What butts do.

I must love potty humor, but whatever. I think everyone secretly does and some people are just too uptight to admit it.

This afternoon Back Seat Girl was sitting on the couch watching Clifford. I wasn't paying too much attention because I've seen every episode eleventy million times. All of a sudden Back Seat Girl exclaims "Look at Emily Elizabeth!! She has a butt!!"

Of course I had to start a conversation about it.

Me: Emily Elizabeth has a butt?
BSG: Yea.
Me: I think pretty much everyone has a butt.
BSG: Yea, sometimes they poop.

Back Seat Boy

I had a request for pictures of both of the children, and since the last post was all about Back Seat Girl, here are some pictures of Back Seat Boy. Doesn't he look like he wants to laugh? He is getting so close!


I know this is blurry, but I liked the look on his face, and almost all of the pictures are blurry because he kept sliding down the boppy.








Just ignore my hand and focus on the adorable baby!

A true Minnesota family

So far Back Seat Girl has proven that she is a true Minnesota girl. She loves camping, riding in the baby backpack, riding in the burley, canoeing, going for rides in Pap's boat, and even pretend fishing (hey, she doesn't know that holding a bobber with fishing line tied to it and nothing else isn't actually fishing). This past weekend, she has proven she even likes winter outdoor pursuits.

We went to Mam and Pap's condo on Lake Mille Lacs where she enjoyed walking on the frozen lake

Looking at Daddy through an ice heave,

Snowmobiling with mom, and ice fishing. I don't have any actual pictures of her in the ice house because we didn't bring the camera out there, but she stood there with her pink snow pants on over her sweatshirt holding an actual pole with actual bait on the end looking every bit the professional. She had fun until she got bored and declared "I all done fishing". Also, we found out that big girls DO NOT pee in buckets, they pee in the potty, and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I am a loser

I received some great presents this Christmas. I got some nice utensils from Williams Sonoma and a Le Creuset dutch oven, which I have not used yet because I feel like it needs something REALLY special to break it in. Of course anyone that has been within one mile of me while I'm carrying my Coach wristlet has seen it, because it is, in a word, perfect. However, one night last week Driver and I used two of my presents and we had fun doing it. Here they are:



No, not the ladybug candle holder. The one on the left there is a food scale. The other is a food sealer. You know, those things that vacuum pack your food so it keeps for pretty much ever? Last week after Back Seat Girl went to bed, we set Back Seat Boy in his bouncy chair in the kitchen so he could witness first hand what incredible geeks his parents are. Not only did we seal food:

(Look, we even celebrated the first bag we did by numbering it.) I actually bought a few pounds of meat, and instead of just eyeballing it and freezing it in approximately 1 lb increments, I actually split it up and weighed it first so I knew each bag had exactly one pound of ground beef in it. And I smiled the whole time. And you know what else? You can reseal stuff so you don't feel like you need to use a whole huge bag of frozen french cut green beans if you don't want to.

Isn't that exciting. Those beans will be as fresh as the day I brought them home when I decide to make them a few months from now...and that makes me happy.

Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure you should also know that I made mini meatloaves the other night, and I know they were exactly a quarter pound each because I weighed them on my food scale before baking them. My loser-ness knows no bounds.

I promise this will be the last post about toots (at least for a while)

Back Seat Girl was sitting on my lap just now while watching Clifford. She let a very loud toot go, and me, being the very mature person I am, began laughing. Since I was laughing, BSG decided it was OK for her to laugh, too.

Me: What did you just do? Did you just toot on my lap?
BSG: Yea, there are toots on your lap now!

Christmas in quotes

The holiday season had us visiting our families. The kids and I were away from home for quite a while, but it was a great opportunity for them to bond with both sets of grandparents and aunt and uncles. It also gave Back Seat Girl more people to talk to. Here are some of the things she said that stand out in my mind.

On Christmas Eve day, Mam, the Godmother, BSG and I (Back Seat Boy came along in the Bjorn) went for a walk around their neighborhood in Iowa. Keep in mind that BSG thinks Mam and Pap’s house is Iowa. It was, for obvious reasons, a slow walk. We had plans to stop by the neighbor’s swingset on the way back. Someone mentioned this to BSG, who had been looking forward to it. She must have been getting tired, though, because after hearing us mention “the park”, she said in a whiny voice “No, I just want to go back to Iowa”.

After she received a tool set from Santa on Christmas morning (we were still at Mam and Pap’s), this conversation took place:

Me: Now you can help Daddy when he fixes the house.
BSG: No, now I can help Daddy when he fixes Iowa.
Then she promptly walked to the front door and began hammering.

We were going out to eat with my parents and brother. My dad was strapping BSG into her car seat when she showed how classy she can be.

BSG: Grampa, listen to me toot!
And then she followed through.

Another time she was sitting at the table eating lunch. She tooted, then announced:

“I tooted in my Dora underwear!!”

I used to think she was taking after me, but maybe she is more like her father then we all think!

Barista

Confidential to the woman working behind the counter at Dunn Brothers:

You seem nice enough, but you are young and, I'm assuming, childless. Here's a little advice for you. When someone enters your fine establishment carrying a baby carrier, a diaper bag and holding a toddler's hand, then orders two drinks, please do not fill the cup full to the brim with hot coffee. I mean, I understand that maybe you just wanted me to get my money's worth, but that cup could not be moved an inch along the counter without spilling out the little mouth hole, much less jostled all the way back out to my car while trying to carry all of the previously mentioned stuff PLUS two hot drinks. Also, don't make me have to ask you for a drink carrier. It seems obvious to me that there is no way on God's green earth I could carry two cups separately. The lady behind me was sighing loudly already at my audacity to bring two children into the coffee shop. Then I had to take up more of her precious time by asking you for a drink carrier and waiting for you to unfold it or fold it or whatever you do (looks like origami to me).

That is my public service to you. The next woman who has just survived grocery shopping with an infant and a two year old while trying to push one of those horrible huge carts with the car thingy on the front and then decides to reward her toddler for good behaviour with a steamer can thank me later.