matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

the boy

Soup with Papa

Friday 11 November 2016 | 0 Comments

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The best way to get the kids to eat certain foods is to hide them. No, that’s not quite right. E will try just about anything. He might not like it (as when he commented that a butternut squash soup tasted more like “sea turtle soup”), but he’ll try it. No, it’s just L that we have to deceive. So K puts a lot of onion in a lot of soup, but it’s always turned to a paste that simply adds flavor and thickens the soup. Tonight’s soup: pea soup.

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“What kind of soup is this?” she asked.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes.”

“Then you don’t want to know.”

Decision

Tuesday 08 November 2016 | 0 Comments

The morning: the kids entertain themselves while I do some school work. They play school, help make mac and cheese, and watch a bit of television.

Afternoon, we head out to the backyard to swing and jump on the trampoline.

Evening, games.

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The rest of the country, most people thought it was possibly the end of the world if the opponent won.

The Weekend

Sunday 06 November 2016 | 0 Comments

Game 7

Wednesday 02 November 2016 | 0 Comments

Sleepy

Tuesday 01 November 2016 | 1 Comment

Two things conspired against the Boy this afternoon. The first was a late night with lots of excitement last night, which meant that he was unable to go to sleep immediately last night and then difficult to wake up this morning. We let the kids sleep in a bit this morning, but it was no help: he just didn’t want to get up.

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The second thing that conspired against him was the rash that’s developed on his belly. It hasn’t really gone away in a few days, so K gave him some Benadryl this afternoon to try to calm down that reaction. Not having had Benadryl in at least two years, the Boy was not really prepared for how hard it would hit him — neither was K. And so he fell asleep while playing on the couch.

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Once he goes to sleep late in the afternoon like that, though, he’s an absolutely nightmare to wake up. Today was no exception. I got to work on him a full fifteen minutes before dinner was ready, but he still needed a bit more time. And in the end, when I got him into the kitchen, he only ended up lying back down on the hardwood.

Halloween 2016

Monday 31 October 2016 | 0 Comments

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Late October Sunday

Sunday 30 October 2016 | 0 Comments

With it being the last Sunday of the month, our family had a lazy morning that included a bit of television, a bit of computer, a bit of baklava, and a bit of exploring, all before lunch. The Boy and I went to our normal haunts, though we decided this time to go a bit deeper into the "woods" that consist of vines and bushes on the property behind ours, the house abandoned now for several years. We went deep enough that I had to crawl for a moment. Afterward, there was the usual: swinging, exploring the creek (where we found our lost ball behind our neighbors' house), and lounging in the hammock. We were there when K came out onto the back deck to call us in for lunch.

"We're being lazy on the hammock," the Boy responded.

In the evening, Nana and Papa came by for dinner -- another adventure in "we're no longer worrying about whether our kids will eat what we cook because they can survive skipping one meal from hunger." Of course that won't really happen with the Boy: first, he's too adventurous with his eating for that to happen, and second, when push comes to plate, he quickly reaches a point at which the stubbornness gives way to the hunger.

The Girl, of course, is an entirely different story, and I still wonder whether or not we're doing the right thing by her. That's the eternal worry of parenting, I guess, but I try to keep things in a more global perspective: hungry kids in Africa and all of that. Tonight was not all that much of a battle because it was tortellini: she likes pasta, though she predictably didn't like the fact that it was pasta stuffed with something. Despite the fact that she likes pierogi, which are essentially the same thing.

Sometime later this week, we're planning Indian -- dal with palak paneer. That should be a really interesting night...

Pre-Halloween Halloween Festival

Saturday 29 October 2016 | 0 Comments

Overalls

Friday 28 October 2016 | 2 Comments

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Forbidden Fruit

Tuesday 25 October 2016 | 0 Comments

K bought a bag of treats for trick-or-treaters next week. It was sitting on the counter when E came down this morning.

He’s always the first of the two to come downstairs. We hear his little voice as we’re getting our breakfast ready: “Mama!” He needs his “stinky diaper” taken off, and he needs to get downstairs as fast as possible. Nevermind that often makes it downstairs half asleep and then plops down on the sofa in the livingroom for another half hour of sleep. He has to get downstairs.

So when he came down this morning, he noticed the candy.

“Why is there a bag of treats on the counter?” he asked.

“It’s for Halloween,” K explained.

She went back upstairs to do her hair and I peeked down to find he had taken the step ladder out and set it up to get a closer look. Elbows on the counter, chin in his hands, he just stood and stared.

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It would take no cajoling at all to get him to eat the whole bag. Perhaps not all in one sitting, but then again, he might be able to pull that off. Then how he would complain about how his stomach hurts.

“My belly hurts” is his common excuse to get out of finishing dinner. Even when he says he likes it. Even when it’s potato pancakes.

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In the evening, the Girl brought up a new concern. I actually brought it up; she worked it to a frenzy. Thursday is a special day for whatever reason, and the kids can take a stuffed animal to school.

“Daddy, I can’t decide which animal to take,” she explained.

Knowing the stinkers she has in her class, I reminded her that they might do something mischievous and to take that into account when deciding. A few minutes after going to bed, she came down to get some advice from K. She explained her concern: “When the teacher is not looking or when I go to the bathroom, one of them might grab the stuffed animal and do something to it, like cut it up.”

K gave the opposite advice: “Don’t worry about it. That probably won’t happen.”

But L was already worked up about it. She probably won’t get to sleep until late, and then we’ll have a rough morning, trying to convince her to pull herself out of bed.

Perhaps I should have thought things through a little more carefully.