Geen Smoogie

My children have a green aversion, which I know is not uncommon. Spencer can now be told to eat it (I only put two bites of broccoli on your plate, you will eat it) and there’s not a lot of fight. He still cheers “no vegetables!” when I don’t though.

Henry still has fight left in him. He’s a very stubborn child, and would rather go hungry than eat something he doesn’t think he’ll like. And this is most things: all unprocessed meats (bacon and chicken nuggets: good. Poo on everything else), most vegetables and ANYTHING GREEN (except kiwi). When he was an infant just starting out with real food he still wouldn’t touch anything green. It was fun to put a piece of lettuce in front of him to see him shield his eyes (in retrospect, this probably didn’t help the current issue).

So you can imagine my amazement when I made myself a green smoothie and the kids clamored to try it. And they liked it!

I am now making them green smoothies for their after school snack. Gone are the fruit snacks and nuts. Now fruit! Spinach! My usual combo is orange/pineapple juice, a banana, a handful of frozen fruit and as much spinach as I can fit in the smoothie blender. Oh! And chia seeds. I made a slurry of chia seeds soaked in orange juice and I add that.

Do you have any “recipes” you like?

*the title is what Henry calls them, and I won’t allow it any other way.

Oh look! A meme! People still do them!

Okay, okay. Everyone else is doing it and the questions seem fun, so I’m in! I’m all in! Here is Ginger, Laura, Carla, and Marie, and now me too!

Do you have any strange phobias? My biggest phobia is aquarium walls of water. Like, I’m okay if it’s just a big aquarium, but the ones that are floor to ceiling – where would all the water go? And the giant fish and animals that are in them? My breath is catching in my throat just thinking about it. And then one broke which just confirmed my fears. And! And there’s always water on the sill. … it’s just scary. Now I tell you that this fear actually stems from Free Willy, when the bad guy loosened the bolts on the glass causing the break … and now I can hear you laughing.


Do you sleep with or without clothes on? With a top or nightgown and undies or pj shorts. I hate things on my legs, but I can’t sleep naked anymore. I’m uncomfortable with lengths of nakedness around my boys now that they are crotch high, and I have an unhealthy fear of something happening in the middle of the night and I have to run to a neighbor’s house. Which … no.

If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? Watching the kids ride bikes if we are out front, or sitting with a book and sangria on the back deck. Livin’ the dream.

Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? They Might Be Giants. No question.

Do you believe in karma? I think that bad things happen to good people, but I think if you are a terrible person then bad things will happen to you too. So sort of? Or bad things happen to everyone?

Who is your celebrity crush? Zooey Dechanel. Or Paul Rudd. Or Joseph Gordon Levitt. Or Justin Long. Or Matt Czuchry, since I’m in season five of Gilmore Girls and he has me with a dopey grin pasted on my face every time he’s on the screen even though he's an ass. He's adorable.

What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? I love thunderstorms. I can’t think of a specific sound I hate, but I really hate getting overwhelmed with sound – like in the car when the music is going and my husband is trying to talk and the kids are trying to talk over him … my ears over function and I have a hard time differentiating sounds so I get frustrated.

Choose: East Coast or West Coast? I am an east-coaster, but west coast is so lovely. I pick West Coast because I never see it.

What was the last book you read? I finished Sharp Objects last night. I was disappointed because I was expecting so much more in the way of twists. I knew who it was right away. The internets loved it!

Do you like the smell of gasoline? No, ew.

What was the last movie you saw? In the theater with kids, Rise of the Guardians. In the theater without kids, Skyfall. At home, She’s the Man. (I typed this Friday, and Saturday night I saw 5year Engagement too)

What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? I broke my pinky toe pretty hellaciously in college. I know there’s nothing that can be done for a pinky toe break, but when you catch it on your roomie’s futon and it’s pointing the WRONG WAY, you still go to the hospital. Or I do.

What’s the last thing you purchased? Stuff for this month’s CDP package.

Can you touch your nose with your tongue? I just tried, and no.

Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? A pink highlighter and some pink post-its. Office supplies, FTW!

What’s your favorite animal? Is it a cop out to say I really don’t have one? I think animals are cute and all that, but I don’t go out of my way to see them. Apparently I’m dead inside. Also, see allergies.

What were you doing last night at 12 AM? Sleeping! Glorious, glorious sleep.

What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? The soundtrack of my youth. Anything by Eve 6, The Cruel Intentions soundtrack, the Empire Records soundtrack.

What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far? Not to go to Prague. In 2002 I was looking into ESOL teaching opportunities when I met this boy …

What’s the last song you listened to? Lenny Kravitz Are You Gonna Go My Way is on the radio right this very minute.

What is your current desktop picture? The boys – Spencer watching a naked Henry (with shoes on) climb up a slide. It makes me laugh all the time.

You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power? The power to make tesseracts (a la Wrinkle in Time, not Avengers) and visit/have visit my friends all over whenever I want.

You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again? I sat on this question for a long time. I really don’t know! Oh! This one time Christen and I had THE NAP like on Friends. We were camping, and we set up our camping gear outside Charleston and took a nap and it was the most amazing nap ever. I want the 15 minutes before we woke up until 15 minutes after. Best feeling ever.

You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? Where is it not raining or snowing? San Diego? I’ll go visit lovely Ginger and my old friend Charlie.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Quick takes

1) For Valentine's Day, being on a Thursday, we decided to use a gift card to Sonny's and have an easy night out. We started with the Sonny's less than a mile from our house - one that we've been to exactly one time in the five years since we moved here. It was about half full but we had to wait a full five minutes to be seated, and then we sat an entire ten minutes before i was so mad I made us all leave. We never even got a drink order in. On the way out? The one waitress just said "sorry, guys". No attempt to remedy ... Anyhow, we left and decided to try the Sonny's in a neighboring town (20 minutes from the first one). We had a gift card, after all. It was supposed to EASY for a holiday dinner. Second Sonny's - way better than the first. High tip, better. Maybe it was the comparison. Next time, back to our favorite local non-chain bbq joint.

2) Despite the early trouble, it was a nice night. Dreary though - when weather hits like this, I've always tempted to read Clive Barker's The Thief of Always again. I can't because packed it to mail. It's excellent though.

3) I have decided to completely redo my office. It's been in my brain for over a year, but I've taken the first step by weeding through and getting rid of SIX BOXES of books. I'm mailing them to friends, approximately 25lbs of books to each of six lovely people. I don't remember what's in all of them, so I hope you like your books. I do remember that Erin got one of my copies of Beach Music. Erin, it looks worn and I know you said you were weeding your paperbacks but I hope you like it. I loved that book. (I kept my autographed hard copy of it). I am tied to several books in each box - they are all friends, sweet friends, and I will miss them all.

4) After tomorrow, I have a three day weekend, then a three day week, and another three day weekend. Marvelous, simply marvelous.

5) I also have nothing important planned for either of these weekends. We are going to Rays Fanfest on Saturday and Spencer has his doctor's appointment on Monday but otherwise. I plan on reading and watching tv and generally being lazy.

6) Although I should really go for a run.


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On babies

I’m written this post a dozen times in my mind, but it always comes out different and weird and scattered when I try to put it down on paper.

Here’s the thing: I have never had strong feelings about children. Growing up I didn’t think I would ever want children. My siblings were significantly younger than I, and I did a great deal of the child rearing while my parents worked and then later when my mom went through a bunch of things that put her into a second childhood sort of mental state. ‘I raised children already,’ I used to say.

But then in my twenties I started feeling that pull. I knew I wanted children, and I needed to start before I was 30 because my mom wasn’t able to have children past 30. C and I got married when I was 26, and I was pregnant a month later. I had Spencer at 27 and Henry six weeks past my 30^th birthday.

C does not want more children. He wanted two from the onset, and nothing has changed. I originally expected to want three, but then after Henry I was pretty sure I was done. “But don’t you want a girl?” people would ask. Nope! Happily done here!!

…

But lately I’ve started to feel very strongly that I want another. Not a girl specifically, not a boy, just another child. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I hated being pregnant, although I had two very uneventful pregnancies. I recovered quickly from my c-sections (another post I’ve been mulling over) but I wasn’t a big fan of the newborn stage. My boys are at an age … well, I absolutely love it. I love them. They are generally self-sufficient, play well together, and we are maybe less than a year out of diapers. They are such GOOD BOYS. I love having conversations with them and seeing Henry better his speech by leaps and bounds and Spencer having such a thirst for knowledge. Does it get any better? Why would I want to go through all that again?

It’s a moot point right now, anyhow. My husband does not want another. But maybe, some day. Or maybe some day I’ll be able to let the idea of a third baby go.

A week of birthday

The birthday boy had days and days of birthdayness, but I think we are finally through all the celebrating, here six days later. There were cupcakes the day before the birthday, the state fair and breakfast for dinner ON birthday, party on Saturday, the movies on Sunday (unbirthday related, but still fun – The Rise of the Guardians) and yesterday my mom came by with her present for Spencer because she had to work on party day.

Without further ado, here are the newest members of our family, Spencer’s gift from my mom:

Spencer has been wanting a pet for a year, and I had been toying with the idea of a cat (even though I’m highly allergic). C has been against all animals since we had to get rid of my dogs three years ago, and while I agree that life is certainly easier without them I also think pets are nice. My mom’s hamsters had two litters so she was the current proud owner of TWELVE hamsters, so I leaned on C to agree to hamster pets. And here we are. The boys are very excited by something furry in the house although we have rules about not going into the cage and not beating on the glass … we’ll see if this is a big disaster but for now we have hamsters.

And here are a couple pictures of Spencer (and Henry) on party day.

FIVE!

I don’t usually write these except to say Happy birthday to my lovely boy – I’m never as eloquent as others, but I wanted to put some things down that I don’t ever want to forget.

This morning I left Spencer’s birthday gifts on the fireplace and let him pick one to open before school. He picked the biggest one, of course, which was a Darth Vader blanket and tote bag. His dad told him that he thought he was old enough to watch Star Wars finally (he loves the stuff but he’s never seen the movies. He looks at C and says “STAR WARS IS REAL???”

Mind blown.

Also, after opening the blanket and deciding where to keep it, and inspecting the tote and deciding what he would keep in it he asked, “Where did this come from?”

Did he want to know if it came from Target? (spoiler: it did)

“It came from me and daddy and Henry!”

“Awwwww!” and he gave us a big smile and a bear hug.

He’s such a loveable kid. Really, he never sits or stands still and I wouldn’t say he’s a snuggler, but he loves to show affection and he’s just so NICE. He thinks the best of everyone and he’s always willing to share with anyone. He’s constantly giving up the toys he’s playing with to keep his brother happy (I discourage this, someday Henry’s going to have to learn he doesn’t get everything he wants) but he’s just such a GOOD person. He’s such a good big brother, and he really is the light of my life.

Yesterday he took cupcakes to school because today is fair day, so he gets to spend his birthday riding rides and eating cotton candy and having a blast. I told him he could go anywhere or I could make anything he wanted for dinner, so we’re having bacon and eggs and French toast. His party is tomorrow, and we’re going to take a bunch of his sports stuff to a local park and have bagels and fruit and let the kids go crazy on the playground.