A brief glimpse into the daily happenings of a 6-year-old, his new baby brother and his family.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Rockin' the Vote

Last night, Don and I took Ben to vote. As we were ready to leave the house, we told Ben that we were going to go vote. We would have to be patient while we stood in line. We would need to use quiet, inside voices. But, yes, he could take his flashlight ('cause why not?) and maybe we'd even go out for dinner after we finished.

We stood in line for several minutes as the line got longer and longer. After talking to the people around us about what he was going to be for Halloween, Ben was ready for a little more action.


B: Uh, Mommy? When do we get on the boat?
H: Huh?
B: The BOAT. You said we were coming to "BOAT".
H: Oh, no, Honey. Vote. VVVVVVVV-Vote.
B: But what's that?
H: Well, in a few minutes, we'll go in that room and vote. We'll use a computer to show which people we want to vote for. When we're done, we'll get a sticker.
B: Oh. (peeks inside the election room) I want to VVVVVVVVVVVVV-VOTE. But it's all adults. (cue the sad face) But I want to vote and get a sticker.
H: You have to be 18 to vote. When you're 18 you can vote, but I bet you can still have a sticker.
B: And we can still go out for dinner?
H: Sure.
B: Ok.

When I was escorted to the touchscreen voting machine, Ben's eyes lit up.
B: Mommy, can I play the game when you're done?
Instead, we compromised and I let Ben touch the arrow to move to the next screen. In true civics teacher fashion, I asked him to press the "cast ballot" button with me.

So, in a sense, Ben did get to vote. And he got a sticker. And we went out for pizza. And ice cream.

Today on the way to Tae Kwon Do, Ben was thinking about his first experience with the democratic process.
B: Mommy? You know what?
H: What?
B: Actually, voting was pretty fun.
H: Yeah. It is, isn't it.
B: Yep! Can we go again today?

Monday, October 27, 2008

"E" is for "I'm not sharing"


Oh, Christopher Elbow and your artisanal chocolate. How I love thee... let me count the ways...

1) Fleur De Sel (caramel w/french sea salt)
2) Lavender (caramel flavored with lavender-- it's like taking a bubble bath in your mouth)
3) Rosemary (caramel flavored with rosemary)
4) Coffee (caramel flavored with coffee)

5) fresh Lime (chocolate ganache flavored with fresh squeezed limes-- it's my very favorite)
And on, and on, and on.

There are around 25 flavors and there's not a one I won't moan and obsess over. Don just rolls his eyes as I go on and on about the complex flavor, the delicious-ness of SEA SALT and chocolate, or FRESH LIME and chocolate, or CHAMPAGNE and chocolate.

Baby Aidan brought me a box of CE wonderfulness today for our Kindermusik Halloween Party. Since I arrived home about an hour ago, it has been all I can do to not consume the entire box tonight. I've had two pieces and after writing about them will certainly need at least one more before I'm finished tonight.

The way to my heart? Forget a Tiffany little blue box (although I do enjoy that, too). Give me a chocolate brown box with a white lid and a brown "E". Just get your hands out of the way quickly or I'll bite.

(And can I say, GO TO HIS WEBSITE. The pieces of chocolate flash on the screen like some sort of chocolate porn heaven.)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Let the Sugar Coma Begin

When did celebrating Halloween become a 2-week extravaganza? There's the pumpkin patch, the Kindermusik party, the church party, school party, the trick-or-treating in the Village, and then trick-or-treating "for real" next Friday night.

The obvious question: What is Ben going to be for Halloween?
Answer: Who knows?
We bought a Power Ranger costume, but so far it's not in the cards. Or maybe he's waiting for the "real" Halloween to break out the Power Ranger suit. So far, he's worn the spider costume from last year (you know, the "Fookey Fider") and a shark costume I bought on clearance and forgot about until he found it last week. Stay tuned.


Today, we went to the pumpkin patch and then to trunk-or-treat at Asbury. We decorated the back of the van and Ben (in his shark costume) had a great time collecting candy from the other trunks. Ben managed to fill his trick-or-treat bucket over half full in less than 30 minutes.




In spite of the freezing cold (Don asked if we were trunk-or-treating or singing Christmas carols), Ben had fun and is looking forward to the week of sugar and costumes.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Weekend Update

Things going on this weekend that make it difficult to blog:

* Gertie is exploring her womanhood.... with loud yowling and lots of inappropriate body gestures. It's like a Brittany Spears video around here. If Brittany Spears were a cat. Consequently, Gertie is having her 2-day spa visit on Monday after which she will no longer care that she's a girl and will no longer need manicures on her front paws.

* We are doing some minor home projects. You know the kind. The ones that start innocently with a comment like, "I wonder what would happen if instead of fixing the broken rungs of the railing on the porch, we just ripped that part completely out" and ends with priming and paining all the exterior trim on the house and becoming experts at brick laying.

* After lots of colorful language and several correspondences with tech support, I finally got the new Kindermusik website to load and am now in the final stages of fixes, etc. In some ways, far more time consuming and painful than labor. It also is requiring about the same amount of happy pills.

* Ben has discovered the joys of computer gaming (nickjr.com) and is spending lots of time monopolizing any available computer (there are 3 in the house) to feed his addiction. More on that when I have more time.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Me and Amy Winehouse

Oh Amy Winehouse, I feel your pain. They're tryin' to make me go to rehab, too. Tomorrow at 7:45 in the morning. Somehow I think our rehabs might be a little different considering that you're a drugged up hot mess and I just have a bad knee. Just to bring you up to speed, I've hit a bit of a hiccup in my marathon training. A month ago, I began having pain in both knees and my right knee has been a problem ever since. I got to wear a big, beautiful brace for a couple of weeks and took a break from training hoping the issue would resolve itself. It didn't. So here I am a week from my big race and I haven't run more than 2 miles in a month. Tomorrow I'll know if I can attempt to run the marathon next weekend or if I'm officially watching the race from the sidelines.