SHORTS ON THE BRAIN

The kids are always dying to wear shorts the second there's even a hint of spring, and Herbie came up with a successful plan for getting shorts past his mother. He insisted that it was Wacky Wednesday, and that he was supposed to wear something crazy.

I wasn't sure I believed him, but I figured if he wanted to take the risk of embarrassing himself with a crazy outfit, that was his risk to take.

He came downstairs wearing pajama pants with shorts over them. That was pretty wacky, I guess. 

But, when he came home from school, he was wearing just shorts. 

My pajamas are rolled up under my shorts, Mom. I rolled them up there on the way to school. 

Hmmmmm ....

Moses: When I'm older, I'm going to tell you a secret about me. 

Me: A secret, huh? 

Moses: When I'm older. 

Me: Ok.

...  

Moses: I'm really a super hero. 

(some secret ... ) 

Me: Oh? What kind of super hero? 

Moses (grinning sheepishly): A shorts one.

Woo swears he's not ready for spring, but he is.

Woo (rifling through his suits before church): Is it supposed to be warm today? 

Can I wear shorts?

Penelope has decided that we can understand every word she says, or at least she acts like it. She'll toddle up to me, earnestly babble for a few seconds, pause for me to say, "Uh-huh." And then toddle off again, satisfied. In a similar vein, she's also "saying" her own prayers and "reading" her own books, and she's added something very similar to, "starts with C!" to the end of her cookie song.


Linus is now a proud member of the snowshoeing and bike riding club. He excitedly pointed out to me  where he'd gone snowshoeing with Woo (down two sides of the house). But, being able to ride a skuut is a true rite of passage that he's been looking forward to for a long, long time. He's just walking tiny steps on it still, no gliding yet, but he can't get enough.

Ruby, Herbie, Moses, Linus: Mom, what color are my eyes? 

Me: Blue-green. 

Someone: What color are your eyes, Mom? 

Moses: Red!!

That's more true, than I'd like to admit.


One night while making dinner, Ruby was telling me about her and Woo's snowboarding trip the day before.

And Dad went off a big mountain! He jumped really high in the air, like this! 

(jumping up and crouching down in the air)  

... I wanted to do it too ...

Which is funny because Woo had been depressed that it seemed like Ruby didn't even like snowboarding, and that he'd done an awesome jump, and she hadn't even cared.

Aren't kids supposed to think it's awesome when their Dad does something cool like that? 

Of course, they do, but it's not cool to act like it.

Look who's smiling!

Guess who he smiled at first? Hint: not Woo.

Our popcorn popper died. I knew I could make popcorn on the stove -- I remember Grandma making popcorn for us that way all the time, but I had this idea in my head that it might be complicated (There must be some reason people don't pop corn that way anymore, right?), and I wanted to read up on it before I attempted it.

Woo was getting tired of waiting, and wrote me up a recipe:

popcorn 

Heat pan with oil

add popcorn

shake while popping

serve to husband.

Win! 

Woo 

So ridiculously easy. Why does anyone own a popper, again?