Brotherly Love

Tuesday night, while I was teaching, Craig took the kids to the playground (something I avoid doing unless I have Craig's help, so he gets points for bravery!). Bentley was enjoying one of his usual games of climbing up this little hill there and then trying to run down it without falling too hard. He's something of a thrill-seeker, I guess. Anyway, Bentley then got the idea that he wanted to push the stroller, where Kendra was chilling. He likes to do this-- he pushes against the basket underneath, which will usually make the stroller go forward-- so Craig was helping him, but he kept insisting, "Fie Cah! Fie Cah!" Craig wasn't quite sure what this meant, until he realized that Bentley kept pointing first at the stroller and then at the hill. "Fie Cah" is what Bentley says when he sets up the couch cushions at an angle and then rolls his cars down them-- we've come to think of it as "flying car," although I have no idea if that's what Bentley is actually saying/thinking. Anyway, the meaning suddenly became too clear: he wanted to push Kendra's stroller down the hill! Craig laughed and told him that wasn't an option, but the whole thing makes me wonder just what Bentley would do with Kendra if his boring parents weren't hovering around getting in his way all the time...

Friendship

Virginia is funny because it's only $10 to get vanity plates for your car so TONS of people have them-- it makes driving around amusing as I try to interpret what everyone's plates say. I've come to think of the cars in our parking lot as being our friends-- ADOM 3K, and 4JOYJEN, for example. But my favorites are two Jeeps with the license plates "WINK TJ" and "IT ROKS." What adds to this feeling of friendship is the fact that these two jeeps are apparently friends with each other! Really! Usually they're parked where their owners live, but then on weekends they'll often be parked together-- sometimes both of them will even be backed into the spaces together. This little romance between It Roks (and the owner there is a woman) and Wink TJ (who's owner is a man) has become quite the subject of fascination in our home. We stared out the window and worried the rainy Saturday morning when Wink TJ had to get towed somewhere (he's back and well again, so I guess it wasn't too serious!). And we get excited for them when they hang out together. Craig swears that Wink TJ was trying to put his arm around It Roks once...

I hadn't realized just how weird we'd gotten about all this until this last week when Bentley pointed out the window and said "Dee-Jay!' right as Wink TJ was pulling in. Apparently I've tainted my son so that HE thinks the cars are his friends, too!

Delicate

So it's a fact that almost all babies enjoy putting things in their mouths. My Mom always says that babies are like little sharks, since all they want to do is nibble on everything. Kendra is no exception to this rule, but she's developed her own take on it-- while plenty of things still wind up in her mouth, she also spends a great time licking whatever she can reach. I had her in her carrier once, and set a toy car of Bentley's on top of her while I carried her from the car to the house and looked down only to see her straining to reach her tongue to this car so she could fully explore it! I can't quite make up my mind if that makes her terribly lady-like and delicate or if it's just plain weird, but it makes me laugh.

Dilemma

So here's a random thing I always have to think about. It started when Bentley was first born and Mom and Dad were visiting me. I made a sandwich for myself and toast with jam on it for Mom. No big deal, right? When I handed Mom her toast, she pointed out that if I had been making this for Rachael, I wouldn't have wanted to use the same knife that I'd used for the peanut butter, since Rachael's allergic to peanut butter. I told her that I knew that, and that since she wasn't allergic, I hadn't worried about it. End of discussion.

But EVER SINCE THEN, I cannot make a peanut butter sandwich for myself without worrying that I might have conTAMinated the jam by sticking the PB knife into the jam jar! What if Rachael comes to visit and wants some jam? Will it make her tongue itch if she eats my jam??? Should I just tell her not to eat it at all??? And worst of all, each time I make a sandwich, without fail I ALWAYS put the peanut butter on the bread first, so that poor jam always gets it.

Fortunately, in the many times Rachael has hung out here, she has never once wanted to eat my jam. But that doesn't seem to stop me from worrying...

The Rules

Okay, so I'm trying out this blogging thing, but I can't do it without creating a few base rules and stipulations for myself. I guess the first thing is that this is not meant to be a record of My Life. In fact, my plan is for this to be the opposite-- a chance to write about the little, unimportant things in my life that I probably wouldn't bother to mention on the phone or in an email. So if you want to know the big stuff, I guess we'd better keep in touch for real!

My own biggest rule is just that I will try my best NOT to brag about stuff. I won't brag about how cute my kids are. I won't brag about the awesome fun time I had doing whatever. I have this weird competitive streak (my friends used to call me ultra-competitive Alanna, UCA for short!), and every time I read about stuff like that on other people's blogs or emails it makes me want to try and compete. Or, worse yet, it makes me feel bad that I didn't get to be a part of their fun weekend or whatever-- even if they're in a completely different state! It's so ridiculous! So I will NOT do that. You can just assume that life is good and happy and the kids are cute unless I say otherwise.

Which brings me to my other rule, and that is that I want to be completely honest in this. If I had a lousy day, I'll just say so rather than feeling like I need to act perky and cute or something.

So that's it for now! Welcome to my blog.