The Coconut

Today, after school, Pippi, Bardo, and I headed to the grocery store. We're already out of Thanksgiving leftovers, but more importantly, we were out of bananas, Bardo's staple food of choice. While wandering the produce section, Pippi saw a coconut. Whenever we go to the stored her eyes rest on the coconut. Today, in a moment of weakness, I gave in to her heart's desire. Sh held it for awhile through the store, and then, it rolled out of her hands. Fortunately, it only made a knocking sound, rather then the cracking sound. The coconut had survived, and was unbroken. I instructed Pippi to put that baby into the cart. She did so after a couple of minute of arguing and tender coconut holding.

Pippi held the coconut carefully in her hands all the way home. She removed the confining orange net. She thought opening the coconut would be the first order of business upon arrival. Bardo's hungry cries crushed her plans, and we all sat down to dinner. The clock ticked on, way too fast, as we finished up dinner, dog barking, Bardo screeching, and I saw that Pippi was going to have to HURRY if she was going to do her before bed routine AND break open the coconut. So, like any time conscious mother I told her she must take a bath, brush her teeth, and get in her pajamas, and do her 2 minor before-bed chores before we could take a hammer to the coconut. She argued for awhile, and then when I told he she was wasting her time, she hopped to her chores.

Finally, it was time to open the coconut; we headed out to the garage for its concrete floor, and the Warlock's tools. As we were rummaging around trying to find the necessary supplies, I notice that Hunter is freaking out running around in circles. He had stepped on the sticky traps our friendly pest control specialist had left. He managed to get it off, and then as we were getting ready to hammer the nail into the coconut Bardo starts crying because he's stuck in the sticky trap, too. As soon as I removed him from the trap, he starts crying again because the foot of his pajama was stuck to the floor.

Our nail turned out to be so small that it was going to take forever to drain the water from the coconut, so I told Pippi she would have to drink the Coconut Water (YUCK!) tomorrow morning. This was not according to her plans, and she told me as much.

So the kids went to bed 45 minutes late because of a coconut. And we haven't even opened it yet...

Kindergarten Field Trip

Pippi got to ride a school bus for the very first time yesterday! She went with her class and 7 other kindergarten classes to Settler's Village in Jesse Jones park. I followed the bus in my car (at the teacher's suggestion) with Bardo. It was a very nice excursion, though a bit stressful for some of the children. I was glad to be there to keep Pippi feeling safe.











This last picture is great, don't you think? Pippi's in midair, and Bardo looks like he's on starting blocks.

Full-blown Toddlerhood

I don't seem to have enough hands lately...or ears...or eyes. Bardo's nearly 17 months old and into everything. With a house and a yard to take care of I'm finding that I just can't quite keep up with his "learning experiences." Whenever I load the dishwasher, he thinks that standing on the door would be dandy. He also enjoys grabbing knives and walking around with them.

Today he dropped the dog bowl. I had to fish jagged pieces of ceramic out of Hunter's mouth.

Today I discovered Bardo could reach up to the counter and pull things off. I guess he wanted a before dinner snack.

Pippi could probably attest to the fact that she has a pesky little brother. The wonderful thing is that she would never ever use those words. She's too nice. She often builds beautiful houses out of blocks. When she's done, she calls for Bardo to come and knock it down.

Indulgence

Every week, to get even with the Warlock for bringing "football food" into my kitchen, I make something that I like that no one else does. I might spend 30 minutes chopping vegetables for my overly expensive salad. I still don't make the same salad twice. Because I put whatever I want in the salad, it drives other eaters away. I eat the WHOLE thing all by myself, sometimes in one sitting but usually in the course of a couple of days. Here is this week's salad:

• 6 lettuce leaves, chopped
• 3 cabbage leaves, chopped
• 4 small radishes, minced
• 1 stalk celery
  
• 1 red bell pepper, minced
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 small onion, sliced thin
• 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
• 12 sprigs parsley, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
  
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

Toss together the lettuce, cabbage, radish, cucumber, red bell pepper, carrot, corn, tomato, onion, garlic, parsley, mint, olive oil, pomegranate seeds, pomegranate syrup, and lemon juice in a large bowl.

I promise...

that he put himself in there!

A Witch with Purple Hair

I'm not sure where she comes up with her ideas, but this is what she wanted to be...