Silver Diner · 22 August 2010
We had an amazing family dinner tonight – kinda like a movie family.
In case you don’t know, Silver Diner of late has been sourcing food locally and naming the farms it gets produce etc from. It’s always been a favorite of Champe’s, but the recent menu revamp is great.
Champe wanted mac and cheese with a grilled turkey dog and specifically requested a side of veggies (movie moment #1). Caden’s initial request was “french toast, french fries and mustard!” but we got him only french toast. The boys negotiated an idea of sharing one bite each of the other’s meal, but when the meals arrived, cheerfully passed forks back and forth the whole time, sharing much more than one bite. (movie moment #2). We had forgotten to get the drink that comes with a child’s meal, and then the boys negotiated and decided to order one each orange and grape juice, and share again, which was perfectly executed when the drinks arrived. (movie moment #4).
They both ate every bite of both plates and split and ate all the veggies. (movie moment #5) Then they discussed and agreed that next time Champe would get the french toast and Caden the mac and cheese, but share again. (movie moment #6)
They then split a chunky monkey banana shake – which they ordered – making the waiter smile. (movie moment #7)
In the car on the way home, Champe and Todd were both complaining of being full. Champe said, “I wish I had TWO stomachs!”
— LCM
The Difference Between Girls and Boys · 16 April 2010
Tonight at dinner we had a conversation about what is different between boys and girls. At first Champe stated they are the same. (Good work on gender equality!)
I said, well there is something boys have that girls don’t – what is it? Champe acknowledged that it was a penis.
I then pointed out that girls have a vagina. With only boys in the house we don’t have an opportunity to cover this often.
Champe then said, “I know something else girls have.”
I said, “Breasts? Yes, grown up girls do.”
He said, “Yeah, but I know something else.”
And I am thinking oh great, he’s learning words like vulva or clitoris or something. Which is FINE, it’s just I wasn’t quite prepared…...
So I say, “What?”
And he whispers, “It’s hanging on the back of your bathroom door….”
Now, I am really confused.
And in a dramatic stage whisper he clues me in to the big thing girls have that boys don’t.
“PURSES!!!!!!!”
(And as I burst into gales of laughter, he assures me, “They really do, Mom. I promise. They do.”)
— LCM
Dead Man Walking, Sound Spelling and Rodents · 1 March 2010
So we went out to dinner tonight, and since Champe is crazy into games, I decided to teach him hangman to buy time while we waited for food.
(Meanwhile Todd whispered, “Jeez, thanks for introducing him to that concept.” – referring to the name of the game. Good point, so I just focus on drawing body parts and sort of minimize the whole “noose” thing.)
So I did G-O-A-T first, knowing he would recognize it because 3 baby goats were just born at his amazing school and they’ve been doing literacy work with goats, things to do with goats, names for baby goats, etc. And he got it fairly quickly.
Next, he wanted to do one. It had three blanks and turned out to be C-A-T. Pretty good.
We did a couple rounds and when it was Champe’s turn again, he drew:
___ ___ ___ ___
After a few guesses, we had:
S ___ A ___
Then Todd guessed “O.” Champe thought for a minute and then asked, “Does “wuh, wuh” have an O in it?”
So, we guessed “W” next ‘cause we’re no dummies.
Then it was:
S W A ___
So I said, “Hmmm, it starts with swa or sway ….”
And Champe said, “Silly Mom. The “S” is the end part. It starts over HERE.” (pointing to the end everywhere but Japan.)
Ok, so this is normal for a 5 year old leftie. We keep guessing.
Turns out the missing letter is “M.”
S W A M
And the word? I can’t believe you’re even asking me. It’s so obvious. The word was “Mouse.”
Gosh, I love that kid.
— LCM
Comment [3]
Overheard Today · 26 February 2010
Champe was withholding something from Caden today, purposefully, as brothers will do, mainly to annoy Caden.
Caden was chasing him and trying to get what he wanted.
Carol said, “Caden, it’s NOT OK to grab that from Champe. Use your words and tell Champe what you want.”
So Caden replied loudly and vehemently: “CHAMPE I AM GOING TO GRAB THAT FROM YOU NOW!!!!”
— LCM
Snowmaggedon, Snowpocalypse, Snotopia, Sno My God Can We Stop Already? · 5 February 2010
I thought I’d post to let everyone know it’s snowing here. No, don’t thank me, two people who live on Pluto who haven’t spent the last 48 hours obsessing about the snow.
People in glass houses you know….. I am obsessing too. It’s super fun and definitely not the norm. I can’t stop hoping we get 3 feet, or more, how fun!
I keep thinking how we’re really not that different from our ancestors. Are we really that different from the Incas praying to Illapu for rain? Is refreshing the weather.com page less of a ritual, less faithful, less of a desperate human wish to control what we cannot?
We have a sturdy house, a fireplace, plenty of wood, plenty of food and we like most of the Eastern seaboard will be almost certainly be just fine. We’ll be more than fine; we’ll have fun, we’ll sled, we’ll miss entirely the catastrophe it could be were it not for those few saving graces I mentioned. But being outside just now, even for a few minutes, made me realize that save my modern conveniences, we don’t control the weather at all. When it comes to hurricanes and blizzards and thunderstorms and tsunamis and earthquakes and tornadoes, we’re at the mercy of same Gods as a thousand years ago.
It makes me feel ancient and precious and a bit put in my place.
— LCM
Comment [1]
Taxis to Airplanes · 16 January 2010
This is a conversation Champe and I had this morning. It’s pretty typical of our conversations, so I thought I’d record one for posterity.
Scene: Sitting in the parking lot at Providence Rec center waiting for Todd and Caden. After swimming class.
Champe: What’s that police-y looking car doing?
Me: You mean the yellow car?
Champe: Yes
Me: That’s a taxi cab. Remember you rode in one in New York.
Champe: What’s a taxi cab.
Me: They pick you up and drive you places and you pay them money. They are more common in big cities like NY. DC has them, but not as many as NY, because there lots of people don’t even have a car and it’s too crowded. And some places don’t have hardly any taxis
Champe: Tell me a place that doesn’t have hardly any taxis.
Me: Wyoming
Champe: Tell me another place.
Me: a small town in Mississippi
Champe: Tell me another place.
Me: West Virginia.
Champe: Tell me another place.
Me: Africa. Well South Africa would, but lots of countries wouldn’t have any.
Champe: Yeah ‘cause they just have penguins and polar bears there.
Me: You’re thinking of Antarctica, not Africa. And yes, Antarctica is one place where there are no taxis at all.
Champe: Yeah cause they don’t have trains or cars or people or anything there. They don’t have snow or dirt.
Me: They have snow. That’s the one thing they have.
Champe: What about dirt?
Me: (trying to remember 8th grade Earth Science) Ummm, I’m not exactly sure if there is dirt or not under the ice and snow.
Champe: Well you should go there and dig a hole to see.
Me: I don’t like the cold that much, I don’t want to go.
Champe: Well what if you wore 2 snowsuits, 50 gloves, 60 hats, and one hundred thousand socks and one pair of boots.
Me:Yeah it’s not really worth it to me to do that. I’d rather someone else go to Antarctica to see if there is dirt.
Champe: OK, I’ll go, but I need to take a grown up with me.
Champe: To watch me.
Champe: Um, but what about polar bears? Are they nice or mean?
Me: I don’t know; I’ve never met one.
Champe: Well, we’ll see. If the polar bears are bad, we have to run away fast. We better keep an airplane right there that we can jump into if the polar bears are bad.
Champe: And I’ll bring a cup with me, in case I am able to dig up some dirt.
— LCM
Jump! · 9 January 2010
During the big snowstorm, Todd built a snowboarding/sledding run, complete with a jump off of our back deck. Champe and Caden got to ride with him a bunch of times. Check it out; it’s pretty thrilling.
— LCM
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Talking Stuff · 4 January 2010
My friend Jill and I amuse ourselves by talking about absolutely nothing almost every morning during our respective commutes (she to work and me returning home after dropping kids off at school). This morning she called a bit earlier than usual so I still had Champe in the car.
We immediately launched into 5 or 6 different simultaneous subjects (possible sighting of a creepy man, website launch slated for today, first day back to school, hard or not for our kids? etc etc).
When I pulled into the school driveway about 3 minutes later, Champe said, “Whew, I’m glad we’re here finally so I don’t have to listen to all that talking stuff!”
We’re pretty positive our husbands feel the same way.
— LCM
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Baby Newton · 3 January 2010
For dinner tonight we were having fat wedge size french fries. At some point Caden opened one up and exclaimed, “Hey, there’s potato in here!!!!”
We them amused ourselves for the rest of dinner asking him to check and see if there was potato inside this french fry and that one too??? And each time, he responded YES!!!!!!! as if he were indeed confirming an enormous scientific discovery.
— LCM
Comment [2]
Happy New Decade · 2 January 2010
So my New Year’s Res is: Up, Down, In, Out. Cryptic, huh?
The “up” part is about putting more blog posts up. Which would be easier if I could’ve remembered my password, which I could have probably done if I ever actually blogged. Complicating matters, I am my own site admin and I manage my own domain. So there’s no “forgot password” option. Instead, there is a “you are really pretty stupid” option. So I spent the afternoon studying directions like:
shell blah blah host’s control panel blah blah query field list of users update txp_users set pass=password(lower(‘pass’)) where name=‘user’;
and I have not a clue what any of that means, but it finally worked and here I am. The alternative was blogging under Todd’s user name, which could have been slightly amusing….
Anyway, here’s a NYE pic for you.
Champe is in the middle, holding baby Pax very carefully. All 6 of these boys, plus one other, and one very sleepy one year old girl stayed up til about 1 am on New Year’s Day. There was dancing and horns and a pretty amazing ability to hold it together way past their bedtimes for Champe and three of his very best friends.
And just for you, here’s a recap of my decade
2000 Met Todd
2001 Married Todd
2002 Started Xcapacity
2003 Bought new house
2004 Champe born
2005 HWT becomes client
2006 Discover Discovery Woods
2007 Caden born
2008 Adopted daughter, Maritta
2009 Receive amazing Bleigießen prediction :-), stay tuned for realization of this prediction. LOL
— LCM