octolilly [through the years]

Things I’ve enjoyed today: the new Kanye West & Jay Z album, pinterest, a PILE of pretzels, re-discovering some old recipes I hope I get to share with you, and a very long walk in the 72 degree weather.

FALL. COME HITHER.

We stayed outside for a long time today. It was cool, very windy, and we found sticks, leaves, and a few bugs to make it Most Exciting. While we took the long path home I noticed Drew was fake-limping and using his stick. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, “well, when I get older, maybe 5, I’m going to use this stick to help me walk around when my feet are tired.”

He also did this hilarious dance:

As we climbed the stairs to our apartment, I saw him pointing up at the door with his stick and I snapped a picture quickly.

Turns out, he looks like Drew Potter. ^_^

During lunch, we had a Cucumber Incident. I’d sliced some cucumbers on two plates and right after I told him please don’t eat off my plate, just eat YOUR cucumbers – the little punk snatched one of my slices and gobbled it up. I just sighed and grabbed one of his cucumbers and popped it in my mouth. There. We’re even.

BUT OH GOOD GRIEF. HE SHRIEKED “YOU STOLE MY CUCUMBER CIRCLE! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO EAT JUST YOUR CIRCLES!”

I tried to explain that I was EVENING THE SCORE but it didn’t work. At all. And finally after a few minutes, he started to tear up and said “but you did the WRONG THING, Mommy!!”

And that’s when it dawned on me – I’ve always said I’d never be the parent who bit my kid back if he bit me, nor would I spank a kid when I’m teaching him that hitting someone is the most disrespectful thing you can do but instead of just kindly reminding him that next time, please don’t eat my cucumbers since I made you your very own plate – I had to even the score. And I guess I should be glad that he’s clinging towards doing the Right Thing instead of always wanting to Get Even. Anyway, all three of us can be pretty stubborn so if I need to be the one to swallow my pride and eat fewer cucumbers then I will do so Proudly and Humbly and with Great Sincerity. And then when he’s not looking I’ll eat the ENTIRE OTHER CUCUMBER OUT OF SPITE.

I had lots of pictures to sort through after lunch so Drew curled up for a bit of volcano watching on Netflix and sure enough, we got to the scary parts pretty quickly and the narrator said but the men didn’t know it was about to erupt. They were standing on the mountain when the worst thing happened.

I paused it and said, “let’s play a game instead!”

That didn’t work.

“BUT WHAT HAPPENED ON THE MOUNTAIN?’

“Maybe dragons came out the top?”

“Nooo, Mommy. You are so silly. I BET FIRE AND LAVA CAME OUT. DOES IT HURT YOUR HEAD WHEN IT HITS YOU?”

I had to make a quick Rule about “no one watches volcano movies after 1:00” and we thankfully moved on.

He took a nap a bit later and let me tell you – that’s a breath of fresh air. He no longer takes regular naps and when he does happen to nap occasionally I just want to dance around the house. And get so much done!

We ate up the Awesome Food tonight. Chicken, corn-on-the-cob, green beans, and blueberry bread loaves. We’re trying to clean out the fridge before we leave for vacation and I think this means that the meals towards the weekend are going to be from the Dumb Food list. Like, cereal for dinner. Or something. It’s possible that I can be more creative than that but I’m really glad to be married to someone who thinks cereal is awesome.

I remember my mother-in-law asking me what I made for dinner one night and I casually replied, “we just had a big bowl of cereal.” There was SILENCE on the phone. And then a “oh, well. I see.”

If my MIL is reading this, I LOVE YOU…but really, that is just hysterical and I promise I’m feeding your son and grand-son very well. They may not get healthy vegetables like cucumbers very often but at least we get our grains in!

P.S. Look at this adorableness! It’s me, as a wee lass. I loved my bumble bee. And Drew loves it now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 9:30 pm and is filed under The Everyday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.