Cutie Patooties and Growing Up

Over the last few months, the Wee Boys and I have had the pleasure of hanging out with a small friend; let's call him... Pavel.  He just happens to have been born on my birthday last year, which makes him nine months old in a few days. 

I was exclaiming to my mom how cute and generally shmoopy he is, so I asked Pavel's mom if I could post some pictures so you all could exclaim at his shmoopitude as well.  These are from several of his visits:

We really got rid of all our baby stuff, so we just stuck him in the corner of the breakfast nook on a towel for eating.

I like how I'm opening my mouth as I'm feeding him.

He is generally quite a happy fellow.

One thing that has been very dear is how the Wee Diego has taken to him.  He is very attentive, and if Pavel cries at all, the Wee Diego gets tears in his own eyes and wants me to attend to Pavel immediately if not sooner.

Last night was our last visit for a couple of months as Pavel and his mom are off to another continent to visit her family.  By the time we see him again, he'll be likely pulling himself up to standing and all sorts of new things.

Safe travels!!!

In the Good News/Maybe Getting Back to Normal (whatever that is) Department: Yesterday the Wee Pablo turned 9 1/2 and I baked a cake!  This is classified as good news and possibly getting back to normal because I (normally) love love love to observe any sort of holiday and occassion.  Yet recently I have not been 'into' it.  I couldn't bring myself to put together corned beef and cabbage for St Patrick's day, for example, and I was completely out of it at Easter, when I'm usually the one heading up the egg hunt.  So observing a half-birthday is a good sign, I think.

My mom's birthday and my birthday are six months apart, so my half birthday is her birthday and vice versa.  So I was always aware of when half birthdays were.  Not that we always had cake or anything for half birthdays, but it was a little fun thing.

So I baked only one layer of cake (I made cupcakes with the rest of the batter) and then frosted the 'half' cake.  Yummy!

That means that the Wee Diego's half birthday is only three weeks away!

I! AM! AWESOOOOOMMMME!!!

You know how sometimes, after you've worked and worked and worked on something, and it finally comes together/works, and you just feel SO HAPPY!! ? 

At some point, I made up a 'song' that I sing when that happens.  To sing it you have to affect a bit of a glam-rocker-yell, and it goes like this:

I!  AM!  AWESOOOOOMMME!!!!

I! RULE THE WOOOOOOOOORRRRLD!!!!

I had one of those times today, but I was at work so I did not sing aloud.  But I was actually excited enough to exclaim "Yes!" and sort of jump out of my seat, which did alarm my co-workers a little bit.  So since they were already startled, I included a short Happy Dance.

Anyhoos.

The Wee Pablo's day camp at the Y has gone on a couple of over-nighters so far this summer.  He gets to bring his own tent along, and they hit a campground, etc.  But the Wee Diego is not old enough to be in the over-nighter group yet.  So last time that the Wee Pablo went camping, the Wee Diego and I had a little special outing.

I've posted pics of my house, which sits among big trees and rhododendrons:

But it is also only two or so blocks from a shopping center/plaza dealio, that has a grocery store, a drug store, an office supply store, a sporting goods store, a pary supplies store, a credit union, and other smaller shops and restaurants.  Including a Ben & Jerry's!

So we walked over for ice cream.

He chose a mango sorbet (I should have steered him more on this choice) which meant he had many 'tastes' of my chocolate-brownie.

It was nice to have a little special time with the Wee Diego.

And in our quest to see a movie practically every weekend this summer, the whole family went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth.  CHEESE-TASTIC!!!  We had a great time, in the 3-D glasses and all.

Currently Watching Footloose (Special Collector's Edition) By Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn see related

Wait, it's July?

What the...?  How did that happen?

Oh, and because you are all wondering how my swearing payments to my children are going, I will note here that saying "What the frick?" counts as swearing.  As does "crap."  (Which only makes me want to say 'what the frick?')  So I've paid out a few quarters recently, but I think I'm improving.

Here are some exciting things that have happened so far in July:

Track and Field Olympic Trials

The Olympic Trials are going on locally and it's quite a big to-do.  We have not gone to any of the actual events because a) we're not that huge of Track and Field fans, so b) we weren't willing to pay the ticket prices.  However there is a whole free festival area with booths, activities for kids, music and food.  On one of the non-competition days last week, the local track clubs sponsored an All-Comers meet for kids, where the kids got to run on the same track as all the big-time athletes.  (They actually do this every summer for six weeks or so, and when it's not Olympic Trials time, there are more events - there were only running events this time - but it also costs some nominal fee - it was free this time.)

They actually had the big jumbo-trons on the kids - there are also a couple in the festival area.  They had 60-meter dashes for ages 1 through 6; parents were allowed to run with the smaller ones just to keep them moving in the right direction.  Very cute.

Of course the Wee Diego's 5-year-old boy time was the same time as the Wee Pablo's 9-year-old boy 100 meter dash time.  Luckily we managed to meet up with my sister-in-law and my 9-year-old nephew as we were heading towards the shuttle after day camp - so she took the 9-year-old boys and I stayed with the Wee Diego.

You might just have to trust me that he's in this picture, because you can't really see him.  He's is a middle lane (there's the kid in 3rd place in the navy shirt, then there's a kid in a gray shirt in the next lane, then there's the Wee Diego).

Apparently the Track Meet gods were with us, because we finished up, walked around that end of the track, and arrived at the finish line for the 9-year-olds.  The Wee Pablo is in the middle in the green shirt, he's looking at his cousin, rather than the finish line...

They were thrilled to participate, as is obvious in this picture....  No really, they had a good time, but getting all three of them to stand in front of this sign, without blocking it, was like herding cats for some reason.  They were hungry.

Fireworks

Then of course we've had the Fourth of July weekend.  I started the holiday weekend by getting up and going to my morning meeting, then coming home, having a bowl of cereal, and then taking a three-hour nap.  IT WAS DELICIOUS!!  The nap.  Well, the cereal too.  But the nap was really great.

We went to a big potluck picnic in the afternoon at a park, and then to my mother-in-law's place for burgers and watermelon.  We came back into town and set off some fireworks that my sister-in-law bought LAST year and that have been in our garage since then. 

They boys all took turns lighting them off, mostly from smallest to biggest.  They used lit sticks of nag champa incense as lighters.  Which for some reason just makes me giggle.  The smell of sulpher and incense is not a typical combination.

Whoo - two at a time!!

More Big Boyhood

Then last night we had a Momentous Occassion.  The Wee Diego lost his first tooth - just by wiggling his little tooth out, so no pain or yanking.

This is the same tooth that the Wee Pablo lost first, and we have the little tooth bag he used.  I suppose he'll still use it - whenever he loses another tooth.

There was much discussion about whether the Tooth Fairy would come to the Wee Diego's bed or to the Wee Diego, since the boys like to switch beds on non-school-nights.  We decided she'd find him just fine in the Wee Pablo's room, since she found their cousin Emma at a hotel once.

The Wee Pablo volunteered to me that he only half-believed in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.  His reasoning: "mostly I think parents do it, but I don't want to hurt her feelings."  Hee hee hee.

OH - and in my quest to make my children watch every movie I liked as a kid, we watched Footloose last night!  They liked the music, anyway. 

Happy Fourth Y'all!!!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

There's no use crying over...

We interrupt this usual cataloguing of cute things my children did and places I went today to discuss the topic of the new milk cartons.

Apparently there is a bit of controversy over the new gallon milk containers introduced by Costco and Wal-mart.  Mr Angelena does much of our grocery shopping at Costco, so we are familiar with these.  They are being met with some resistance.

I'll make a list of the pros and cons:

Pros:

• Made from recycled plastics
• Easier and cheaper to ship
• Easier and cheaper to store during shipping, selling & consuming
• Cheaper to purchase

Cons:

• Requires some experience to develop new pouring technique

Please consider this entry my personal appeal to consider the improvements gained, both environmentally and financially, and just Learn How to Pour the New Milk Containers!

I suppose I could add "People don't like change!" to the 'cons' list.  Come on people.  It's gonna be fine, we'll get through this.

Just breathe.