Holy Confusion, Batman

This toy used to be Ernie's when he was a kid, and now it's Samuel's. However, Samuel cannot quite grasp WHO it is supposed to be. He'll ask us "is it a bad man on there?" or he'll pat his hands on his legs and then ask "is it pat man on there? does he go pat pat pat" I suppose a person dressed up in a bat suit is kind of a strange concept. It doesn't help that Samuel has never seen a bat before, and even if he saw one in a book, it doesn't look anything like batman's costume. But he's really more interested in the motorcycle batman is riding anyway. Hello, complete obsession with cars and trucks, welcome to our home.

In other language news, we have officially entered the "why" stage. EVERYTHING you say to Samuel is countered with "why?" Sometimes I know he asks because he's stalling, and doesn't want to move on to the next activity. But most of the time I think he asks because he really is very curious.

He was sick most of last week (because he decided it would be a good idea to eat an entire box of cheez-it crackers by himself in less than 24 hours!) so we now are having a lot of conversations about healthy foods, and not eating too much of any one thing. Sly kid that he is, he tried to tell us last night that he couldn't eat his pizza because he needed some healthy food. What almost 3-year old will not eat pizza? Apparently the same one who will not touch eggs of any kind, refuses to eat meat unless it is a chicken nugget, and is able to pick a single solitary spice out of his spaghetti sauce and put it to the side. We even have a whole cookbook about sneaking healthy foods into regular foods so your kids will eat them. Like you blend up zucchini and put it into sloppy joes. This would work great if we could actually get Samuel to eat sloppy joes. We need a cookbook that has strategies for hiding healthy foods inside of crackers, since he is more than happy to eat those.

No Fear

We are fortunate in that we live about 10 minutes from three different elementary school playgrounds, and one huge community playground. Samuel and I have been going to a different one each afternoon, trying to enjoy as much outside playtime as we can before it gets too cold.

The favorite playground at the moment is at Aboite Elementary School (As a side note, that word is pronounced "a-boy-t". The other day I asked Samuel if he wanted to go to the Aboite playground and he said "I can go there. I'm a boy!")

There is a whole section of Aboite playground that is fenced in and has swings and slides appropriate for little kids. Does Samuel want to go there? No. He wants to go to the other section - the one for the older elementary school kids. Still, even at the bigger kid section, there are some parts of the equipment that can climb on himself. Here he is having fun in a tunnel:

But fun in the tunnel only lasts for a few minutes because what he really wants is to go down the slide. What slide is that, you ask? One that is safe and meant for small kids, like this one?

No.

One that is bigger and probably still looks huge to a 2-year old, like this one?

No.

Toddler Knievel wants to go down this one:

I don't think you should be allowed to go down this slide unless you are old enough to drive YOURSELF to this playground.

But of course he wants to go down it. Which means we BOTH are going down it, because there is no way I'm letting him go up there by himself. And once we get to the top and slide down, it's fun. But helping him up that huge ladder, and worrying that he is going to go through one of those giant openings on the side (look at the spaces between those slats!) is nerve-wracking, to say the least. The kid has absolutely no fear.

Grandparents

Samuel had a great time with his Memere and Grandpa Bob last week. Here he is helping bake cookies:

Pretending to nap on the couch with Grandpa Bob:

Moose the dog also came along for the visit. He LOVED Bella and wanted to play with her non-stop. Bella, however, did not feel the same way and spent most of her time across the room from Moose, pretending to sleep, but keeping one eye on him at all times.

Here's Samuel helping get corn ready for dinner one night (husking? shucking? I don't know what this is called.) Surprisingly, he loved doing this. And it kept him busy the whole time I was making the rest of our dinner. I think we're going to eat corn every night from now on.

One day when Samuel was at school, Ernie and I took Barbara and Bob to tour DeBrand - a local chocolate company. When we lived in Colorado we went to Celestial Seasonings Tea, and Coors Brewery with various guests, but never a chocolate factory before. It was yummy!

And, finally, in case you are searching for that perfect accessory to complement the humidity and 85 degree summer weather, may we suggest...

winter boots.

Blast from the Past

Barbara and Bob are visiting us right now, and they brought these old pictures of Ernie and his sisters. This is Ernie, Angie, and Bridget circa 1984.



This second picture of Ernie just cracks me up every time I look at it:



More pictures of our visit to follow later this week...