Sunny Michigan

The other night, feeling the effects of our unrelenting winter cold, Will made an announcement to Charlie and me.

"Daddy, we should move someplace warmer."

"Really? Like where?"

"Like Hawaii, Mexico ... Michigan."

Apparently Will has been unable to escape all the news photos of tanned, relaxed Michiganders relaxing outside in the January warmth. Yes, if we moved into Candy's neighborhood in Trenton we'd spend every winter weekend at the beach building sand castles and sipping margaritas.

Sarcasm aside, I explained to him the downsides of living in warm-weather states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona -- oppressively hot summers, lower-quality schools, etc. Which led to a short lecture on property taxes. Which led to Will falling asleep -- mission accomplished!

If you resist

Last night at the dinner table I asked Will to finish his hot dog. When he didn't do it right away, I asked again.

"OK Daddy, if you resist," he said.

Resist? Oh ...

"You mean insist, right Will?"

"Yeah, insist."

What I should have said was "Resist is what you usually do when we ask you to finish your dinner food!"

Clone Troopers

Angela was nice enough to drive up and see us over the weekend, and brought Will and Charlie some nice presents. I was slightly jealous of Will's -- a full-sized Star Wars clone trooper helmet, complete with preprogrammed trooper lingo.

"We're gonna turn those clankers into scrap metal!"

Combine that one with the two cheapo trooper masks I picked up in San Diego last summer, and we had the beginnings of a pretty nice platoon. Not sure how I feel yet about Charlie joining the Galactic Republic's army.

Good prognosis

The other morning I was getting Will ready for school and holding Charlie, and for just a few seconds I had some intense stomach pain. It passed, but Will noticed my groaning and asked what it was.

"My tummy just hurt really bad."

"Maybe you ate too much food."

"Probably not, I haven't eaten anything since dinner, which was about 12 hours ago."

"Mmmm ... maybe you had too much protein."

I laughed it off, but a little while later thought about it and yeah, I did have three grilled sandwiches for dinner the night before. That's a lot of cheese, and a lot of protein. Maybe Will's right more often than we think.

Charlie and Grandpa John

Whose hair is more awesome -- Charlie's or Grandpa John's? Might be time to give the little guy a "high and tight" like his grandpa prefers.

Diapers? Love 'em, Babe

Who needs adult conversation? Part 3

As we headed into school this morning:

Jana: Will, look ... the sign says that it's too cold to go outside to play today.

Will: That's good. It's way too cold out there. I would not like going outside today at all. That would not be fun. In fact, if my teacher said we were going outside today, I would say that she's NUTS!

Overheard at the breakfast table this morning:

Will: Daddy, this magazine has the SILLIEST number EVER: V135.

Scott: That's the magazine's issue number. They are very important for magazines.

Will: WHAT? You've GOT to be KIDDING me!

Who needs adult conversation: Part 2

Will: Mommy! I see a connection!

Mommy: (looking around) Really? Where?

Will: No. I mean a see a connection ... Daddy is in charge of you, you are in charge of me, I'm in charge of Charlie, and Charlie is in charge of a mouse!

Mommy: Wait a second ... Daddy is in charge of me? When did that happen?

Will: Well, Daddy's bigger than you.

Mommy: Yes, but Mommy is older than Daddy. Why don't I get to be in charge?

Will: OK. OK. I'll let Daddy be in charge of me for awhile.

Mommy: That's nice of you. Now let's get to that mouse that Charlie is in charge of ...

Dead ringers

My brother-in-law told me that Charlie looks like Seth Rogen. After giving Andy a good long glare, I took a long hard look at Charlie and I can sort of see it now:












I still think that Charlie looks more like Ed Henry from CNN ... especially when he wears his tie bib from Sharon (available at www.sweetmaggies.etsy.com):












Charlie's starting to get more hair on the sides and his curls are starting to disappear, but there were quite a few days this summer when I was a little worried that he would look like a different famous person ...

Who needs adult conversation?

Will: Mommy, what if a stranger came to our door?

Me: I would go to the door and say, "Hi, can I help you?"

Will: What if he said, "What's your name?"

Me: I would say, "My name is Jana. What's your name?"

Will: OK. OK. But what if he said, "My name is Yeti?"