Visitor

The girls always enjoy having an extra parent, as does Washington.  This time it meant crafts, lots of crafts inside and out, egg hunts, parks and hanging out in the basement.

The Boy is One

John was very excited to purchase Washington's 1st birthday gifts. Very.  He even took Washington to go buy them.  I vetoed the science kit for now as I thought there might be some choking hazards, not to mention possible calls to Poison Control when he ate some of the chemicals intended for experiments, not ingestion :).  It will have to wait.  So John decided on a ball and a blow up hammer with several superheros on it.  The hammer ended up being much bigger than the birthday boy and scares him anytime it is near.  I guess that one might have to wait as well.  The girls are loving it and smashing people with it often, perhaps that is why Washington is terrified.

Washington enjoyed his cake, if it was fed to him, otherwise he took pieces and flung them on the floor.  Why then, does he usually pick EVERYTHING up and put it in his mouth immediately, but he won't put his cake in his mouth?  Maybe he is just not a cake fan, he prefers rocks, small game pieces left out by the girls and grass.

Break

For Spring Break we headed south.  A temple open house happened to be going on right near the sunny beach, so it was a great excuse to go do both.

Marta Moment #19

My new year's resolution to catch up on my Marta Moments is still ongoing so here is, finally, the next one. It's very short.

I was late one day for work and didn't have time to grab much for my lunch. I usually take some leftovers which is actually quite rare since I typically eat everything Lindy makes the night before. Anyway, this was one of those frequent mornings where no filled, tupperware containers sat waiting in the fridge. In fact, not much was in our fridge that morning that would be appropriate for a lunch. I grabbed a rather large orange still in the original grocery bag and left for work.

An hour later and just outside the Marta station, one of my usual "friends in wanting" approached me and asked for some money. I politely declined and walked on.

He quickly added "What about some food?" I hesitated (as I'm wont to do if that is the first question they ask) and turned around. He ran up to me quickly.

I took off my backpack and dug around for my rather large orange.

I handed it over to him and said, "Here. Here is my lunch. You can have it."

He replies, "This is it? Come on. You must have more in there."

"I'm sorry. That is all I have for my lunch."

"What? This is no lunch..."

"This is my lunch. You don't want it? Fine. Give me my orange back!" I grabbed my orange, stuffed it in my backpack, and walked to work.

I ate that orange for lunch and it was very filling. You see, it was a rather large orange.

Bribes

Olympia has become particular about what she wears.  Sometimes I don't mind, other times (like when she insists on wearing a swimming suit on a chilly day to the store) I draw  the line, so a certain amount of bribes are offered.  Lately, a sucker does wonders.  The sucker bribe one day got carried over to a nap...there was a certain amount of crying, another sucker offered :) and a few snips of the scissors.  Oops.

Size

I've had numerous comments about Washington's size since his birth.  I'm no stranger to the fact that he is measuring in small for his age, adjusted for his prematurity or not.  Occasionally I get some good comments.

Today I was at the grocery store.  The male cashier asked how old "we" are.   I supposed he wanted Washington's age, not my age added to Washington's.  I responded he is almost 1.  He said the usual, "He is small."  I nodded, I already know :).  He then continued, "My son was so small when he was a baby.  His mother worried about it so much.  But, he is a big boy now.  He is _______" and rattles off his height and weight which I will not include.  I say something generic like, "Oh that's good." But my brain is doing some math.

A certain male I know is under the quoted weight by 55 pounds and has 6 inches on this man's son.  Another certain male I know is 2 inches taller and over a 100 pounds lighter.   Now both of these males are certianly slender.  So the son IS big, but perhaps too big for the height.   I don't tell the poor guy any of this of course.  I do go home and calculate his BMI (yes, I'm weird like that).  I'm hoping he got his numbers wrong!  This is not the kind of big I'm hoping Washington will be :).