Pi

There are times when I can point to my children with pride and say "Look! They got that (awesome thing they just did) from me!"

This is not one of those times.

I'm still proud, in a weird way, but I have no idea where this comes from. Funny - some guy walked by and exclaimed "There is hope for the future!"

Looked and Found

Penelope found the egg yesterday. Coincidence? Hmmm... I think someone's been reading my blog in secret.

Anyway, I asked her about it this morning - pleading ignorance, I wanted to know where she found it. When she showed me I said "Oh! The same place it was last year!"

And she replied, pointing to a place about three inches to the left, "No! Last year it was right here!"

Ah... maybe that's why it took so long to find this time. The cool part about it is that she apparently gave it to her brother, since he had only found 14 of the eggs previously, and she already had found 15. How sweet is that?

Disclaimer: Despite what you might think if you read this all the time, it's not all "rainbows and puppy dog farts" (or whatever the saying is) in our house. The two of them can go from being best friends to mortal enemies, or from little angels to demon spawn in the blink of an eye. But at least in this case, it was kind of heartwarming.

Look and Find

Sometimes our children are completely predictable. And then sometimes, they just catch us off guard. Sifting through the piles and piles of drawings, maps, poems, and general-purpose "art" that they've generated over the weekend, we came across this one:

Speaking of look-and-find, I ought to mention the Easter egg, too. Ben and Penelope were a little disappointed last Easter, when the bunny just left most of the eggs lying around. It prompted Ben to write this note the day before Easter:

And then Penelope reminded us all about that one green egg that the Easter Bunny had left under the plant last year, that nobody found for days. She thought that was hilarious.

So, the bunny hid the eggs quite a bit better this year. Except for one, which it put in the exact same place it did last year. The bunny must have thought that it would be the first place they'd look, and someone would get a real kick out of finding it.

It's been two weeks (and counting) since Easter. There's still one lonely egg out there, waiting to be found.

Pensive

Mommy: What time did you wake up this morning, Ben?

Ben: I woke up at 7:20, but then I pooped for 33 minutes.

Mommy: That's a really long time, are you sure?

Ben: The clock said 7:53 when I was done.

Daddy: You pooped for half an hour?

Ben: Well, not really. Mostly I was just sitting and thinking.

Future Love

Penelope: Look! This fruit roll-up has stamps on it!

Ben: Somebody stamped on it?

Penelope: No, it is special decorations for Valentine's day!

Mommy: That's a good idea, we should do fruit roll-ups with your Valentine's cards next year Penelope.

Penelope: Yay!

Ben: And mine too!

Mommy: Hmmm, I'm not sure if they do Valentine's cards in third grade.

Daddy: Yeah, I think in third grade you just write love letters to all the girls in your class on Valentine's day.

Ben: Ewww, really?

Daddy: Love letters make you go "Ewww"? Penelope already knows who she's going to marry, and she's only in Kindergarten.

(Side note which becomes relevant shortly: His name is Noah B. and he is also in Kindergarten.)

Mommy: Well, you know... Boys don't really know that kind of thing until they are much older. Like 24.

Daddy: Yeah, that's true.

Penelope: No it isn't! Noah B. knows! I told him!

Special Day

A conversation overheard yesterday:

Ben: Hey, guess what? My birthday is a special day.

Dean: Yeah, mine is a special day too.

Ben: I know, but I mean my birthday is a holiday. It is on February second.

Dean: Your birthday is Groundhog's Day? Cool!

Ben: Yeah. And there's also this new opera band coming out!

(???)

Happy special groundhog-operaband day, little dude!

Food Safety

Recently, Ben came home with one of his granola bars in his lunch, still uneaten. When asked why he didn't eat it, he said it was because it said it was past its expiration date (12 JUN 14). He was very concerned. Of course, this is June 12th, 2014 and not June 14th, 2012.... but it's admittedly ambiguous. Once he realized that it was ok, he thought it was pretty funny.

And then there was tonight. He stopped practicing his piano because he had something "very important" to show Stephanie.

He pulled a pack of Fruit Gushers out of the pantry and proceeded to say, "You gave me fruit snacks today at school. Look at this. It says right here:

'KEEP KIDS SAFE! To avoid choking, give Fruit Flavored Snacks only to children who can easily swallow chewy foods. Children should be seated and supervised while eating.'

But there's hardly any adult supervision in the cafeteria!"

This was a difficult situation. He was really upset and on the verge of tears. Stephanie and I were both having trouble holding in our own emotions. You definitely don't want to convey certain kinds of emotions when your child is upset.

He continued, "Porter says that you're probably breaking some kind of law."

Stephanie buried his head in her shirt and hugged him tight. I had to walk into the other room.

After we all calmed down a bit we explained to him that we are here to keep him safe, we would never intentionally put him in danger, and if he felt his fruit snacks were too dangerous, we would not buy them any more. It wasn't the right time for a deep-dive discussion about corporate paranoia in our "not my fault" society, or the controversial nature of the Fruit Gushers ingredient list.

I hope he never starts reading the internet.