Saying and singing silly things

I really need to get some video of the boys singing. It's the best. They know several songs, the most impressive of which is the "state" song - they can sing all 50 states in alphabetical order! Our favorite is Ooooohh-Hiiiii-Ooooohhhh because it's just fun to sing.

Last night on the way home from SLC, Meatball was repeating and repeating the same line from a Thomas book: "Don't give up, you'll shi-shay-tion" which, if you know the song, translates to "Don't give up, you'll be a big sensation." And, he wasn't giving up! He sang that one line for probably 20 miles, and our best efforts to change songs were to no avail. Peanut, of course, was singing something different the entire time - it was the 2-4-6-8 Thomas song.

May I digress for just a moment? I'm sure that the venerable Rev. W. V. Awdry meant well when he introduced Thomas into his Railway Series books back in 1946. Sweet little engine, helpful, really useful, indeed. But I would like to tar and feather the marketing genius who turned Thomas into an Elmo-like commodity. The songs are catchy - so catchy that they catch a little nook in your brain and stay there all day long at full volume. The toys are fun - so fun that mommies are constantly scrambling to build and re-build towers and find missing track pieces before the Peanut starts to howl since this is the ONLY thing that he will do for more than three minutes. The songs. The songs! OH, THE SONGS!!!

Anyway, back to the funny things.

Yesterday while playing with toys at grandma and grandpa's house, Peanut picked up a little red car along with its remote control which, unfortunately, needs batteries. When it didn't work, he tossed the remote aside and said "Ah, piece of crap."

AND, that reminds me: batteries. What the hell? Toy makers and battery manufacturers are in cahoots. I'm convinced. It's ridiculous the amount of money that we're spending on batteries. I'm investing in a couple of rechargable do-hickeys. Sick of it. Sick-to-friggin-death of it. When something doesn't work now, the boys will just look at one of us and say "Batteries?" We just nod with the look of poor parenting written all over our faces. What kind of parent runs out of batteries and disappoints those sweet little munchkins? (I know, all parents, but that doesn't make their faces any less sweet or make me feel any less guilty....)

Learning to be sneaky

The boys and I made sugar cookies for Valentines day. Together, we mixed the dough which was hard because the boys were all over the place. The only thing that they were for sure interested in was the cracking of the eggs. Just to be very clear here, this means that they smack the egg on the counter and then crush it into the bowl leaving mommy to fish out the shell bits.

Then, the dough had to cool in the fridge for a couple of hours which coincided nicely with nap time. I decided to cut and bake the cookies during nap time because although they like to cut them out, this time we were frosting them, too, and frosting would be way more exciting than cutting them out.

So, I cut out about FIVE DOZEN hearts. I really need to remember to cut this recipe in half.

After nap time, I mixed up some red frosting and we got busy - shirtless. Slathering the frosting was loads of fun, and messy. Then, we got busy with the sprinkles. Grandma provided lots of them, and many of the cookies had a big mound of sprinkles atop.

After frosting about half of them, we decided to deliver some to the neighbors since there were so many! We dropped some off for Malcolm, the Shields', and the Nash's. Then, we got a plate together for Papa and Nana. Bub was tired and still feeling under the weather (after being sick for the entire week before), so she stayed home. The three of us loaded into the car to deliver cookies. Bub called ahead so that we would have a chance to be sneaky.

All the way to Papa's house, I talked to the boys about how to do this secret Valentine thing.
We'll be quiet and sneaky and tip toe up to the door.
Then, we'll put the cookies down.
Then, we'll knock on the door.
And then we'll run really fast and hide.
Over and over. And then I would ask them what we were going to do, and they mostly got it right.

So, we pulled up and I got Meatball out of the car first. We tip toed around to Peanut's side and got him out of the car. Peanut's first "sneaky" maneuver was to say at the top of his lungs "Mommy, do you hear that dog barking?" I had to remind him that we were being sneaky. He didn't really care.

We opened up the gate and tip toed all the way to the door identifying a hiding place along the way. Watching a 2-year old tip toe is hysterical.

I placed the cookies at the door step, and we knocked on the door. First, Peanut knocked. Oh sure. NOW he wants to be quiet! Hell, I had my head by his hand and couldn't hear the knock. So, I finally pounded on the door, and we ran as fast as we could to our hiding place.

Papa came to the door and made a big deal out of it. He quickly found us because, well, our hiding place wasn't all that great, but we giggled while waiting for Papa to catch us.

Then, we went inside and played with Nana and Papa for about 30 minutes. We shared some cookies. We drew pictures. We marched around and tooted party horns. It was pretty fun.

A couple of days later, the boys were spending the morning with Papa while Bub went to a doctor appointment. One of those cookies managed to get stuck, frosting first, to the flat screen TV thanks to Peanut.

I just don't get it

Why do people talk on the phone when they are using the bathroom? Worse yet, a guy friend of mine was at a public urinal the other day and the man next to him was peeing and texting at the same time. WTF?!?

Lies, lies, lies

I will be very sad when the boys learn to lie. Not only will it mark a loss of some of their innocence and an increase in their sneakiness, but it will also indicate a time where a significant change in my skills of deduction will be required. Right now, I can get quick and honest answers to my questions:

"Why is Peanut crying?" "He cries because I hit him."
"Why are you throwing your brother's balloon away?" "Because I broke it."
"Did you bite Meatball?" "Yes, I bite him."

In the future, I will have to dig much deeper to get the answers I seek.

Winter Walk

Peanut






Meatball






Meatball






Cuties






Having fun






Adorable

The next Tim Gunn?

So, I put a bandana on my head, do-rag style. I looked over at Meatball and said "Do I look nice?" He replied "Nooooo. It don't work, mommy."

February Can Jam

In January, I made orange marmalade for the first time ever as part of Can Jam (see Tigress in a Jam). The featured food was anything citrus, and we had a bunch of oranges thanks to Malcom. It was fun, and it tastes really good. I'll be making marmalade every winter (when citrus is in season).

So, I was surprised when the featured food for canning in February was carrots. They aren't in season, and since the rules are only water bath canners (no pressure cookers), everyone needs to find a recipe with plenty of acid. I'm guessing that most people will make some sort of relish because of the vinegar used. I made CARROT JAM. The acidity comes from juice and peel from three lemons. The recipe is from my Blue Book and makes a small amount (which is good since I didn't want to have a lot in case it sucked). I made four 1/2 pints. And it's GOOD!

Really wondering what March's featured food will be.....