Snow Gear

Yes, gloves, mittens, hats, etc, are all good. But if you really want to be cool, you wear fuzzy pig socks like these:


These were a Christmas prezzie from my parents who found them on their recent trip to Germany. Guess I should say Danke!

PS-- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRISTY!!!

Twin Time

I know you're probably tired of me and my "the library is the coolest place ever" bandwagon, but here goes yet another tale of its wondrousness...

Lindsey clued us in to a special event happening this week at one of the local branches: a "Happy Birthday, Elmo and Ernie" celebration. The free event was for kids ages 2-6 so we just squeaked in there with our recent birthday kiddos. I was quite fearful of how B would do since we stopped going to storytime several months ago when he would spend the entire time at the door whining to escape to the actual library itself. I'm happy to report that, while he's no Cadence with her impeccable sitting-and-listening skills, he did quite well!

Of course, he first had to fight off Miss C herself:

They have become so sweet with their hugs (and kisses, too, sometimes):

Once inside, there was so much to see:

(Quality indoor pics courtesy of Lindsey and her nice camera!!)

In the space of this 30-minute event, there were 2 stories, a parachute, a game of "Ernie Says", food (cookies and mini-pizzas) and even a kazoo-making craft:

(Did I mention it was FREE?)

Oh, and also some exciting balloons!

There also was some open space for the kiddies to get their energy out afterward. B kept talking about the "candy canes":

Um, sure, buddy.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

World Traveler

Okay, maybe not HIM, exactly.

But check out this awesome tunic FAC brought for B from India:

It apparently makes him want to snuggle:

And really frames his chocolate milk mustache well, don't you think?

Thank you, Auntie Chisty!!!

Random Thoughts

• Baylor has been calling a LOT lately. We went so many years without getting those money-solicitation calls. Maybe they're hitting us up now because our Bear Habitat gift ended awhile ago....or maybe we're just getting old and they think we have more money? Is it bad that I don't answer the calls?
  

• Do you remember a book after you read it? I don't. I mean, I generally remember whether I liked it or not but I often can't tell you much about the plot. I'm a huge fan of goodreads.com, where I keep a running list of both books I want to read as well as books I've read. When I come across a review in a magazine or newspaper of a book that sounds interesting, I put it in my list of "to read" books. Then when I'm getting ready to go to the library, I cross-reference that list (sorted by user ratings) against the library inventory and VOILA...that's how I pick my next book. (Well...that and I wander by the New Book section and pick one out based on the cover. Didn't I just mention I was a marketer's dream??)

• Chortle all you want but Jazzercise is a fabulous workout. I'm so glad that the Big Guy isn't coaching anything for the rest of the year so he gets home in time for me to go to a class several nights a week. And, more often than not, I am NOT the youngest person there!

• Come to think of it, I'm hardly ever the youngest person anywhere anymore. Marrying an older guy guaranteed for awhile that I was the youngest person in lots of gatherings. We have recently met a couple who also graduated from Baylor (Sic 'Em!) and moved to this area. They are now coming to our church young adult group, and it turns out there's another Texan-transplant couple attending, too. So the other night at Bible study, I was chatting with the 4 of them and realized they all graduated from high school in 2004. SERIOUSLY. I felt like such a Mother Hen, planning a "Texas Support Group" dinner for these homesick young'uns.

• I'm bummed that The Good Wife has not had a new episode in 2 weeks. Anyone else out there watching it?

• They're saying we might get snow this weekend, and I'm thinking I better go buy milk before there is a huge run at the store. Thank goodness we have plenty of toilet paper since that's the other big thing that people always rush out to buy. Why is that?

• Going back to our new Baylor friends-- we had them over for dinner the other night and somehow the conversation came around to margaritas and I said something about "Ninfaritas." Blank stares. Apparently Cheddar's is the place to get a marg these days? Cheddar's wasn't even there when we were. It makes me want to say, "IN MY DAY, We...."

• And that brings me to this Facebook group (of which I'm sure many of you belong) called "When I was your age, we blew on the video games to make them work." There are almost 2 million people in the group. Who comes up with these????!!!

• My brother and I were really into playing Pitfall on Atari. Anyone else play that game in the mid-80s? What about Kaboom with the little roller-dial-thing (was it called a paddle?) rather than the joystick?

• I'm kinda sad that there's no big fete planned for my birthday this year. I really enjoyed having so many friends in one place last year. I do realize, however, that such an event is really only super fun for the person who's friends with all those people in the first place. It can really be awkward to go to a party and only know the guest of honor.
  

• Our electric bill was SO high this month. Anyone else's? According to the bill, the average temperature for the month was 14 degrees colder than it was last month. Guess the ole system had to work a lot harder to warm up the house. Oh, did I mention we just had to get an entire new heating system? Nothing like paying thousands of dollars for......air.

• Wow, now I'm kinda depressed. Let's think happy thoughts: Bread. Cheese. Friends. Smiley Toddler. Okay, all better!
  

Have a great Wednesday!!!

Don't Tell Coach...

...but I think we have a clear winner in the ongoing Football vs. Soccer debate.

Check this out:



HA!

And then feast your eyes on this:

Chocolatey Goodness

We took Grammie to the airport on Saturday afternoon and sadly said goodbye....but only after a scrumptious lunch at the Bagel Bin:

We had so much fun playing with Sheils. And she stayed home for two evenings in a row so we could feel like normal people and go out on the town for two movies and a wonderful dinner...and then she treated me to an early-birthday pedicure, too! It was fabulous! Thanks for coming to visit, Grammie!

And in honor of her love for chocolate....

....segue....

I made chocolate pudding for the first time last night!! I used this recipe and it was so yummy! I had always been a bit intimidated before so I want YOU to know that YOU can do it, too!!

Heating the mixture:

Finished product!!

Now, I'm not going to deny that I still have this in my cabinet:

(how cute is this box? I totally bought it because I liked the label. I am a marketer's DREAM!)

But, really, it wasn't hard at all to make homemade pudding! Put it on your to-do list and let me know what you think!

Seen Around the House

Someone's daddy loves his native state:


Who needs a donut shop when you have a stack of tomes?


Working on his manual dexterity--and helping Grammie beautify!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Are His Giant Days Numbered?

Where's that big two-year old?

THERE HE IS!

Yesterday was B's 2-year checkup. We had a loooooong morning of waiting at the office (shortstaffed? lots of emergencies? who's to say?) but thankfully he was quite the trooper.

So....there are some things in this world that drive me crazy. One of them is inconsistency. It kills me that the 2-year checkup (at least at our doctor's office) changes everything on the measurement front. For the past 2 years, B has been weighed without even a diaper. Yesterday? Weighed with his clothes on! For the past 2 years, B has been measured lying down on the table. Yesterday? Standing up against a wall!

Now I'm not claiming either of these "new" methods to be inaccurate, necessarily. I'm just saying that we all need to acknowledge that we can't construct a pattern on a dotted line from the 18-month appt to the 2-year appt because the measurement methods are not consistent. You know?

ANYWAY. I'm thrilled to report that Brooksie has chunked up, weighing in at a perfectly average 28 lbs, 2 oz. He only weighed 25.0 lbs six months ago so hooray for that-- even if his clothes packed on some extra weight this week!

The height is where it gets a little trickier. They told me he was 36 inches, which was 90th percentile. After I got over my sadness that his giant days are over (since at every.single.appt since he was born he has been in excess of the 95th percentile), I determined that we'd do a second measurement when we got home. Why do I care so much? Well....

Right before B was born, a friend of my mom's sent her a height prediction formula* for boys to be used at the age of 2. I have been looking forward to this day for 24 months so we could put the info in the great prognosticator and have it spit out B's height. (Because obviously it's going to be 100% accurate!!!)

B's twin Cady had her appt yesterday as well, and when Lindsey and I compared notes, we realized there was craziness afoot. C was measured at 37.5 inches--which is not only seriously giant but also not possible that she'd be 1.5 inches taller than B, if at all. So we both came home and remeasured and figured they're both around 36.5 inches, with her a little less and him a little more.

There's also some hand-wringing about just exactly how tall I am, but as it turns out, these halves-of-inches here and there don't make much overall difference with the magic formula. Without further ado, I present to you the boy who will, apparently, be a not-so-giant 6' 1" eventually:

He's almost there! ;-)

*Formula for boys at age 2 (sorry-- we don't know the girl counterpart! Does anyone?):

.545X + .544Y + 14.84 = projected adult height, where X = boy's height at 2 years and Y = mean height of parents

Birthday Part Deux

If you know Sheils, you know that she and chocolate cake are BFFs. I figured that we'd do a more official b-day cake for the B-man once she got here so she could help us eat it. Behold the $12.99 (!!!!) wonder that is the DELICIOUS Harris Teeter cake:

I realized we hadn't gotten out the party hat with our Friday cupcake celebration, so it got its use last night instead!

A boy and his Grammie:

Um, we did a number on the cake:

(Seriously, if you're local, I will gladly give you some if you want to come by and cut yourself a slice or two!)

Just be warned-- cake is messy. Sometimes there is dust-busting required:

After cake, there was some playtime with B's new train set. It worked out perfectly that Grandma and Papa's birthday box arrived today with our delayed celebration!

And then....aahhh!...soaking away all the day's stresses in a lovely blue bath, courtesy of some fab colored bath pellets from AKHG:

I think TWO celebrations are enough for a TWO-year old, don't you?

So Many GIRLS!

The B-man was very generously invited to play with a whole bunch of girl-types yesterday! He held his own, though, and even stuck on a few foam stickers or two:

Our hostess, Sadie, is on the left with Molly on the right (and baby Leah in the middle). These are two OLDER women-- they'll both be 3 in the next several months:

Jillian was there, too!

In case you're wondering how exactly this playdate came to be (because I KNOW you are!), let me present a little chart of how the 4 maternal units know each other:
Melissa works full time so she took advantage of the holiday to invite us all over to play. The big guy also had the day off, and I'm thinking he might need some more time off to clear his head. Notice anything weird about B's shoes below? It was not his MAMA who helped him get ready to go!

Birthday Weekend in Review

Friday ended up being a really warm day--certainly when compared to the frigid temps of late--so we thought B would be excited to try out his "bike." Too bad he pretty much didn't want anything to do with it!

What makes this even more funny is that said "bike" has been sitting in our basement for months since I picked it up at a yard sale this past summer. Whenever we'd go in that room to do laundry, B would get SO excited and climb into the seat and pretend to ride. Guess that pretending thing is far more fun than the real thing-- Ha!

Since Fake Auntie Ch(r)isty is working hard in India, we enticed Eric to join the birthday celebration with some Pizza Hut pizzas. (Do you know about their current promotion? Any size pizza with any number of toppings = $10!!! AWESOME.) I think he seemed moderately happy to come play with the birthday boy:

There might have been some cupcakes involved, too:

Uncle Juff and Aunt Ningi were way too generous at Christmas time, so we saved this giant Tonka truck to be a birthday present. B calls all such trucks "excavators" or, more accurately, "eck-a-bee-duhs":

Then Saturday night, we got the birthday twins together for some partying. The B-man just didn't know what to do in the presence of such beauty:

Yay for fun celebrations (even if the toddlers look pained!):

Cady's daddy, Kevin, leaves shortly for another deployment, this time to Afghanistan for 6 months. Once again, we ask that you keep him--and the whole fam--in your thoughts and prayers.

{Products by Polly} Just for the Taste of It

Opa G’s comment about the chocolate chipper post had me laughing out loud and got me thinking about why I drink diet coke. Although the minimal calories are an added bonus, I promise it’s "just for the taste of it." His thoughts did remind me of a very funny Ellen Degeneres’s stand-up routine though, about what people get at concession stands:

“We stock up on popcorn and candy like we’re crossing the Sierras, don’t we: I’ll have a couple of soft pretzels, a hot dog, milk duds, snowcaps. Is that the largest popcorn you’ve got there – that bucket? You don’t have a barrel or anything like that? Do you have a donkey or a pack mule or anything? – Oh, and a diet coke.”

That Ellen, she’s a riot!

The nice thing about diet coke is that you can enjoy it a variety of ways and each one has a slightly different taste. The bottles tend to be a bit more syrupy, while the can has a bit more of kick to it. Either one poured over ice is slightly watered down (duh!). I prefer a fountain diet coke with a straw any day but if I’m preparing it myself, I love to pour a refrigerated can into a plastic cup with 3 or 4 pieces of cubed ice. The bubbles float to the top immediately and give just the right amount of spark to wake you up in the morning (yes, I do have one first thing in the morning, and second thing in the morning and third and fourth, you get the idea :)

Okay, without further ado….the top 3 places to purchase an extraordinary fountain diet coke are…

#3

Movie Theaters (right on, Ellen!) – At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the diet coke at movie theaters because of the way it complemented the salty snacks I paired it with or if the drink was really good enough to stand alone. So I did a little research last Sunday afternoon and, sure enough, the diet coke is pretty fabulous even without a snack. (Side note: I strongly recommend seeing Up in the Air.) I can’t really pinpoint what makes the movie theater beverage so great but there’s something so comforting about sipping on a practically endless supply of diet coke as you embark on a cinematic adventure for a few hours. So let’s just take my word on it and slide movie theaters into the number 3 slot!

#2





Chick-fil-A – You should certainly “eat more chicken” but I would also recommend ordering a diet coke from this wonderful establishment. Although their diet coke alone is outstanding, it’s the accessories that really make this a top notch beverage. How much do you love the flat ice? And the Styrofoam cup so it doesn’t sweat all over the place?! And the cup is wide on the top and narrow at the bottom so it fits into a normal size cup holder?! And the way they always respond with “my pleasure” at the drive-thru after you say “thank you”! It just doesn’t get any better than this! Well, I guess it does since it didn’t make the number 1 slot….eh, minor details. It’s a shame Chick-fil-A isn’t open on Sundays but I guess we can let it slide since they have really gone above and beyond the call of duty on these diet cokes!

#1







McDonald's – Can those golden arches possibly bring anymore happiness to my life? Once again Mickey Dee’s earns one of the top spots. McDonald’s diet coke is the single most refreshing, thirst quenching, delicious drink on the planet. Let’s start with the cup…as you can see in the picture above, the large cup is wide at the top and narrow on the bottom allowing it to fit nicely into the cup holders – just like at Chick-fil-A. McDonald's also makes the ideal straw, though: it’s the perfect length so you don’t have to strain to slurp up the last remnants of the drink. It’s also the perfect thickness – its not super thick like at Wendy’s and its not super thin like at Royal Farms. As Goldilocks says, “its juuuuust right.” So to the millions of wonderful McDonald's workers that have served me over the years, I just want to say “I’m lovin’ it!”

If you’re reading this, Mr. Ray Kroc*, I would be honored to be your spokesperson and receive free McDonalds forever and ever!! I promise I'll do better than Kobe Bryant!

So do you guys agree??

*Oh, Polly. Ray Kroc died in 1984! But maybe there's internet up there...! :-) And by the way-- Diet Coke is NASTY!! lovies, emily

Also-- BIG BIRTHDAY SHOUT-OUT to Nicki (aka Ningi, according to the street urchin). We hope you have a fabulous day! And we know it WON'T involve diet coke!!

TWO!!!!

Whether you're watching a truck come down the street...

Kissing your gnome...

Or just looking at me...


...you are SO loved!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROOKS!!

(In case you're local and feeling like you got stiffed on a party invite, let me assure you that you didn't. We are not having a soiree this year-- just a weekend of low-key celebration!)

PS-- Happy birthday also to Cady and Jillian, as well as Guinness the Greyhound! And HAPPY FRIDAY to all!

PPS-- Stay tuned for Polly's musings on Diet Coke tomorrow!

Amusement

Please give a HUGE bloggy welcome to none other than THE BIG GUY, today's featured writer!

There have been studies that show a large percentage of the population cannot resist smiling when a baby is laughing.

June 2008 Archival Video:



I, of course, can remain outwardly stoic if I so choose, but I will admit I am laughing along with him on the inside. Thus was my amusement when little B first came to live with us. I would tickle him or pretend to drop him, he would laugh, and that made him amusing to me.

Now that he has acquired a version of the English language, I find that I am suddenly the puppet, and he is pulling the strings. Two of his first words were “more,” and “again" which led to:

“More Spin Spin.”
“More Gubbah Hot.”
“More Daddy’s Bed.” (Where he stands up and I knock him over with pillows)

I found enjoyment in most of these activities early on but, as you may have guessed, I grew tired of them long before he did or ever will.

So my parental amusement has recently shifted to a more scientific interest in his development – specifically his developing language. As he wraps up his second year, these are the things I currently find amusing in my child:

1. Some words have similar sounds that he can’t quite get, so they sound similar but wrong. Yellow = Yeddow. Pillow = Piddow.

2. Some words he can say in one context, but not in another. So if a toy car rolls down a ramp and does NOT hit a can or other target, he says, “Miss!” When he is naming the 12-year old mixture of spices in the cabinet that came along with his mother when we got married, however, he says, “Gim Dash!” (Mrs. Dash)
(Editor's note: we disagree over when ye olde Gim Dash came to live with us, but in any case, it is part of the "old" spice cabinet NOT the treasured Penzey's spices I keep in the hall closet!!)

3. Some words sound like gibberish, some words sound like other words, and some words sound like words I shouldn’t write on a family-oriented blog. You can imagine how he says “clock” and “paste” (toothpaste), but his rendition of a certain Peter Rabbit book would make a sailor blush.

4. Some words he can say better than he used to: he finally says the words “candle” and “milk,” although he often reverts back to “gubbah” and “book.” But he still refers to all turtles as “Stumpy.”

5. Finally, it amuses me how he learns and interprets new things. When you shine a flashlight on the ceiling in a dark room, he calls it the moon. He will beg and beg to smell things, but he will not taste anything unfamiliar. (I don’t worry about choking hazards because the only thing that goes near his mouth is his thumb.)

And so I don’t complain too much about having to “Spin, Spin,” or “Get on Daddy’s Bed” because I am pretty sure that he will be amusing me for many years to come.

Outtakes from B's Second Year

Let's take a look back at some pics that didn't make the blog the first time around!!

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December: