Thursday, February 26, 2009

For Amo Nader

Luke pushed Amo Nader around all afternoon.

Amo means Uncle in Arabic.

Name Calling

You might enjoy this quick little read,
if only for the name calling.

Op-Ed Columnist
I Ponied Up for Sheryl Crow?
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: February 25, 2009
Northern Trust of Chicago, if you’re not solvent, why are you using my tax dollars to party at a golf tournament?

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Boxes

Our boxes have to be taken to the trash room downstairs.
















































































Plastic Car Shop?

Lindy and Papa Joe just had to get him his very own when he fell in love with their neighbors.
They decided to get the one that looks like a fire truck.
I was with Lindy when it was purchased and helped her attempt to put it together.
I quit after a ridiculous amount of time trying to attach the roof.
Is there a place you can take kids plastic cars to be assembled?
This was a m o n s t e r.
I’m convinced it is defective.
It should snap together with a minor hint of oomph.
So Luke enjoyed it convertible style.























































P.S. I’m thinking it should stay roofless…just like Lindy’s real car.

Napping with Friends

Aren’t you wondering how this happened?

Monday, February 23, 2009

Basketball Fan

Precious little Henry gets to watch some serious Ole Miss Basketball.
On this night he watched them play LSU!


Friday, February 20, 2009

Confidential to SaSa

I finally found the perfect Christmas gift for Luke.
When you asked me to pick it out you probably didn’t think it would take me this long, sorry.
But it really is perfect. Especially since it is from you!
It arrived today and I put it together during his nap.
Now I’m waiting for him to wake-up and discover this great gift.
A little kitchen from SaSa.
How perfect is that?



Thursday, February 19, 2009

2.19.09

The date our household was brutally introduced to the experience of a child with a stomach virus.
I thought being peed on was the grossest thing I would have to endure.
I was wrong.
I was really really wrong.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Muffin Love

How much do I love this?
My sweet friend Camille made banana nut muffins from my banana nut bread recipe.
And to make it even more of her own, she added chocolate chunks and walnuts.
Camille, could you pass me a muffin?
Thanks, Camille.











Confedintial to Dad


H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y !

(I want to make sure I’m typing loud enough and enunciating for you)

Friday, February 13, 2009

Confidential to my Gentle Readers


















I can hardly believe it.
Yesterday was my blog one year anniversary.
You are certainly kind to read.
But you must promise not to tell me you read my blog, it is embarrassing to me!

P.S. This post is my 345th post to boot!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Banana Bread

I’ve found myself with ripe bananas twice in the last week and the energy to make fabulous banana bread each time. We are busy trying to pace ourselves…we would like to have some to enjoy tomorrow! I thought you all might like to enjoy it as well.

P.S. You don’t have to add the chocolate chips or pecans if you don’t want to.

Banana Bread
½ Cup butter, softened
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 Cup Mashed Ripe Bananas (about 2 large)
3 Tablespoons Milk
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Cup (6 oz) Semisweet Chocolate Chips
½ Cup Chopped Pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg. In a small bowl, combine bananas and milk. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with banana mixture. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.
Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 10-15 minutes before removing from pan.

Notes from the Grocery Store

I just smiled and thanked Luke for being so friendly…
when he said hello to e v e r y s i n g l e person lucky enough to be roaming the aisles with us,
a minimum of three times per person.
Oh, and at the top of his lungs.
Our sweet friend at the deli counter said she heard us coming.

The Granny Smith Apples and the Meyer Lemons left me breathless today.
That crisp shade of green!
That warm shade of yellow!
Was there special lighting at Whole Foods today?
I bought Granny Smith Apples and have clustered them together in a dark blue bowl.
I didn’t buy the lemons. I wish I did.

So now my four favorite colors:
1. Purple, as in eggplant purple.
2. Orange, as in Tennessee orange.
3. Green, as in Granny Smith Apple green.
4. Yellow, as in Meyer Lemon yellow only.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Flat

I got a flat tire today.
It happened while I was driving on a parkway
with no shoulders.
And that is about the worst of my story.

In His loving kindness, God provided everything for Luke and me.
Specifically He provided:
A warm 70 degree day in February to get a flat tire
An uncharacteristic snack right before we left bible study this morning
(did I mention our flat occurred during lunch time on the East Coast?)
A fully charged cell phone
A husband who provided his family with AAA membership
An efficient AAA woman on the other end of the phone
(who asked me twice if my child was locked inside the car)
A AAA policy that made me a priority because I had a 16 month old with me
A kind and super capable tire changer man
Time from pulling over with a flat to being back on the road with a spare: about 1.5 hours
An auto shop that just happened to have a man at the warehouse that afternoon who was able to pick up a new tire for us
Safety on the side of the road (no thanks to the police man who drove by me)
And a sweet child who endured it all well

Offending Tire















The hole in the tire was as big as Faris’ pinky finger.
The first mechanic said “whoa” and called another guy over to look at it.


Our tire changer man had us sit in his car while we waited for him to be done.
Sitting in his car was a much better option than standing on the side of a parkway but…wasn’t that fun to sit in a stranger’s car and try and not have my sweet, tired, hungry kid touch and pull everything!




























P.S. I am wondering about the AAA woman who asked me twice if my child was locked inside the car. Does she get calls for that a lot? If my child is actually locked inside the car I’m breaking a window and not calling AAA to wait for somebody to track me down and jimmy the lock.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A Mother's Winter Sport

Judging other kids level of sickness.
Then judging the child's mother.

I see you shaking your head.
You might like to ponder this from the New York Times.

The Cough-and-Sniffle Question: When to Keep a Child Home?
By PERRI KLASS, M.D.
Published: February 10, 2009
Keep your child home from school if there’s fever, or if the child feels too crummy to participate -- but don’t worry so much about the runny nose in the row behind.

Proof

I was there too!

































Museum, Take 2

We ventured back to the Museum of Natural History this morning.
It was an awesome visit,
starting with our parking space in front of the museum.
The key is to arrive as soon as the doors open.
We practically had the museum to ourselves for the first 45 minutes!
It didn’t hurt that Papa Joe met us at the museum either!















We were the first people to visit the live butterfly exhibit.
It is an extraordinary exhibit—a contained pod like thingy you walk through with flowers and plants and butterflies gracefully flying about.











































The insect zoo is a must of course.





































A quick zip through the special orchid exhibit.












A swim through the ocean exhibit.













Lunch at Baja Fresh.








I’m just now noticing that I’m not in any of these pictures.
Proof that I was with them must be on my dad’s camera.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Warm Sunday Afternoon

Joe & John-David gave Luke’s wheels a tune-up.




































My parent’s neighbor left this enchanting car outside and
Luke commandeered it.
Luke turned that wheel like a race car driver.
He honked the horn like he was a cabbie in Rome.
Every time we opened the door to coax him out, he shut it.
We had to physically extract the driver from the car.



Bayside vs. Inland

Our walk along the Bay early this afternoon required us to be bundled up.
Our visit to Tata’s house much later in the afternoon did not even require a jacket.






Good nap weather.























































Playing in the car with Uncle Nader

Brisk Afternoon Walk

I couldn’t stand to be inside on Friday,
so we took a walk in the afternoon.
It was cold.
It wasn’t 10 degrees cold but it wasn’t 50 either.
Think he noticed?































Warming up by the fire post walk.



Thursday, February 5, 2009