Tuesday, January 30, 2007

I Don't Eat People

An update on the "I don't eat animals" issue, for those who asked.

Apparently, the rule extends to food items shaped like people. X got a Santa shaped maple candy for Christmas (maple candy--a big tradition in my family). I pulled it out the other night for a treat and he was, of course, appalled. He pushed it back at me, leveled me with the "which part of this don't you understand?" stare and said "Mom, I don't eat people either."

However, he has bent the rule for Bunny Grahams, probably because Miss Z was eating them. So he's a flexible shapetarian (similar to the flexible vegetarian I was when I lived in France).

On the sausage front, sausage consumption has slowed down. I am unclear as to the reasons--if it is true vegetarianism rearing its head, or actual burn out after months of daily Jimmy Deans. There's an interest in where the food we eat comes from. We took a short break from Roald Dahl to read a little M.F.K. Fisher --her essay on escargot (and I'm not sure how we got on the snail topic, but he's wisely decided not to eat those). And lots of questions about cows, chickens and venison. I'll keep you posted.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Achievement

And this will of course, seem tiny and in consequential for anyone who is not me. But . . . I took both kids to Target today and we did fine. In fact, we had fun. Either we've moved into some new and wonderful part of being a two kid family and I can breathe out. Or it's just a phase that will soon pass and I'll have to hold my breath again. But either way, I enjoyed it.

We got one of those old, big carts with the place for two kids to sit behind the handle bars. There's a serious design problem with either the cart or Miss Z, because every time we try the damn thing she slides off the seat. She doesn't really mind that--roller derby queen that she is--but it's a pain. So I ended up putting her in the front of the cart with the X-Man riding on the special cart thing (am I blabbering? Is it like this at every Target? Do you know what I'm talking about?).

We got animal crackers--the only time I ever let them have anything from a store before we've paid for it. They munched happily. X put things in the cart for me. He put things--heavy things--onto the conveyor belt for me. He then reloaded the shopping cart with our heavy bagged items. It was like having a personal assistant. Miss Z just munched, signed "light," and smiled at everyone. I looked like a Mom with my act together, which I am so not. But it was nice of the children to contribute to the smoke and mirrors for once, instead of pulling back the drapes to reveal the little man behind the curtain.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Where Have You Been?

Not here, obviously. But I'm not sure anyone reads this anyway, so I may not be missed. But it's been crazy here lately (on top of our usual helping of chaos). Updates:

* X-Man is growing, for one thing. I notice clothes not fittng him, which is sort of novel around here. He definitely looks taller. He's more capable every day (and sometimes whinier as well). He's really grooving on his dancing--he's started tapping around the house, tap, tap, tapping out his steps just like Billy Elliot. It's darling. And about the most fun thing with him right now is reading. No, he's not so precocious that he's reading on his own yet. But in the fall we started reading chapter books to him (roughly Middle Readers, I think) and he's taken to it like a fish to water. At the end of a chapter he'll exclaim "I wonder what's going to happen next?" He's been known to beg for "just a few pages" before going to school. And he's a huge Roald Dahl fan. I was a fanatical reader as a child, so it's really exciting to get to share this with him.

* Miss Z is the roller derby queen. She's hell on wheels (or actually, on Stride Rites). We found her the other evening sitting on top of dh's huge desk, making calls on his cell phone, at the same time banging on the keyboard with a spoon(obviously we have some child safety issues--like forgetting to close the gate to the office). The next morning she fell off a chair, bled copiously from the mouth, and got over it in about 30 seconds. We followed that up with a trip to the dentist (no apparent harm done yet--and she didn't bite him!). She's the cutest, wildest thing going.

* And tell me--how do I select the tiles/countertops/color schemes for four bathrooms when I've never even done a remodel? The new house is coming along and it's exciting and fun working on it. But also kind of scary. The Mr. and I had our first major conflict about style yesterday. I brought home a sample of what I'd like for the kitchen countertops--honed granite--and he promptly sided with the very shiny, polished granite we currently have. As synched up as we are in many areas of this project, it's clear there's not a perfect mind-meld going.

That's plenty for now. I'm leting oodles of things fall through the cracks (I normally do that anyway, but it's excessive even by my standards). I'll try not to let this turn into one of them.