Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Saturday was Laddie's third birthday. Every year, I plan on making him some sort of doggie birthday cake, but I never seem to get around to it. Plus, all the recipes I've found make a huge cake and what do I do with left over cake made from pureed chicken livers or strained beef baby food?

At any rate, I just wanted to officially say happy birthday to our Laddie Boy, Pooch Dog, Hound Dog, Doggie Diddums, Buddy Boy, Mr. Von Schnauzer, Barky MaGee, Pup Dog... (Goodness! It's a wonder he comes at all when we call him! How does he even know what his name is?!?) Life definitely wouldn't be the same with out him and his blanket sucking, excessive kissing, lazy bones, lap needing, food sneaking, buckin' bronco ways.

Read more...

Conversation of the Day

After finding Erik lying on her floor...

Lily: Awwww...what's wrong, Daddy?

Erik: I need a nap.

Lily: A nap?

Erik: Yeah. I'm tired.

Lily: Tired? *Light bulb goes off over her head.* Daddy needs a beese. (A beese is what she calls a blanket. Don't ask why; I couldn't tell ya.)

She runs to her bed and explains to me...

Lily: Daddy needs pink besse (which was actually purple, but hey: close enough). Here you go, Daddy. Good night. Daddy's tired.

Read more...

Bacon, breakouts, and BBQ: A day in the life

Today was a fairly eventful day as days go, I suppose. Especially lately.

First, Lily and I made some cookies. Very interesting cookies. The Pillsbury Bakeoff is currently allowing people to vote for their favorites to see who will land in the finals. When I saw a recipe for Fudgy Cinnamon Surprise Cookies, I thought I'd give it a go. Mainly I wanted to try a chocolate cookie recipe that had bacon as an ingredient. Yep...BACON!?! That was the "surprise" part of this cookie. So very skepically, I tried one. Let me just say: NOT A FAN. Not that you could really taste the bacon, and maybe it was because I knew it was bacon and not very finely chopped nuts, but I won't be making them again. As a result, there's about two dozen cookies sitting on my counter right now. Let me know if you want to give them a try. Otherwise, they're going in the trash tomorrow. What a waste of a perfectly good brownie mix. ;-) But Lily sure had a good time helping:


Our next adventure was the walk after Lily's nap. We took our usual route, but about 3/4 of the way home, my eyes started itching. Bad. Since the wind was blowing, I figured it was just an allergy to something in bloom and tried not to scratch them. Once we got home, Lily wanted to play in the park, so we headed over. My eyes were getting worse, and then my forehead started to itch, too. And my chin. And my cheeks. I had to carry Lily inside kicking and screaming because I couldn't stand to be outside a minute longer. I do have a picture of what it all looked like so Erik (who was still sleeping) could see my pain: patchy red splotches, devilishly red eyes. It's not pretty. Which is why I won't be posting it. But thanks for wondering.

The day ended with a trip to Logan's annual Summerfest for dinner. And Lillian sported her oh-so-cute sunglasses (at least for a few minutes).


We met up with the Mullahkhels, the McCombers, and Brent and had a good time enjoying our yummy BBQ, taco salads, Chinese food, gyros, and toasted nuts. Isn't fair food great? I finished my meal off with a fantastic funnel cake. Always a good way to end the day.

And definitely better than bacon cookies.

Read more...

It's Official

Logan's new Wal*Mart had its grand opening this morning. We were able to check it out in pristine condition last night, and it looks great. Hopefully Erik's schedule will get a little more relaxed, now. But it may take a few weeks to get there.

If you're in town, go check it out, though. It's quite a bit different than the Wal*Mart you're used to.

Read more...

Old MacDonald's Wild Farm

Lily's favorite thing lately is to sing Old MacDonald. We used to pick the animals for her, but now she chooses what comes next, which leaves great possibilities. Some days we end up with a whole farm full of duckies or chickens. But some days, we get a little more variety. Here are two excerpts from yesterday's rendition:

Animal One

Me: And on that farm he had some...what did he have?

Lily: Some sheeps!

Me: Ok. He had some sheep. E I E...

Lily: No! SheepSSSSSSS!

Heaven forbid I forget the second sheep, I guess.

Animal Two

Me: And on that farm he had some...

Lily: A dinoslaur!

Me: A dinoslaur?!? And what sound does a dinoslaur make? (FYI: The "l" is not a typo. That's how she says it.)

Lily: ROAR!!!!

Me: That sounds about right. With a roar roar here and a roar roar there. Here a...

Lily: No. Tiger roars.

Me: Well then what does a dinosaur say?

Lily: Cheep cheep.

Read more...

Sleeping nickels

If I've learned nothing else over the past two years, I've at least come to expect the unexpected...especially when it comes to the imagination of a two-year-old. The other day, Lillian found a nickel on the floor and came running. Here's the dialogue and resulting scene that played out before me:

Lily: It's a dollar!

Me: Nope...that's a nickel.

Lily: A nickel!?!

She proceeded to wrap it up in the swimsuit cover-up she'd been wearing earlier and had since discarded on the floor.

Lily: Nickel's sleeping. Shhhhhh.

She then hands me the bundle containing the nickel to hold.

Me (said quietly to Erik): How long do I have to hold this sleeping nickel?

He was clueless.

I held it for a few minutes and then placed it (ever so gently, of course) on the floor. Once she noticed, she ran over, picked it up, and placed the entire bundle on the blanket she had been meticulously straightening on the floor for her babies to take their naps on.

Lily: Here you go. Nickel's crying. It's alright...

The nickel, cozily wrapped in the bundle, was then double wrapped in the blanket to ensure FULL coverage.

Had this little scenario been played out with a doll or even some sort of stuffed animal, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But a nickel??? Sometimes I wonder how her little mind works. What about that nickel brought out her maternal instincts and made her want to comfort it? Does she just figure anything left alone and forgotten on the floor must need some sympathy? Did she think its feelings were hurt once it found out it wasn't a dollar as previously suspected? I know if I suddenly found out I wasn't worth as much as I originally thought, I'd be sad, too. Does she know the falling value of a nickel and wanted to ease its pain?

Whatever the reason, that was one cared-for nickel and an amusing 15 minutes. Which, let's face it, is the real reason we have kids.

Read more...