Category: the boy

Monday morning comics

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So much of what is fun about having kids isn’t the big events-it’s the little things that they say or do that can keep you in stitches.  Don’t get me wrong, my kids can drive me batty at times and there are plenty of times I yell at them, but really there’s so much that just cracks me up.

Before I forget these I just want to keep a record of some of them so that we have a way to remember, so here’s a list of some of the recent ones, in no particular order.  (sorry for the poor formatting, wordpress is a bit hampering that way)

Walking in from afterschool

Boy, pulling me aside: “Can I talk to you about something?” he says in a soft voice.

Me: “Of course, what is it?”

Boy: “Well, sometimes when I hit my sister, it takes her a long time to start crying.  I’m really worried that the signals aren’t getting to her brain fast enough. Maybe you should take her to a doctor to get her checked out.”

Reading “Oh The Places You’ll Go” at bedtime with both kids:

Me: “…you can steer yourself any direction you choose!”

Girl: “That’s not true.”

Me: “What?”

Girl: “That’s not true for little kids.  You have to steer youself where grownups tell you.”

Boy: “Yeah.  At least until you’re 10, I think.”

Driving back from school

Eric: “Girl, what do you love most in the world?”

Girl: “My whoooole family.  Even brother.  Even you and mommy when you are being mean to me.”

Love triangles of the preschool set

Me: “Are you still friends with that little boy A?”

Girl: “Well, I not so much friends with A anymore.  A was in love with me but I was in love with B. But then I got sad because B wasn’t in love with me but was in love with C.  And then A was sad because I wasn’t in love with him. Now, no one is in love with me. That makes me sad.”

On choosing a travel destination

Boy: “Mom, can we not travel to China, ever?! Let’s just have good Chinese food when we go to Japan.”

Me: “Why not? “(ignoring the food comment)

Boy: “Because! They are friends with North Korea!! And you have to be very controlled in North Korea! It’s not like South Korea where you can be free.  You need documents and government permission and can never leave.”

Fixing an injury

Girl, crying and crying in bed after bumping her knee: “Wahhhhh”

Me, coming over to comfort her, and leaning over to give her a hug.

Girl: “Waaahhhhh Waaa-Mom, are those new earrings? They are beautiful—Waaaahhhh”

Me, rolling my eyes at her clearly severe injury.

There are so, so many more and I wish I had time to write them all in when they happen and I want to get better about it.  Now that they’re both older and really talking, it’s nearly constant.

Cheetahs never…

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The other morning, the boy was in the bathroom down the hall and the girl was keeping him company by sitting outside the closed door and chatting with him.  All of a sudden, she yelled down the hall “MOM! Brother says that there are cheetahs in Asia!! He is WRONG!”

I think about this for a second, and then yell back down, “Kid, there’s no cheetahs in Asia.  They’re only in Africa!”

He yells back (still in bathroom), “NO! There are cheetahs in Asia! They live in Iran!”

Still doubtful, I use my google-fu to learn that, well, shit, there ARE cheetahs in Iran.

“You’re right, actually! How did you know that?!” I asked him.

“‘Cause we’re learning about Asia and we just did a part on Iran,” he replies.

And all I can think is that I’m now living with someone who’s going to be an even more insufferable know-it-all than myself.

Sing Us a Song…

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Tales From the Backseat of a Minivan

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Last week, while driving by DU

Me: Kids, did you know President Obama is going to be there tonight?

Girl, angrily: Obama shpends 4 BILLION dollars a day!!!

Boy, yelling: THAT’S NOT TRUE! THAT’S JUST A LIE MITT ROMNEY SAID SO HE WOULD GET ELECTED PRESIDENT! IT’S NOT TRUUUUUUE!

Me: Girl, who are you going to vote for President?

Girl: Mitt Romney! Mitt Romney! Mitt Romney!

Boy, yelling again: HE’S A LIAR!! YOU CAN’T VOTE FOR HIM!! HE’S A LIAAAARRRR!!!

I couldn’t imagine where they had heard any of this since we don’t tune in to commercial TV or radio, and I don’t think I’ve ever said anything about Obama’s spending.

Me: So, where did you hear this?

Boy: Remember the commercials we watched during the Olympics?

Ah, those commercials.  2 MONTHS ago. And apparently since then we’ve had a red state/blue state divide in my own house, and I didn’t even know it.

Aspen Camping

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I’ve probably mentioned somewhere to most of you that I don’t camp.  Humans have evolved to have indoor plumbing, central heat, and carpets and I don’t see any reason why giving that up for “fun” makes any sense.

I may have to rescind that statement after going on an actual camping trip.  Now, we did go on a few camping trips before we had kids, and they were fun, but the last time we went camping was when the boy was 18 months old and it was an unmitigated disaster.  I know many of you camp with toddlers and purport to have a good time, but I find that the work/fun ratio was too high on the work side to make it enjoyable.  Also, he didn’t sleep so we didn’t sleep and it was miserable.

A neighbor family invited us to go camping a few weekends ago, and so we all made it up to a campground just past Kenosha pass. The timing was perfect and we were surrounded by a field of bright yellow aspens.

The first night was freezing, and the ground was hard. I woke up to bruised, cold hips. In the morning, I looked at the tent and saw that the ceiling vents were open, conveniently letting all of the heat out of the tent, which made me feel like a right moron.  We fixed it the next night and were quite toasty.

The rest of the weekend was filled with tree climbing, bike riding, fishing, campfires and exploring the wild wild woods next to the site.

Eric worked especially hard during the trip.

On our hike we even found a beaver pond, complete with dam!

It was a great time away and I *might* even be up for some camping trips in the future…as long as I can bring a fluffier air mattress with me next time.

August Garden

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Things are looking good!

Bean screen looks lovely and shades the house and since it’s in an area that doesn’t get as many hours of sun it hasn’t burned this year and we’re only now getting lots of green beans.

Cutting more broccoli shoots-we ate the main heads weeks ago.

Jungle like tomato plant

We’ve got corn, but something has been getting into it–gross.

Here’s the disgusting little creature now.  What IS that?

Thankfully, there are still a few good ears

The borage flowers are pretty, but what to do with this? Any herbalists with ideas?

And this looks juuust about ripe! We have about 6-7 watermelons this year!

Todays harvest, with a few weeds presiding over them.

Things have been so great this year!

There are a few things I think I’ll move around-like one patch where no veggie has ever thrived, and I’ll definitely make time to get the tomato species I really want next year. While the ones we have now are delicious, the heirlooms we had last year were even better. I also need to invest in better tomato cages.  The sad little metal wire cones are not up to the task. The squirrels have unfortunately discovered the butternut squash this year and are chomping away at it, so I may need to get a mesh cover for those that are left.  The corn grubs are just gross.  And one kale plant for a family of 4 is way, way more than enough kale. While the jalapeno plant did really well, I’m giving up on the bell peppers. Not worth the real estate for the sad few fruits I get, and given that if they were going to do well it would have been this year. I’d rather plant a different tomato plant or eggplant.

Broccoli was fantastic to have, and the eggplant has done really well. The tomatillo plant is just starting to produce fruit, and it’s one of my favorites to have fresh from the garden.  Such delicious salsa and sauces!

Now off to cook with all that food-the latest bon appetit has recipes for an eggplant rice bake, kale salad, and grilled corn with herb butter which we happen to have most of the ingredients for after the harvest today! Yum.

Garden, July

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Holy Moly!

We go away for a week, and things go from this:

to THIS

How big are those corn and tomato plants?

That BIG!

Harvest time! Those bean-y looking things are radish pods, which you get by letting a few radishes go to seed.  I wondered, what does one do with a radish pod.  So I googled it.  Apparently it’s a very common vegetable in Indian cooking and that’s mostly what came up.  Huh. I was getting back to my roots and didn’t even know it.  Get it? Get it? Also, those jalapenos are actually SPICY, which is a nice change from peppers in previous years that were somewhat cardboard flavored. Was it the alpaca poop? Was it the blistering heat? I’m not sure.

Baby watermelons–I hope the squirrels don’t figure these out.

And last but not least, the bean trellis growing nicely.  Soon our porch will be nice and shady.

Other than the poop, the biggest change I made this year is in how much I’ve watered.  Last year I followed all the gardening suggestions that tell you to water deeply 3 times a week. I think this may be a lovely idea when it’s not 100 degrees outside and dry as a bone.  I’ve been setting my drip system to water for 20 minutes every night and 15 minutes in the morning 3 times a week.  Even then some of the leaves got a bit crispy. Overall it’s worked out well and things are really, really growing this year.

San Francisco

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We all just got back from a great trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up and where my parents still live.  The kids had a great time with Aaji and Aba, ate tons of delicious home cooked food, and loved both the Exploratorium and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, places that I have such strong wonderful memories of I was incredibly excited to take the kids to both of them. In fact, when we went to the Aquarium, we took a picture of the boy standing in the same spot I stood in nearly 30 years ago, wearing the Aquarium shirt I bought on that trip. That one is still on my Dad’s camera, so I need to have him send it to me. I’m loving all the trips we’re doing this year and hope to keep taking the kids to more places–in some way, this is my gift to them. Some parents teach their kids music, or sports, or wilderness and nature skills.  I have none of these talents. What I DO have is a love of traveling and seeing the world and the luck of having a job that lets me take a lot of trips, and a desire for my kids to know the world outside of their own, something that I think comes directly from my Dad.

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating-I’m really so impressed with the two of them, especially considering that they’re only 4 and 6, and still soldier through these trips, largely uncomplaining. These are not easy trips-the kids are responsible for their carting own luggage through the airport (Skip Hop rolling luggage, by the way, hold enough for a 1 week of kids’ clothes and are easy for them to manage) and have to walk on their own everywhere since I don’t want to deal with a stroller. (Eric might disagree with me on that last one since the girl got her fair share of being carried, but I’d say it was 75% her own feet.) I don’t expect them to remember everything about these trips, of course, but my hope is that once you learn these skills it becomes easier to do more challenging trips in the future and more importantly, they love going places as much as I do.

A few pictures from the trip (click to enlarge)

Cold beach day

Climbing from Fort Point to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge all by myself!

Chilly girl with a funny funny turban hiking through the Marina

Pole position at the Musee Mecanique-I remember begging my parents for more quarters to play this when we’d go to Round Table Pizza

Hanging on to the Powell-Mason Cable Car

Becoming one with the puffin exhibit at the Aquarium

Spooky jellies

Stared down by the giant octopus

Getting Down the Stairs

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Fast….and slow.

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Worm Garden

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I love my kids’ school.

The boy went to the school library and found a book about worms.  Apparently they have a whole shelf of worm books.

I note that the series title is “Keeping Minibeasts.” I wonder what else the series holds? Ladybugs? Praying Mantis?

Anyway-inside that book he saw this picture:

He ran back to his classroom after library time, book clutched in hand, and told his teacher excitedly, “I HAVE to talk to Mr. Adam about this!” A meeting with Mr. Adam (school handyman of sorts) was arranged, and they discussed dimensions and materials.  The boy told Mr. Adam, “Don’t worry about the soil and the worms.  We’ve got that covered.”

And then Mr. Adam returned a short while later with this:

And now all the kids have an earthworm garden to enjoy! Way to go, little guy! And big thanks to the school for supporting and encouraging curiosity and exploration like this.