Author Archives: metamegan

>Late Fees

>As I said yesterday, I am very excited that Luke has gotten so into reading. Coincidentally, or not, Jack is also really into reading. He likes to say that he can read chapter books, even though he is only five. Which is very interesting for a 3 year old who can’t read. I’ve been humoring him, and I have to admit I was mildly shocked/disturbed when he pointed to a big advertisement at the gas station and correctly said, “That says Pringles.”

So now Luke and I have our “people who love to read” bond, and Jack and I have our “people who love to go to the library” bond. Fortunately for me, he no longer likes to go there just to poop. Luke was never too excited about the library, and every time we went he just picked out two Curious George books and then wanted to leave. To this day, I cringe when I see that shelf full of yellow. But Jack always wants to go, and there is often a heated discussion about whether we should go to the one by our house or the Main Branch. I am sure you can see where this is going. We have been checking out a million books, and I have been working 20 hour days, completely missing Easter, and not having any time for reading. So we have some late fees. As part of my plan to get my life back, Jack and I went to the library last night. I returned all the books except one, and I am embarrassed to even type this: Lose your Mummy Tummy. Women of Boulder are currently being deprived of this method (The Tuppler Method) for shrinking their waistlines because I have the book that they have been waiting for for months. I thought I would give it one last shot, and last night as I picked it up I thought, if I don’t have time to read this book, I bet I don’t have time to do the 1000 reps of the simple exercises that you can do anywhere anytime. The premise of the book is that pregnancy, and doing regular situps improperly can cause a separation of the stomach muscles called diastasis. Apparently that happens to 98% of moms, and unless you close that gap, your waist won’t get any smaller no matter how many sit ups you do. There is actually a class you can take in Boulder, and when I was looking around at the beginning of the year for some different form of exercise, I thought about taking the class. Specifically, I tried to get a friend to take the class and then tell me how to do the exercises. My main reason for not signing up was the emphasis on “no matter how many sit ups you do” angle. It might matter if that number is 0, right? Also the classes seemed to be during times when I am busy, such as during a work day.

Short story long, I skipped over a very disturbing drawing of a grocery bag with groceries falling out the bottom that seemed to have something to do with what will happen to you if you don’t do kegels, and I just read the part about how to diagnose how bad your diastasis is. And guess what? I am one of the lucky 2% of moms who do not have this problem. Maybe it’s because I am genetically blessed, or maybe it’s because I am just now trying to lose my mummy tummy (shudder) 3.5 years after having my last baby. Regardless, I can happily categorize myself with the women who are just in need of some exercise, and a significant reduction in ECI. (Easter Candy Intake.) The book goes back today.

Happy Mother’s Day to Me!

>It’s All Greek To Me

>Recently, Luke read a book that sparked an obsession with reading. It is called Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. I have very vivid memories about the first book I read that turned the switch for me from someone who knew how to read into someone who loved to read. I was in fourth grade when I read A Wrinkle in Time, and I can remember where I set it down on the book shelf in the living room when I needed to stop reading and eat dinner. And I remember being in the backyard thinking about the characters, and imagining the book in my head. So it has been very fun for me to watch Luke have a similar experience with his first book obsession. When I read the Amazon reviews of the first book, it seemed targeted at older kids, so I read it too, because I am a good parent. I liked it! There is a lot of adventure, and Greek Mythology, and it’s exciting, and funny. I love that Luke is learning so much about Greek Mythology. I used to have a book called, It’s Greek to Me, because I always thought I would be a better person if I knew about Greek Mythology. But I don’t recall reading it, just sort of occasionally noticing it on my shelf. I told Luke about it and he was quite annoyed that I don’t still have the book. Although now that I am reading the description, I think I probably got it to study up on my greek roots as SAT prep. (Lame!) But I know more about Greek Mythology now, from reading just one Percy Jackson book, and discussing the rest with Luke every day, than I ever did. And that is very cool.

The funny thing is that I kept saying Luke was too young for Harry Potter. But one of the reviews I read on Amazon described Percy Jackson as something like a less earnest Harry Potter. I found that to be funny. I let the whole Harry Potter phenomenon pass me by, so I think it will be fun to read the books with Luke when he finishes this series. He had the last book checked out from the school library, and he was forced to return it because I guess the library starts to close down a month before school ends. He was devastated and convinced that when he gets another copy (friends have promised to loan it) it will take his entire independent reading time to find the page he was on. We might have to head to the regular library (or Main Branch as Jack says) to get the last book and get a head start on figuring out where he left off.

>Computer Engineer Barbie

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Computer Engineer Barbie and I worked about 40 hours over Easter weekend. Today, she is trying out the new “standing desk” craze that she’s been reading about. I am sitting on my bottom and thinking of new career options. Pizza chef, perhaps?

>Opening Day

>Today was opening day, and Coach Dave and his Mets were great! I didn’t get to take too many pictures, because my fingers were frozen. But I promise more as the season progresses, and the temperature rises above the point where people are getting their sleeping bags out of the car and huddling together for warmth. Dave was mentioning the other day, that I rarely blog about Luke, who can read, and knows about my blog, but I often blog about Jack. The thing is, Jack turned green today after… wait – this is about Luke. Luke is a great kid, who is easy going, easy to get along with, happy, smart, and fun. He’s fun to be around and I am proud of who he is. And I love when Jack does or says something ridiculous, and I can just look at Luke and see him rolling his eyes. Today during the tantrum of the millennium, Luke tried to make Jack laugh. Long story short, Luke is so great, he’s not great blog fodder. Plus, I get the distinct impression that he would not be happy if I made fun of him on my blog, by calling him by today’s nickname: Ankles. Who knew he would grow 3 inches since last summer? All I know is, if he were Jack he’d be saying, “Who has 2 thumbs and needs bigger cleats and longer baseball pants? This guy!”

>Lunch Ladies: Cafe Aion

>It has been a while since Laura and I had lunch at Cafe Aion, so I’ll try to remember all the important details.

When we walked in, the host greeted us, and we were taken aback by how snappily he was dressed. Laura thought maybe we weren’t in Boulder anymore. It was a double visual fashion assault though, because someone leaving the restaurant was wearing some sort of (static) clingy satin/silk dress and fishnets. We were seated in sort of a window seat, which was nice for about 2 minutes until my core temperature rivaled that of the sun’s. Fortunately, at that point the shady table next to us opened up, and we scooted over.

I already knew I was going to order the Butternut Squash Soup with wild rice, almonds and Parmesan. I had had a taste at Andrea’s house, and it was so good, I wanted more. (Cafe Aion posts some of their recipes on their blog!) Also it had been a long, cold winter and I had been craving a lot of soup. I decided to ignore the fact that it was 70 degrees that day and I was wearing way too many clothes to be sitting in a window. (That doesn’t sound right.) Laura got the soup too, and we split the Aion Fried Cauliflower with saffron yogurt, cumin and lemon.

I had also had the cauliflower before and I thought it was delicious. Not as delicious as the chicken wings, but I couldn’t convince Laura to order chicken wings because she thinks they are disgusting. (Also – I do not see chicken wings on the Day Menu.) When the cauliflower came out, I immediately started devouring it. Fried=yummy. That’s my policy. But Laura said the overall browness of the dish made it seem sort of yucky to her. She said at Cafe Aion, she had more of a “Yum, I’ll try this!” attitude than if her husband served her a plate of brown cauliflower. I do have to admit, it isn’t pretty, but I thought it was good. Later in the afternoon though, it made me feel sort of stomach-achy.

But on to the soup. It is so so so good. I was going to say that it is also incredibly filling, but maybe the fried cauliflower had something to do with my overall full stomach. Laura was surprised that the soup had chunks of butternut squash, since a lot of squash soups are more of a puree. Good point Laura! It is a soup with a lot of good textures, and flavors, and it came with a lot of soft yummy bread.

We were both happy with our meal, but we also had food envy from staring at some neighboring tables, so we will be back. I will just make sure to dress (fashionably) in layers.

How about the new title? Lunch Ladies, get it? Or should I go back to Ladies Who Lunch?

>Jackisms

>Eventually, I will blog about our awesome vacation, but first I want to talk about the McDonald’s PlayPlace. (We went twice, so the kids could get exercise during the road trip. And so that we could eat.) Say what you want about the evils of McDonalds, but it’s a great place to run around and burn off some energy when you have been in the car forever. That is, until some gigantic family swarms, swarms, swarms. With their giant kids, and brothers and sisters and cousins, with the yelling and the blocking of the slide, and chasing, and general roughhousing. This same thing happened at both McDonalds stops. And both times Luke retreated to another area, while Jack got trapped somewhere by the swarm. In Kayenta, Arizona, I just sent Luke in after Jack and we left when things got out of hand. But in Albequerque, New Mexico, I guess Jack had learned a thing or two. We were ready to leave, and Luke was avoiding the swarm, and Jack was trapped at the end of the line for the slide, three stories up, behind a never-ending line of cutters. I was about to send Luke after him, but first I just yelled up there, “Jack! Just come down the slide!” Next thing I knew, he had pushed to the front of the line, and as he slid down, this is what echoed out both ends of that tubular slide: “BUH BYE SUCKAS!!!” Other Jack vacation moments: I filmed an interview with him, asking what his favorite part of vacation was. Pointing to himself he said, “This guy.” Speaking of Jack pointing to himself, a few weeks ago, on the way home from Eldora, he pointed at each person in the car and said the following, “You’re a skier, you’re a snowboarder, you’re a snowboarder, and I’m a skier.” Still pointing to himself and looking down at his finger, and nodding vigorously he said, “Yeah! That’s right, finger!’

>Reach For The Sky!

>Before we went on vacation, we had been watching a lot of Toy Story 3. And by that I mean, I think I (we) watched it 3 times in 2 days. Jack was horribly ill with cough that sometimes made him throw up, and there was a lot of snuggling and TV watching going on. I cried the first time, but managed to hold it together during the ending the last 2 times I watched it.

Long intro to say, that I just realized I watched a lot of TV as a child. And by, “just realized” I mean, “I have always known”. There were a lot of movies that we had on tape, once I was in high school and we had a VCR. So that explains why I know all the words to some random movies that we happened to record. But why, (really, why??) would I have an episode of Laverne and Shirley memorized? I am sure we didn’t have it on tape? But I know it was something that I used to quote all the time with my brother and sister. (Even though, in my preliminary blog post research today, they both had no idea what I was talking about.)

Short story long, when Jack started quoting Woody, of Toy Story 3 fame, by saying, “Reach for the sky!” I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “You wouldn’t dare….!”

I tried to get Dave to help me remember the origin of that famous quote, but he ignored me. I was able to place the quote into a Laverne and Shirley episode, and when I googled “Laverne and Shirley Reach for the Sky” I came up with the following.

I probably saw this episode when? 25 years ago? And it stuck in my head for what reason? I’ll tell, you. It’s comic gold. I can even remember being disappointed that when the cousin says, “You wouldn’t dare” he doesn’t say it with the right inflection. But now, 25 years later, I think it’s perfect. And the best part is, when I showed it to the boys, they laughed and laughed. And now whenever one of them says, “Reach for the sky,” I know the other will answer with “You wouldn’t dare.”

>Black Swan Parenting

>At some point during Black Swan, I asked myself, “At what point does a child need to start cutting their own fingernails?” So far I have narrowed it down to somewhere between 3 and when they become a prima ballerina. In the meantime, it’s a weekly struggle between Jack and me. We recently came to the agreement that after every bath, I can cut one toe’s worth of toe nails. But the deal has to be renegotiated every time.

After tonight’s bath, Jack was running around the house in his towel pretending that it was a cape, as 3 year olds are wont to do. I could tell he was stalling, but I wasn’t in a hurry so I let it play out. He finally came back into the bathroom and said, “Oh. I realize why I was tricking you by running around. It’s because I don’t want my nails to be cut.”

Thanks for sharing that bit of self-discovery Jack.

Then, when I was promising it wouldn’t hurt, he said, “It WILL hurt. Because of gravity. Gravity makes things fall down. I learned that on Sesame Street yesterday. See? Gravity, I told you.”

>Little Old Man

>Poor baby Jack is quite ill, with a terrible cough, runny nose, headache and fever. I tried twice to put Dr. Burts Res-Q ointment on his nose, which I have always found to be amazingly effective in the past for reducing pain and redness and clearing up the sinuses.

The first time he wouldn’t let me come near him, but the second time, he was more resigned. I put the ointment on his nose and with a sigh, and a shrug, he said,

“See? I knew it wouldn’t work.”

I said, “When did you become such a pessimist?”

With another shrug, he said, “When I growed up.”

My poor little baby is all growed up, and he growed up to be a pessimist. Sigh.

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There was more to his story after that, but since he has laryngitis and a tendency to ramble on and on, I didn’t catch it all. I know there was something in there about how he growed up to be a gentleman, and isn’t Darth a really weird first name? How do you get to be named Darth?