I Need to Take My Kids Camping...

Observe:



These are pictures of my kids in our backyard. They have built a "fire" (complete with a less than adequate fire ring) and sitting around their fire roasting pine-cones. They were pretending their pine-cones were marshmallows or hot-dogs, but when they were pretending to eat the bigger pine-cones, they were pretending it was corn on the cob. Fun and creative kids.

Fire Safety

This blog has been long neglected and I don't know if I'll get caught up or give updates as needed. Suffice it to say, we now live in Oak Harbor, WA and have been here since Memorial Day Weekend 2011. Living on Whidbey Island is amazing and we feel like we are constantly surrounded by beauty above and beyond the general beauty that W. Washington provides. Anyway....

We are renting a home (and hope to be here for a while) that has a wonderful wood-burning stove with which we hope to heat our house for the better part of the upcoming colder months. We had our first fire in it this past Sunday evening for fun and it definitely puts off the heat. There seems to be a lot of nostalgia as well when you have a fire going in your house. We are excited about this for sure, just a little worried about our little almost 18-month old Molly.



Because of those concerns and just because it's probably something we should do at some point, we decided to have a "Fire Safety" type FHE this past Monday. I think we were pretty thorough - showing the kids where the smoke alarms are and what the alarm sounds like; talking about crawling if there is a fire in the house, testing a door knob to see how hot it is (I was thinking about Home Alone and The Office while teaching and typing this :); how to open their windows; where to meet outside; how to help each other if needed; etc. Anyway, I thought it was a great lesson/conversation with the kids and they seemed much more attentive to this lesson than many other more typical FHE lessons.

So, once Mary and I felt like we had concluded the info that we wanted to tell them about and after trying to reassure them that the chances of having a fire in our house were slim... the questions began... a lot of "What if..." questions. For example, "What if you both die, then what will we do?" "What if you both die and no one knows that our house burned down, what will we do?" Sarah states, "Should I just walk with the other kids to church on Sunday in my jammies and say 'my house burnt down'?"

None of our children wanted to go to sleep that night... they were very worried about a fire in the house and were very unsure how they would perform if there was a fire and all of the possibilities that could bring about. We tried to reassure them by telling them how many days they had been alive and that they hadn't had a fire yet and it was unlikely to happen. We encouraged them to pray for no fires in the house and to continue to be careful around fire.

Once they were in bed, I realized that I forgot to tell them how flammable mattresses are.... there's always next week!

Sarah & Jane!

I just love these two kids. Sarah is getting so big and is growing up so fast. She is maturing and learning so much right now... it's hard to keep up. Jane is at that magical age that I absolutely adore and (for the most part) can't get enough of. Whenever it's bedtime and we're singing Sarah her bedtime song, Jane will always insist on laying in Sarah's bed, right next to her, under the covers. This is usually adorable, but sometimes there is the (understandable, at times) complaining from Sarah ("You're on my hair", "OUCH", "Jane just hit me", etc.). But usually they enjoy these few moments each night where they get to cuddle or where they both get their backs-scratched while I sing them a song (that's daddy multi-tasking!). I love bedtime for many reasons, but it seems that our kids can be the sweetest when they are tired and just enjoying the process of being put in bed. Anyway, we caught some fun times with these girls before bed time one night recently. Enjoy!

Camping at the Sand Dunes 3/5 - 3/6/10

Camping at the Sand Dunes 3/5 - 3/6/10



So we had an unseasonably warm week in early March and I was a little over excited about Spring and Summer coming, so I started to think about camping. As I watched the weather (with most of the attention being paid to the daily High's) it looked like it was shaping up for a gorgeous weekend. So I decided to go camping early in the week.

We decided to use a site that had electricity and water along with a firepit and little shelter for a picnic table. I had told the kids earlier in the week that we would try to go camping this weekend and they were really excited. Sarah wrote the following little note for me on Thurs: "Dear Daddy I hop we have a fun time together tomorow going camping at the sand doons I hop we have a grate time of corse you now that. to Jeff from Sarah Hamm." What a sweet girl! Nathan was also very excited and looking forward to camping. They were counting down the days all week. Their excitement and anticipation alone would have been worth the trip! They helped me pack some of the camping stuff on Thurs evening and asked over and over why I had to go to work on Friday, because they wanted to camp “all day”. I got home from work early on Friday and we finished packing all the great food that Mary had put together for us and we were on our way. We got out to the camping spot at the Sand Dunes around 5 pm and we set up camp. The kids had a fun time helping me and playing around the campsite. We then went and registered our campsite at the pay-station and the kids found “firewood” (really just small sticks and twigs) as we walked around the campgrounds. A neighborly camper pointed out that there was a horned owl in his nest in a nearby tree so we went over and looked at it, the kids thought that was cool and I answered their questions about what it eats and how it catches it’s food. We discovered that there was no water at the campsite so we had to drive to nearby Bruneau to get some water from a gas station there. The kids enjoyed seeing some deer in the fields as we drove. We got a fire going when we returned and the kids enjoyed helping with the fire. We then cooked hot dogs over the fire and the kids enjoyed eating those and some chips. After eating dinner we just sat around the fire and talked (about owls, fires, camping, etc.). We then made Jiffy-pop popcorn and Sarah and Nathan were quite impressed at how it grew as it was cooked and popped. They enjoyed the popcorn. They were both really excited about eating roasted marshmallows and Nathan, especially, had talked about this all week. However, when they were actually cooked he only had one. Sarah had a couple and then they wanted to go in the tent as it was dark, the fire wasn’t really providing much warmth and it was getting much cooler. They wanted to put on their jammies and get in their sleeping bags. So we went in the tent and we had brought a little fan/heater and that came in handy and took some of the edge off of the cold during the night. We kept it on all night! We played around in the tent a little bit and got them ready for bed. We brought two books to read: The Bernstein Bears “Bear Scouts” and Mercer Mayer’s “My Dad and Me” camping trip book. The kids enjoyed these stories. We then read the Book of Mormon and then we talked for a while. Before they went to sleep, I had them come out of the tent briefly and look at the stars. Unfortunately the Observatory here was closed. After I left I just walked around the camp a bit and cleaned up our stuff and then I joined them in bed. It’s so fun to sleep between your kids while camping. I had enough light to see their sweet little faces sleeping comfortably (and I hoped that they were warm enough with a sleeping bag and blankets). They both slept well – better then me I think… I never sleep good when camping/hiking.



In the morning it was cold and windy as the sun started to come up. They were both tired of being in the tent and wanted to get outside, but I knew they would be very cold as there was frost on the windshield and due to how windy it was. Thankfully, Mary had sent us with some doughnuts so we didn’t have to make pancakes right away for breakfast. So we got in the car and drove about 25 mins to Bruneau Canyon, which is amazing and very deep. It was still windy and cool, but the sun was up which provided some warmth. The kids enjoyed throwing rocks over the fence at the lookout and trying to listen to hear it hit the ground or canyon face below. We probably spent about 45 minutes there and then traveled back. This worked out good because even though it was windy, the sun made the campsite much warmer. I made pancakes on an electric griddle, but it was still so cold and windy that by the time that they ate them they were very cold pancakes and they ate very little, and I didn’t blame them. The syrup was cold and the pancakes were cold. Luckily they had eaten the doughnuts. To get something else in their stomachs we decided to cook the last couple hot dogs, so they had hot dogs and doughnuts for breakfast – what a healthy breakfast!



After “breakfast” we went in the tent and got them dressed for the day and packed up some of our stuff in the tent. Then we got ready to go to the actual Sand Dunes to play. Here’s a funny story. So, apparently on Friday morning while Mary was shopping for stuff for us to go camping at a local grocery store (Paul’s) the kids were telling everybody that they were going camping with their daddy to the sand dunes. When they were checking out of the store, the cashier told Sarah and Nathan to “be careful, last time I was there I saw a rattle snake!” This apparently stuck with Nathan.



When we parked at the bottom of one of the dunes, he refused to come out because he was scared of rattle snakes. I assured him that we wouldn’t see any this time of year and that I would stay with him. He would have none of it! He chose to stay in the car, but it was close enough where he could see us from the car go up and down the dunes. So he stayed behind in the car. Sarah and I walked to the end of the dune and then climbed up it’s spine, rather then hike straight up. The sand was cold on our feet underneath. We got to the top and Sarah enjoyed repeatedly jumping down [“like a bunny – hop hop”] the dune and then climbing back up. She also said that she felt like she was walking on the moon… she seemed to really enjoy this.




After about 30-45 minutes of us playing on the dunes (I jumped down them several times with her as well). I went down to check on Nathan. He was fairly distraught and it looked like he had been crying/upset for a little while. Poor kid! He still did not want to come out and go on the dunes, he just wanted to go back to the campsite. So we went back there when Sarah was done playing on the dunes.


We finished cleaning up our campsite and had a snack. We put the fire out with our remaining water. In the midst of cleaning up the camp, Sarah had apparently been talking to Nathan about how fun the dunes were and that she didn’t see any snakes. She had been so sweet and gently encouraging him to go on the dunes. What a great big sister she is for her little brother (and sisters!). She is so kind and sweet and is such a great example to her siblings. So after we had cleaned everything up, Nathan said he wanted to go back to the dunes. This time we picked a smaller dune that wouldn’t be difficult for Nathan to walk up. He was insistent that I hold his hand while we walked to and then up the smaller sand dune. Sarah ran ahead and we caught up to her at the top. Nathan didn’t want to do any jumping off of the backside of the dune, but enjoyed watching Sarah and I do it (Sarah had to hold his hand while I jumped down). We really praised him for being brave even though he was worried about rattle snakes.



We then drove home. The kids had a great time! I was really glad that we had decided to go even if they were pretty cold at times. It is so fun to see them so happy and excited about things like campfires, tents, sticks, bugs, animals, stars, marshmallows, hot dogs, sleeping bags, etc. Time and money well-spent!


*on a side note, I didn't find the camera in my bag until after our trip to Bruneau Canyon in the morning :(

This Story Must Be Told

Both Sarah and Nathan are good little sleepers (Hallelujah!). But when Sarah goes to bed and wakes up within the first few hours after going to sleep, she's a little delirious and "out of it" and trying to communicate with her verbally is a futile effort. This is especially the case when she has to go to the bathroom. She'll go in the bathroom and just cry, like she hasn't figured out why she's in there even though she needs to be there... or something like that. We usually just need to get her on the toilet and then get her back to bed and all is well and she doesn't remember a thing about it in the morning.

Anyway, so the other night, it was about 11 and I was finishing up brushing my teeth and I heard Sarah come out of her room and new she would need to use the restroom. She came in (yes, we only have one bathroom!) and said, very lucidly, that she needed to go "potty". So I told her I would give her some privacy and exited the bathroom, while leaving it a smidgeon cracked so that I could make sure she didn't need any help. I watched her curiously as she pulled the stool (a similar one is pictured below) out and put it right below the sink, pulled down her panties, sat down on the stool and proceeded to go "potty"... right on the stool. I opened the door and said "Sarah, what are you doing, that is the stool!" I totally startled her and likely fully woke her from her daze.

I told her to go on the toilet and then I started laughing and went in to our room telling Mary what had just happened. Mary asked if she had finished going to the bathroom and I realized that she probably hadn't and so we assisted her onto the toilet and then cleaned up the mess that she had made of the stool and the floor. And, conveniently, in the morning, she didn't remember a thing! At least there are blogs to make experiences like this timeless!

Happy Valentines Day '09

You know you're a parent on Valentines Day when your first kiss of the day is your son catching you off-guard by licking your face while he pretends to be a dog, which was the case this morning. You also know your a parent on Valentines Day when your day begins like this:

[Jane's cry is heard over the monitor and the time of 6:10 AM is noted]

Mary dutifully gets up to nurse Jane and, as she's leaving, states: "Sarah's light is on in her room and Nathan is at his door and I think he has a poopy diaper"

Jeff: "grooooaaan.... alright" [thinking: maybe I can get them to come cuddle with me for a while... after changing Nathan's diaper, Sarah comes out of her room and, after much work and the offer of a balloon for them, they agree to "cuddle" (read: bounce on and crawl repeatedly over dad while he continues in his delusional belief that this is actually like sleeping in)]

Jeff: "Happy Valentines Day you two, you are so special, we love you so much!"

Sarah [very excited]: "Today is Valentines Day?!" [confused because she celebrated it yesterday at school]

Nathan: "Happy Birthday to you Daddy!"

Jeff: "Thank you Nathan, it's actually 'Happy Valentines Day'"

Nathan: "Oh... Happy Birthday to you, Sarah!"

Sarah and Nathan [many times]: "Dad, it's time for breakfast"

Jeff: "let's wait 'til Mommy is done nursing and then she'll come in and cuddle with us and we have a special surprise to tell you about" [I knew that would hook Sarah, who could hook Nathan and delay the exit from my bed]

[Eventually, Mommy joins us and rescues Dad from getting trampled]

Sarah [as soon as Mommy enters the vicinity]: "What's the surprise?"

Jeff: "Oma and Opa are coming here today and visiting us for a couple of days"

Sarah and Nathan: "Yay!"

Anyway, they eventually drag us out of bed and I made some yummy pink pancakes for them and used a cookie cut-out to make some heart shapes. Sarah was pretty skeptical about the color, but I reassured her they would taste the same. Sarah likes her pancakes pure and undiluted (one time I made her chocolate chip pancakes and she wouldn't eat them... Geesh!)

Mary and I enjoyed going to a Valentines Dinner last night at church for couples and then talking with each other about some of Mary's past suitors (always an enjoyable conversation, with lot's of laughs... you should ask her about them sometime). Today we get to meet Oma and Opa in Boise and then they will take the kids home and Mary and I will get to go out together and run some errands without kids.
Here is the card that Sarah made for us. This is our family (sans Jane) "Jumping on the trampoline" of course. Pretty cute! Oh, and Sarah is currently stating that she doesn't like the "h" at the end of her name so she had to add that afterward.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day today. We love our family.

It was Hard not to Laugh!

So in my profession and in my current job working with teenage boys with specific behavioral issues, I work with kids that have some very sad and traumatic histories and experiences in their short lives. Most of them are extremely sad because of them experiencing things that no one in this world should ever experience. Some of them, on the other hand, are kind of humorous while also being sad.
Such was my experience the other day. Every third Saturday of each month we have what we call a Family Day where we do a lot of sessions with families/guardians of the kids that we work with. This is the only Saturday that I have to work each month.
Anyway, so Saturday I met with this kid and his mom and her fiance' for the first time. I knew some of the history of this family, but not all of the details. Sometimes, I do a genogram (a glorified family tree) with the family to understand them better and find out about some of the important people in this kids life. As we were doing this this is what I found out. Mom's first marriage ended in a divorce. Shortly thereafter she got married again. Not very remarkable until you discover that she married her ex-husbands sister's ex-husband (her former brother-in-law). She was married to this guy for a while and then divorced him. Who is she currently living with and engaged to? Her most recent ex-husband's brother (yes, another brother-in-law). So, in short, she's married her brother-in-law twice. How does this work out for the kid (my client). Twice, his uncle has become his step-dad and his step-dad has become his uncle. There are more juicy details in other areas of this family of course, but they require more detailed and confusing explanations. The family seemed to know on their own that this was pretty messed up and/or weird at the least.
So, to make this a little more clear, here is an example. This is like Mary, my wife, divorcing me and marrying my sister's, Rebecca's, husband, Chris. Then, after being married to Chris for a little while, she might marry, or at least be engaged to, either Dougie or Mike (my vote is with Dougie). Yeah, pretty crazy!
Suffice it to say, it was hard not to laugh!

Great Question!?

Sarah asked Mary this yesterday: "Mom, if a Daddy says 'Yes' and a Mommy says 'No', who is right?"

Wow, this next decade plus should be a lot of fun!... but thankfully I know the answer to that question (I'll leave that last statement deliberately open-ended and let you make all the assumptions about me you want :*P )

Praying Mantis

A few weeks ago we caught a Praying Mantis. Those things are sweet. It looked like it was pregnant as it had such a large abdomen (we later found out it was just full). It's a good size one too. Anyway, as is our typical routine when we catch something in the yard, we kept it for a day and then let it go. We caught it in the lavender bushes we have in front of our house and that's where we released it. It's been in the same general bush for the last couple of weeks and the kids enjoy checking on it when we come and go. It's probably the closest thing that we've had for a pet (sad, I know). One cute thing that Sarah said when we had caught the Praying Mantis and were looking at it: "Do you think a bug knows it's a bug?" Great question and pretty cute!


A couple of days after my cousin posted about a leaf-bug Mary caught one that was hanging out on our rear sliding door. It was so cool because we had never really seen one and then my cousin posted about it and then we caught one. Cool. Again, we had it for a day and then let it go in the backyard. (We thought we took pics but couldn't find 'em so we stole this one from my cousin)
Then, just a couple of days ago when Mary was coming in the house as usual they checked on our Praying Mantis who had recently caught a nourishing snack: a Leaf Bug. The gory pic is above (but you have to look close to see that it's eating and to see the victim with all the green around!) and if you pay enough attention you can see that he's in the process of devouring the thing... head first of course. We promise we didn't feed the Leaf Bug to the Praying Mantis... but it was a pretty funny coincidence. Be careful it's a bug eat bug world out there!

Air Force Air Show

Every year the Mountain Home Air Force Base hosts an Air-Show. Last year we didn't go (I can't remember why) but this year we kind of decided to head out there and take advantage of it. We were really glad that we went. When a town of 12,000 people draws 60,000 people in a two-day span... it must be an event worth seeing. Going to it is free and the Thunderbirds come and participate, which is always really exciting. The weather was gorgeous and it was a lot of fun. The Thunderbirds were so exhilirating to watch, we were just at awe of their sheer power, speed and precision. The kids got bored of their act pretty quick, but I could have watched them for quite a while. We also ran into the Angerbauer's, so we hung out with them and were provided with details of some of the planes that you could go into that were parked from both Mark and their boy Tyler (always full of knowledge!). It was a great time. With the really hot sun and the crowd being out on the runway, shade was at a premium, so everyone was gathered underneath the different planes that were parked for tours and we were fortunate to find a good spot.

Here they are screaming over head... it was hard to catch a good pic of these with our camera, but this works.
This one was cool because he was going really slow and keeping his plane at a vertical slant while not ascending but continuing to go parallel to the ground. It was noisy and looked really cool.
Here are Sarah, Nathan and I in front of some big plane. The kids were exhausted at the end of the show and we still had a long walk, then a short bus ride, then a long walk to find our car. That part of the show was not very fun. Plus there was the long waits in the car lines to get out of the parking lot (think decent-size town Firework show)... it took forever and the kids were hot, dusty and tired... good combo.
While we were exiting the Air Force Base, Nathan, who was eating raisins, started putting up a stink about his nose... yep, that's where he had lodged a raisin. We pulled over and Mary couldn't get to it with her finger, so we had to make sure Nathan didn't play with it during our 15-minute drive home (The AFB is about 15 mins outside of the town of Mt Home). We were able to keep him occupied until we got home. Did we get it out? Yep... evidence below:
It was a screaming fit to pin him down so we could remove the raisin with tweezers. But we were successful without a Doc visit. I remember that I crammed a huckleberry up my nose when I was younger.

Recent Tidbits from Sarah

So tonight Mary mentioned that Sarah had woken up last night and come and complained to Mary that her "bed was all messed up" and that she needed help (I have a very vague recollection of this episode). Mary told Sarah to go back to bed but Sarah insisted, saying "Mom, it's like a jungle in my bed". Mary got out of bed and helped Sarah back to hers.

A little while ago Sarah was going through an episode where she would report in the morning, or cry out at night and complain about bad dreams. We try to be validating during these moments (it requires a little more effort in the middle of the night), knowing how real these dreams can sometimes be. Then after this happened off and on for a little while, Sarah started reporting that "Dad, I started to have a bad dream last night, so I just fast forwarded through the scary part... and I was okay." I thought it was another one of Mary's innovative ideas to help deal with these types of situations, but I recently asked Mary if this was the case and she reported that it wasn't and Sarah must have come up with it on her own. Pretty adorable thought process. Oh and yes, we do still have a VCR!

Funny Random Anecdote from Mary!

Tonight, as I was sitting here at the computer beginning a blogging session, Mary was sitting behind me rocking Jane to sleep and studying for her lesson on Sunday (always the multi-tasker!). She had just asked me what I was going to blog about and I wasn't sure where I would begin so I said "I don't know". Then, a couple seconds later, out of nowhere, comes this statement: "You know, it really is amazing how much Jane's poopy diapers smell like the really buttery movie theatre popcorn."

Nice!

I LOVE How Kids Think!

So on Sunday we were getting dinner going. Sarah was helping me cut some veggies and then frying them up. Then Mary started to get into the dreaded cutting of the onion. It was a pretty potent onion and Sarah wanted to help with that as well. So she went over and stood next to Mary while she went about the task, quickly. Mary finished and Sarah was complaining of the onion being "spicy" and hurting her eyes. She went away rubbing her eyes with her hands as Mary was saying "hurry and go wash your hands and don't touch your eyes!" Sarah emerged a few minutes later after washing her hands and looked like this...

.... so we naturally had to take a picture! Her response to our open-ended inquiry about why she had the glasses (we already were laughing and had an idea!!): "For the onions mom!" (with a "Duh" look on her face) Looks like the onions got the best of Mary!

But here's the funny thing. I was looking for a funny picture on Google Images to put to fill the gap that I wanted between the above text and the picture and when I searched for "onion eyes" it came up with, among other things, these:


They're called the "Onion Action Goggles" which apparently protect your eyes from the toxic vapors. Pretty funny that they actually have these out there and Sarah came out of her room with something similar. Who knew?

Fillin' Drawers

The other night, I was helping Sarah and Nathan brush their teeth while Mary was in Nathan's room putting laundry away. As I was walking out of the bathroom I heard some rear-end emissions coming from Jane's direction in the living room. I said "Whoaaaaa, Jane is really filling her drawers!". To which Sarah replied "No Daddy! Mommy's filling the drawers." And I looked over and realized that Sarah had seen Mary putting some of Nathan's clothes away in his dresser drawers. It was a funny, coincidental play on words that Sarah had caught. I laughed at that one for a while. And I had to explain to Mary (who had overheard the whole conversation) what Sarah had heard and seen and why she interpreted it that way. As adults, we use sayings where our intended meaning has a vague (at-best) connection to the literal meaning of something. But when I made my statement, Mary's mind interpreted my intended meaning without thinking about the literal meaning of what I said while Sarah understood only the literal meaning. If I hadn't seen what Mary was doing at nearly the exact moment that Sarah corrected me, I probably wouldn't have caught on either. I thought this was pretty funny! Sorry I couldn't find a good pic on Google images to fit this post.

Mary knows how much I enjoy blogging...

I was trying to find the pictures for some of these posts and discovered that Mary had created a new folder in our "My Pictures" area titled "For Jeff to Blog". I thought it was pretty funny.

Just checking the mail Mom...

So when I got home Sarah mentioned something to me about how she had checked the mail earlier in the day and that there wasn't anything in there, which I didn't think anything of. A little while later Mary is explaining to me that she tried to take a nap while Nathan was also napping. After Nathan's nap Sarah and him were doing a great job cleaning up and Sarah was smart enough to use the stool to put some of the toys away on a higher shelf. Mary commented to Sarah that she was smart to use the stool and do it by herself. To which Sarah replied that she had decided to take the stool outside and check the mail while Mary was napping... AAAH..... WHAT? It's okay because Sarah reassured Mary that there weren't any cars and it was safe outside. Needless to say she was reminded that she needs to stay inside and never go outside without Mommy or Daddy's permission. Just tryin' to help I guess!

That reminds me... I don't think I ever told this story on the blog. Last summer after we had gotten the kids to bed Mary and I were sitting in the computer/toy room reading when we both thought that we had heard a noise like the door opening. I checked the doors and it seemed that everything was secure. About an hour later we get a knock at our door and a neighbor asks us if we knew that Sarah was outside, to which we puzzingly replied "No" as Sarah slipped back into the house through the back door and cruised down the hallway into her room and bed. The neighbor explained that when she got home from work Sarah was sitting on her porch chairs with her cat and that another neighbor had informed her that she had been walking between our two neighbor houses and along the sidewalk and that one person had stopped their car and asked her where she lived! Crazy! Of course, she was as innocent as could be and didn't see any problem with the late-night wanderings. What could we say other than we didn't want her to do that anymore. It was scary for us to consider the possibilities of what could have happened, but what can you say to a 4-year-old about that that they would understand... looks like we need alarms on our doors already! She's a fun one alright!

Boy Cheese?

So Nathan has a very limited, albeit odd, selection of food that he eats. His range is quite wide, but his in-between choices are fairly limited. The kid loves pizza, broccoli (usually) and he would eat our green shake thingy three meals a day if we made it that often. Like today we were trying to force him to eat Mac N' Cheese cuz that is Sarah's traditional post-church lunch and it would just be easier if Nathan ate it to. NO WAY! Wouldn't even try a bite. But then for dinner tonight he sees that we're cooking broccoli and can hardly wait to have some. Weirdo!

Anyway, Mary was telling me that on Friday she wanted him to try a grilled cheese sandwich, which Sarah loves, because that's what Mary was going to make for Sarah and she wants to get Nathan eating more things prior to Jane's arrival. So she's making Nathan's grilled cheese and serves it up and he likes it alright. While they're both eating Sarah says "mom, I'm having a girl cheese and Nathan's having a boy cheese". Mary had to explain that it's called a "grilled cheese", not a "girl cheese". She seemed to accept the distinction, even if it didn't make any sense to her. Pretty funny! He now has added grilled cheese sandwiches to his repertoire now... with more to come hopefully.