Snoopy Doopy

Today was Fred's Birthday. We had a great day together. This evening as he was opening his gifts, he opened a bag of several children's books. We don't watch much television, but I hadn't realized just how sheltered our children were until Fred pulled out a Scooby Doo book and said "Cool! Snoopy Doopy!"

Saving Some For Later

Lucy is growing so big and is almost 11 months now. She loves to eat anything she can get her hands on.....literally. She has become an expert at picking up cereal and chunks of banana off of her tray and inserting them into her mouth. She even manages to find things to eat off of a recently vacummed floor. The only time she won't eat the food in front of her is if she has been forced to eat too many pieces of cereal while waiting in her high chair for Mommy to get her real meal. At that point she picks them up and flings them all across the floor. Today at lunch was no exception and there was a mess of cereal on the floor. After getting Fred and Daisy down for their nap I went in to tackle the kitchen mess with Lucy at my heels. She crawled around pulling out pots and pans, slamming the door to my tupperware, AND picking up pieces of cereal off of the floor and inserting them into her mouth. She even chased the broom around swiping at the cereal to grab a few before they made it into the garbage can. She sure is a smart girl and even manages at eleven months to save a few snacks for later.

Daddy's Cake

Yesterday we spent a good portion of the morning making birthday cake to share with Fred's friends at the park to celebrate his 4th birthday. We had a good time and managed to eat most of the cake. This morning, however, Fred told me, "I want to make Daddy a cake so his birthday can be the same time as mine." Well I was already in a mess up to my elbows while making Daisy's bread so I suggested we decorate a "pan-CAKE". He seemed quite pleased with this suggestion so I pulled out a frozen pancake for both Fred and Daisy. We pulled out the leftover frosting and colored Fred's blue and Daisy's pink. I then let them scoop out their frosting onto the pancake and spread it around. After a moment or two I discovered that their pancakes were sliding around on their plates and making it difficult for them to spread their frosting. I told them I knew a little trick that would hold their pancake still. I proceeded to put a little blob of frosting on each plate and then set their pancake on top of it. It worked, and the frosting of the cakes resumed. A few moments later I looked back at Fred who, with a confused look, was holding up his plate while peering underneath at its underside. There was a smear of frosting on the counter top and also one on the bottom of his plate. Apparently he had tried, unsuccessfully, to use the frosting trick to keep his plate from sliding around on the counter top.
The kids and I enjoyed our time in the kitchen. Fred finished his cake for Daddy and Daisy received her sugar-high for the day since she ate most of the frosting off of her pancake and licked the bowl too.

Amazing

The other day, Fred came up to me out of the blue and said: "Daddy, can I have a box? I need to make something amazing! He sure is a pretty cute little guy. A while back, I picked him up from his preschool class and asked him what he had learned at school that day. He thought for a minute then said: "About surface tension" I was pretty stunned. To be honest, I was impressed that he could pronounce the words let alone that he had learned about it. Since when are they teaching 3 year old kids about surface tension in preschool. I don't think that I learned about that concept until middle school. So I asked him what he had learned about surface tension. They had talked about things that float and had done some experiments. I kept asking him questions about it and he finally said: "Dad, I just don't know everything about surface tension. But my teacher does. She's really smart!"

The other morning we were getting ready for the day when Laurie saw Lucy munching on something. Being the good mother that she is decided she had to investigate. With some effort she stuck her finger in and pulled out half of a cockroach. I walked into the room to see Laurie dry heaving over the sink and Lucy crying for the rest of her cockroach. Did I mention that Laurie still has a problem with our cockroach problem.