I've been very tempted to run up to someone that I see flick their butt on the ground and tell them that they dropped something, while offering their butt back to them. Do you think they would be amused? Seriously, I don't know why, but it is really bothering me and I'm almost to that point. Matter of fact, while stopped at red lights lately, I've hoped that someone would be right next to me when they do it so that I can casually roll my window down and kindly inform them that they dropped something. I've just about got the nerve up to do it.

I even found a website: SeeNoButts.com. It's purpose is to educate that the Earth is not an ash tray! One would think that is common sense, but no. The butts are more than an eyesore, too.

I'm pretty certain the saying is "the world is your oyster", not the world is your ashtray! I think I might just get a bumper sticker that says that and I'm not even the bumper sticker type! Maybe I will even make up some "No butt littering signs" and place them at nearby intersections. Heck! Maybe I should plant myself a Buttanical Garden! It is just something that I've been thinking about lately.

Menu Plan Monday...

*= new recipe

Sunday--fajitas

Monday--pan fried fish (What ever I pull out of the freezer...I don't remember what kind is in there), potato bundles*, heirloom tomato and fresh corn salad*

Tuesday--grilled chicken, salad, chapati bread, hummus

Wednesday--Sausage crescent rolls*, eggs, and fruit

Thursday--golden pork chops*, Jasmine rice, honey mustard acorn squash


Friday--beef taco bake* (using Herdez salsa instead of Pace) topped with sour cream and avocado, salad

Saturday--butternut Squash, sausage and bow ties

I wonder....

Last night I saw something on the door. I had deja vu. I wonder if this is the same one that showed up here last year? It certainly looks like it could be.





Also, we still have a lot of little toads in our yard. We have to rescue them every time we mow. We put them in a potted plant and the little things just don't understand that they could be jumping to their death when they jump out. The boys certainly like to gather 'round and watch them. We get at least 4-5 of them each time we mow!!

Oh, and if you follow that link, you might read that we had tadpoles on the way. They ended up arriving in Nov. about a week or so before Thanksgiving. Miraculously, they are still tadpoles. According to the pamphlet that came with them, all I have to do is feed them and keep their water clean and they take care of the rest, but it just isn't happening. Not sure why. Won't be too long until we've had our pet tadpoles for a year!!