Headytail

Today I had Annika on my lap and Kardynn came along and tried to shove her off. This is nothing new. Kardynn is extremely possessive of me. I said, "Kardynn, this is my daughter and she can sit on my lap too.  I love her very much."  Kardynn replied, "No! I the daughter."

Just now Kiersten crawled up onto my chair and started playing with my hair. As she tugged at my ponytail holder Kardynn showed up and screamed, "No! My momma headytail on!!!" I chuckled. She looked at me and screamed, "No!That's not funny."

Now she's trying to take a picture of us with my MP3 player.

The Things Kids Say

Yesterday as I was headed out the door for a lunch date with my son, I informed the babysitter that my phone was almost dead so if she really needed to reach me, she could try just calling the restaurant. Six year-old Oskar pipes up, "Oh, your phone isn't working? It was probably a cosmic ray. They can mess up electronics."  The babysitter and I both struggled to suppress chuckles.  I joked with my friend later on that he's totally headed towards being one of those guys who's incredibly smart and knowledgeable but totally lacking common sense. 

This morning I was disgusted with Annika because she came into my room to tell me some totally trivial and mundane thing. (With four kids, it's pretty much a guarantee that I'll wake up to some kid who has an "urgent" matter to bring to my attention.  Urgent as in, "Mom, my socks don't match" or "Mom, yesterday you forgot to tuck me in for the twelfth time" or "Mom, I can't find my favorite shorts".)  Oops, I'm getting off track. I was getting a little too enthusiastic with my examples.  So anyway, as I was saying, Annika had just woken me up and I grumpily sent her back to her room. As she's walking down the hall I hear Kardynn shout from her room, "Annika, don't wake up me." My sentiments exactly, 'Don't wake up me.'

I'm Going on a Trip

One of my favorite ways to kill time with the kids is to play the "I'm going on a trip" memory game. Sometimes we do it in alphabetical order but lately we've been going hog wild and just saying any old thing. The other hotly contested element is who gets to go first. EVERYONE wants to go first.

Today I declared that we'd go from oldest to youngest. So Kardynn (with Annika's help) chose peanuts to take on her trip (and that was her last contribution to the game).

Kiersten, "peanuts, flowers"
Annika, "peanuts, flowers, a blueprint."

A blueprint? Really? How does she even know what a blueprint is? DOES she know what a blueprint is?

Annika adds, "So that we know how to build our house when we get there."

Alrighty then, I guess she does know what a blueprint is.

In case you're wondering, this is far as we got before we ran out of time:

Oskar: bakugan
Mommy: elephant
Kiersten: pajamas
Annika: mac & cheese
Oskar: silly bandz
Mommy: chocolate milk (at Annika's request)

Tomato Sandwich

Tomato Sandwich, originally uploaded by hezro.

Today as I was toasting bread for my tomato sandwich, I thought of my Uncle Don. I always think of my Uncle Don when I toast bread because he's the person who pointed out to me that you can usually push up on the little toaster knob thing-a-ma-jobey (as demonstrated below) to easily get your toast out. This is a pretty cool trick and I actually think a lot of people don't realize you can do that with your toaster. Having said, I'm sure my Uncle Don would not have expected this to be the thing that would stick in someone's head about him. Of course this isn't the ONLY thing that makes me think of my uncle but it is one of the things. Uncle Don is a family doctor (I've called him with many a medical question over the years) and a really smart guy and he's funny (not to mention very nice). So yeah, it's quite random that TOAST is one of the main things that makes me think of Uncle Don.

Toaster, originally uploaded by hezro.

The sandwich I was making today is one of my summer favorites. I'm not necessarily a huge mayonnaise lover but this is the one sandwich where nothing else compares: toasted wheat bread, a thin amount of Hellmann's mayo, sweet tomatoes and a dash of salt. Yum.

Another irony is that I've always attributed these sandwiches to my grandfather (Uncle Don's dad - and my dad's dad). For years I thought I was copying a favorite of my grandfather's. But then a few years ago I discovered that this isn't actually how my grandfather ate his tomato sandwiches. I think he put margarine on his. *shudder* But despite my faulty memory, they still make me think of my Grandpa and I like that.

Today I sat out on our screened porch with my girls and ate my delicious tomato sandwiches. The girls all hate tomatoes so they had egg salad sandwiches. But how amazing does that sandwich look?! Apparently even Kiersten - the most notorious tomato hater of all - could see that it looked delicious so she asked for a bite. And guess what? She liked it and asked for a sandwich of her own. And then Annika wanted one too. And both of them gobbled down their entire sandwiches.

Tomato Haters, originally uploaded by hezro.

So thank you Uncle Don and Grandpa for helping my girls appreciate tomatoes, even if for only one afternoon.

Mini Me

Flowers, originally uploaded by hezro.

My tigerlilies are finally blooming. So naturally I had to grab my camera and snap a few photos. And I couldn't help but chuckle when MiniMe came running out with *her* camera to take photos too. There's no denying it - she is her mother's daughter.

Mini Me, originally uploaded by hezro.