Quotable

Soren has developed a slight fondness for Cars (the Pixar movie), maybe because it's the only movie we own, but also probably because it has cars in it. He asks to see it more than once a day, generally, but I'm trying to oblige him only every other day. Or else I will go insane.

At this point, he's seen the movie enough to be able to quote parts of it, which scares me a little. The thing I love, though, is that he picks the most mundane lines to quote, at completely random times during the day. At the breakfast table last week, he busted out with, "The Jeep says, 'WHAT travelers?!?!'" Well... yes, the Jeep does say that. I never thought of it as particularly memorable, but the Jeep does say it pretty loudly, so maybe toddlers are like parrots and mostly like to repeat things that have been said emphatically. This explains both toddlers' and parrots' fondness for dropping f-bombs. Which Soren has never done, thank you very much, in case you were wondering.

Yesterday, in the car, Soren started repeating, "The red car says, 'IS IT GETTING DARK OUT?'" Another accurate quote. Actually, he'd been talking about the weather right before he said that, and he'd asked me if it was sunny outside, so I guess he jumped from that thought to the movie quote. Kind of like when a bunch of our friends get together, and one of us happens to say, "That's bad," and then we have to jump into the whole Cursed Squishy routine from the Simpsons. Yep. That's my boy.

Where's my Mac and Cheese?

Alternate title: Get Back in the Kitchen Where You Belong, Mama

The other night, Soren was hungry and I was lazy (Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy and Doc were out clubbing), so I told him I'd make him some macaroni and cheese. The Annie's kind, not the neon orange (and super tasty) kind. Don't judge me. Anyway, I apparently haven't learned my lesson yet, said lesson being: don't tell Soren you're going to give him something until it's on a plate and being carried toward him. Or else he will spend the next fifteen minutes repeating some variation of "Where's my mac and cheese? I want my mac and cheese. Where's my mac and cheese, Mama? Can I have mac and cheese?" Etc.

He asked mac-and-cheese-related questions for a few minutes while I was waiting for the water to boil, and then went off to play. After I put the noodles in, I went out to see how he was doing. As soon as he noticed me watching him, he got up and started saying "Go away, Mama! Go away!" And then he started PUSHING me. Which made me laugh, actually, because whatever. I'm huge. Anyway, I asked him where he wanted me to go, exactly, and he pointed toward the stove. "Go over there, Mama! Make my mac and cheese!"

OhohoHO.

I tried to explain that there was cooking going on without me, but he was pretty sure I was shirking, so I eventually gave up and stirred the pot a couple times to get His Highness off my back. We'll have a heart to heart about bossiness some other time. When I'm feeling less lazy, perhaps.

The Deuce's Internet Premiere

I had my 18-week ultrasound today, so Chris and I got our first good look at The Deuce! It's funny -- two days ago, I still hadn't felt any kicks and was starting (well, continuing, if you want the truth) to feel anxious, but I started feeling little thumps yesterday, and the scan today looked great, so now I feel much better. So, to celebrate, here's one of those slightly incomprehensible ultrasound pics! Hint: that grey baby-shaped blob is the baby.



High five!



Come on -- don't leave the Deuce hangin'!

Soren Knows Just What to Say...

...to butter Mama up.

We were, once again, reading the newspaper at the breakfast table this morning, and Soren saw a full-page color ad for a Turner exhibit at the Met. He pointed to the painting and said, "What's that?" So I told him it was a painting. Then he asked, "Mama painted that? Did Mama do that one?" Aw, shucks, well... no. But it's really nice of him to think I'm capable of such things. Not that he's ever seen me draw anything except hearts (at his request) and trucks (yeah, you guessed it).

Soren Reads the Times

Chris is usually reading the newspaper at the dining room table when Soren and I come down for breakfast in the morning, and we occasionally get some good toddler comments on the latest world happenings. Or at least the pictures of said happenings.

This morning, Soren was looking at the front page of the arts section and saying, "That's a brown bee. That's a brown bee, Daddy." Chris was like, Whuh? But then he looked more closely and saw that Soren was pointing to a photo of a ring-tailed lemur. Brown bee, indeed.

When I got my turn with the paper, Soren pointed to a photo on the front page and asked, "Who's that? Who's that man?" I said, "It's Matthew Tannin."

"That's Mafu Taddin." Then he asked, "What's he doing?"

"He's... riding in a car." He was actually being placed into a police cruiser by an officer, but, you know, details.

"He's driving a car! He's happy!"

Sweet, innocent little boy.

E.G.'s Happenin' Music Scene

It's Wednesday night, or, as we call it here at Ichabod House: Bagpipe Nite! Almost every Wednesday, a small group of bagpipers, occasionally accompanied by a drummer, practices in the empty parking lot across the street. It's pretty cool, although I wish: 1) they would write more than two songs for the bagpipes; and 2) they would stop playing at 7:30. But besides that, it's amusing, and toddlers like to dance to it (just ask Soren and Ian).

Last Wednesday, after Chris got home from work, we all took a little walk around the neighborhood and stopped at a playground for a little while. We could still hear the bagpipes pretty clearly through the neighborhood from a quarter-mile away, so I guess Ichabod House isn't the only one that gets to appreciate Bagpipe Nite. Anyway, after a little while, we started hearing a drummer playing not too far away, so we went to check it out... and there was a fife and drum corps playing at the Kentish Guards armory! They, too, were being appreciated by toddlers, as several families sat across the street listening. The fife and drum corps practice is apparently another regular Wednesday thing in summer, so I guess we'll have our choice of old-skool flava. It's kind of awesome.

Bii My Friend

OK, all you people with Wiis, I need more Wii buddies! I don't think there's any reason I shouldn't just post my Wii info online, so here goes... if you want to use these to stalk me somehow, I'd be interested to see how you manage to pull that off.

Console ID: 4653 1210 0847 5760

Dr. Mario Online friend code: 1895 0608 1184

Mario Kart Mii numbers:
Kirsten: 0817 4948 5014
Chris: 5327 2105 1280

That's a lot of numbers. Now send your IDs to me!