Darling angel babies

My kids are changing before my eyes. Andy now says all sorts of stuff that baffles me. Like yesterday we were leaving Costco and we had this exchange.
"Mommy, your cheeks are red."
"You mean my teeth? From the smoothie?"
"No, your cheeks. You are embarassed."
"My cheeks are red because I'm embarassed?"
"Yes. That's right."

I thought it was just that I have that lovely fair complexion that turns red when the wind blows. Instead, it turns out I turn red when I'm lying. That's only notable because of this later exchange.

"Mommy, where's my green pen?"
"Andy, is broke. Remember?"
"And Daddy couldn't fix it?"
"No, he couldn't."
"And you're going to send it to the pen fixing store?"
"We tried. They can't fix it either."
Pause
"Mommy, you are embarassed."
"...!"

Seriously, my kid is 3 1/2 and he's already figured out my tell when I'm lying. Bjorn thinks I am totally screwed.

Meg, on the other hand, is getting better and better with the solid food thing. She can pound a stage two jar mixed with a little rice cereal and she's getting quite coordinated at picking up some finger foods and actually getting then into her mouth, like sliced grapes and puffs. Granted, the end result is rather messy, which is why she had two baths today.

Summer colds

We have had a bad run of summer colds this summer and I'm starting to get paranoid about fall and winter. If summer is supposed to be a time of good health, the latest batch of colds does not bode well for us. Andy started with a cold on Friday (sadly, I noticed it during the very cool Steve Songs concert at Wolf Trap). It didn't help that we had a weird schedule all weekend and stayed out and up too late Friday and Saturday. Meg has been flirting with a cough herself and each little cough fills me with dread for fear it will lead to more of the nastiness of last month where she couldn't cough without coughing up her dinner. Blech. Knock wood, cross your fingers, cross your legs -- whatever you like to cross, that these kids finally get back to a healthy place.

Oh, and they can start sleeping again, too, please. Pretty please! With this bout of not sleeping, I have been too tired to stay up and watch much of the Olympics. And I love the Olympics, even if I can't stand Bob Costas.

Meanwhile, Meg is now on solid foods and seems quite taken with them. She's at the cute stage where I can still cram pears and sweet potatoes into her mouth and she hasn't quite gotten coordinated enough to spit them out on purpose and/or grab the spoon and flail it around the room. It's coming, I'm sure. Not to be left out, Andy has taken to Dinobites. Yes, chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs are better than regular chicken nuggets. He even contends that they're not chicken. He doesn't think they're dinosaurs either, "That would be silly, Mommy!" I never did figure out what he thinks they are though.

Today was Monday, which means it was Moonbounce Monday at Andy's school, which is close to being heaven for a 3 1/2 year old. It's a nice way to start the week since he's usually very excited to go. I wonder how it's going to be come September when Monday is just Monday again.

The cleanest car ever

I am in heaven. It turns out my local car wash can shampoo my car mats and floor, thus removing the smell of dirty diaper, baby vomit and curdled chocolate milk. Well worth the $29.99 price tag. I might become addicted to this. It turns out they also have a detailing service also for $29.99 when they'll clean the inside, including wiping out the cup holders and that kind of stuff. I think I'm going to do that next time. This could become an expensive addiction.

Andy has come quite bossy lately. Well, scratch that. He's been quite bossy for a while now. What's interesting is that he's totally obsessed with being the "line leader" meaning he has to go first wherever we go, even if he's going slower than everyone else. He's learning what winning and losing means so he's always saying, "I win!" regardless of what game we're playing or if he's actually winning. Good thing the Olympic games start next week. We'll have fun watching and talking about who is winning.

Tonight I thought we had a breakthrough on him sleeping with his binky. He announced that he was a big boy and didn't need it anymore. Of course, when time came for bed, he wanted it back, but I'm hopeful this is a step in the right direction. Over the weekend, he slept both nights without it and didn't ask or even seem to need it so clearly he can do it. When we got back, I had in my head that I just wouldn't let him have it anymore, but the weekend had been long and I didn't have the stamina. Soon. Maybe.

Meg is seriously this close to pulling together the whole rolling over, rolling everywhere business. She can easily roll from her back to her side and from her stomach to her side. Those are the hard parts -- once on her side, she can easily go one way or the other, she just doesn't really seem to see a need for it. She can also sit unassisted for a little bit at a time and is putting together going from sitting to her stomach or side. I think it's just a matter of minutes before the light bulb goes off and she puts all the pieces together.

She's also making progress on eating solid foods. She didn't seem interested around 4-5 months and then with three weeks of throwing up and coughing, it didn't make sense to work on it. But now, she's had a week of apple sauce and rice cereal and this week we're moving on to sweet potatoes (of course, this has subsequently led to some stinky diapers. I had forgotten how generally unoffensive milk-only diapers are).

It's been hot and humid here. Fortunately, we've had a ton of rain in Washington so my garden is busting at the seams with squash and tomatoes. It's been a nice summer, but I'm about ready for it to cool down.

Holding down the fort

Bjorn's been out of town this week and I'm so proud of myself for not stressing about handling everything with Andy on my own. It's only been 2 1/2 years. That's progress, right? I've been taking this as an opportunity to catch up with folks. Something I should do when he's in town, but somehow we all get busy. Last night Viv came by for some fine boxed wine. And by fine boxed wine, I mean hangover in a box. Tonight, Andy and I met Liz at Chipotle. I just realized there is a Chipotle in Springfield near BuyBuyBaby. That store totally irritates me because it's overpriced, unorganized and the folks who work there are generally unhelpful. BUT it being near a Chipotle makes it more interesting.

Andy loves eating at the "burrito store." I like it myself and appreciate that this is a way to get him to eat beans, rice, chicken, tomatoes, cheese and corn. Considering he's had yogurt two days for dinner the two previous evenings, I consider that a victory. They're also opening a Chipotle even closer to us in Burke. I am very excited.

My only complaint about the store has to do with their Web site at www.chipotle.com. They have updated to Flash 9, which my computer at work doesn't have. Even more irritating is that there is no option to not have Flash. I was so irked since all I wanted to do was look up a location, not place an order or anything wacky and there was no way to do it save confessing to my IT guy and asking him to install the software. I even wanted to write to the powers that be a the restaurant to complain about the software, but once I finally got on the site, there is not one contact phone number or address. Asshats.

Dancing in the aisles

We went with some friends yesterday to a concert by Billy B. at the National Geographic headquarters up at 16th and M. I thought we'd take the Metro so Andy could see the train. On a weekend, it takes a lot longer to take Metro than drive, but I thought he'd get a kick out of it. Sadly, he was bored after about five minutes. The concert was cool even though it was probably better suited for first graders. The real downside was it was a solid hour and by about 30-40 minutes, the littler kids were really antsy. After about 10 minutes, Andy spent the rest of the time dancing in the aisles and generally running through the auditorium. Good thing is was small and filled with lots of other small kids so it wasn't a big deal. Billy B wasn't my favorite. I'm glad we went, but he's no Steve Songs. I'm all for educational stuff and mixing that with cute songs, but this was a little heavy on the education and less cute.

Afterwards, my two friends, their two daughters and us went over to Bertucci's at 18th and Connecticut. It seemed lame to come all the way downtown to eat at a chain, but the other options nearby were crowded or not really kid friendly. Bertucci's ended up being great though. The pizza was good and fast, we got a salad and the nice waiter gave the kids ice cream at the end. It was also big enough and relatively empty in the back where we were that the kids could play and not really be in anyone's way. We took the Metro back just in time for the surprise rain to hit. By the time Bjorn got us home from the Metro, we were both exhausted and took long naps. It was a good day though.

Meanwhile, holla over to Wonkette and No Fact Zone for including here. It's amusing to think I'm the only person who didn't think Tom Davis totally sucked on the show. Perhaps that's because I only get about half his jokes, but I still think Davis held his own against the guy. I give him props for going on it actually.

Q-tips and memories

Behold, the photo of my Q-tip chewer. He really did empty out the box of them and chew the cotton tips off a few. I'm not sure why, but he seemed rather pleased with himself.

At this age, I'm amazed at not only his language skills, but what he remembers. We went to the grocery store this week and he immediately asked for blackberries as we'd had them in the store before. I had forgotten, but he hadn't. The other night we took a walk and he pointed out all that was new - a new railing on the stairs by the pool and a net on the hoop. It amazes me to look through his eyes as I see things that I've been overlooking for years. It's pretty awesome.

In other exciting news, they're making a broadway musical of Xanadu. It's a terrible movie with no plot to speak of, but I really do like the soundtrack even though until recently I thought it was the Bee-Gees and and not ELO.

Spongebob

We have at least three good places to eat in the house - the kitchen table, the dining room table and the little table in the living room. Yet it never fails that he wants to eat somewhere other than those places. As we were cleaning out the basement, Andy created this special eating place for himself - a table made of a plastic container with his blocks and his Spongebob Squarepants chair.

In other news, I have managed to get the cold that Bjorn had last week that Andy is on antibiotics for at the moment. It would figure I would get sick in time for a really busy weekend where we have an Easter part, an Easter egg hunt, a farewell party for a neighbor (at our place, no less) and Easter dinner at my mother-in-law's place.

Attack of the strawberries

Attack of the dried strawberries.

This is from last weekend at our quasi Super Bowl party. Andy looks like such a kid there - not just a toddler, a full-fledged boy. When did that happen?

I tried to meet a friend for a playdate this afternoon. We planned to meet at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale. It says very clearly on the Web site that it closes at 5 p.m. in the winter, but apparently the folks that work there don't care because they have a big sign outside that says it closes at 4 pm. So when we showed up at 4:10 p.m., there was a big "closed" sign outside. We took Andy and Madeline down to play on the playground for a bit, but it was cold - much too cold for the mothers anyway.

The backup plan was Einstein's bagels in Fairfax City, which closes at 5 p.m. although they clearly sensed the day we were having and were closed by the time we got there at 4:50 p.m. We decided to hit Trader Joe's for a bit. I didn't need anything, but wandering the aisles is always fun since it's not a regular supermarket. I found a few things, including some dried strawberries for Andy. He loved them (see picture) and nearly had a fit when I tried to pry them from his hands to pay for them. Those suckers really do stain though - good to know if I ever want to shoot a horror film in my backyard.

Earlier in the day, I went to drop off some paperwork at Andy's new school, talk to the teachers and reaquaint him with where he'll be going. He immediately felt at home and was participating in their story time. The teachers were nice and friendly and Andy was eager to play with all the toys. I liked that I felt like I could just walk in at any time. When your babysitter is at someone's house, it's not as easy to just pop into the classroom the same way. What was strange though was seeing 16 kids all in the same class with three teachers. The ratio is really good and I think he'll like all the activity, but it's still strange to see so many kids all together. It definitely felt more like a school and less like a babysitter, which is exactly what I was going for, fortunately.

Opinionated

Who would think I'd have a kid with lots of opinions? Crazy, right? Lately, Andy has taken to wanting to eat at the small craft table in the living room instead of in his booster seat at the dining room table. Fortunately, everything at the table and under it is wood so I can easily wipe it down afterwards.

The word of the week is "yes." Before he either said no or shook his head yes, but yesterday he started saying "yes" to questions. It's funny because it sounds so authoritative. He's really picking up words these days although I don't always know what he's saying. I do find myself listening closely and figuring it out sometimes. I remember seeing friends listening to their kids and having to translate and now I'm doing the same thing.

Big plans tomorrow, Liz is coming by and we're going to hit the Fairfax City Chocolate Festival. I have no idea if it's good or not, but it has chocolate in the name so how bad could it be?

The strange things they do

The good news - Andy is back to eating. The strange news - he only likes to eat if he's sitting on the kitchen floor. The other strange thing is he's attracted to baby food at the moment, like sweet potatoes and apple sauce. I can't quite explain it, but I'm not complaining since he's eating. The bonus is the kitchen floor is easier to clean than the rug in the dining room. Baby food also has the advantage of not having to be prepared.