Almost summer....

... or it felt like it last weekend...

"Hey, Vasco, look over there.."

"Let's get her!!!!!!!!!"

"I mean it, guys, don't get mommy wet!""

Soundtrack to this photo: incoherent giggling on my part, which I'm sure enhanced my credibility...

"We winned! we winned!" :)

He's covered in butter!!!

...or... in other words, my 2o minutes of being the world's coolest mom. Oh, you want to be sooooo cool too? Here's how. You need a dixie cup, vinegar, water, food coloring, baking soda, and random props.

Take dixie cup. Make into volcano. In other words, use some "sticky balls", cover dixie cup and excitedly proclaim that it looks like a volcano! Random dinosaur prop and, if available, wilted basil leaves, enhance the credibility of the creation.
Next, fill dixie cup 3/4 of the way with water, and 1/4 of the way with vinegar. Add food coloring. Here we start with red. Note aereal view of dinosaur and very very smartly placed giant plastic bag to catch horrendous mess that will ensue.

Next scoop a spoonful of baking soda and plop in cup.
Voila!!! A super duper sizzling fizzling special effects volcano!!
But wait, you say, what does this have to do with butter??? The answer to that, my dear people, is below:

Career day..

It's Monday morning. As I am trying to herd both kids toward their clothes so that we can get out the door, the trash truck arrives. Unfortunately, the kids are now tall enough to be able to peek out the window unassisted by parents or props... Vasco, one sock on and in nothing else but his underwear, yells excitedly, "mooooooooooooooooooooooom, the trash truck is here!!" Lots of noise, lots of excitement as the trash guy shakes the trash can around, dislodges it from the truck and catapults it in the general direction of where we had neatly placed it last night.
"Mooooooom, when I grow up, I want to drive a trash truck!!! And Justine can be the trash lady!!!" Justine excitedly nods, one foot into the stockings.
Yes, dears, you can be anything you want to be....

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

It was a bright sunny lovely warmer-than-the-20-degree-weather-we-had-been-having Saturday morning. I'm sitting on the couch at a friend's house, at a playdate with the kids from their "old school", and I notice something odd about Justine's hair. Namely, that there is a quite obvious bald spot right on top of her head. I call her over, and sure enough, it was not an optical illusion. So of course, I start thinking hideous autoimmune disorders that eat up your hair, and imagine Justine in 3rd grade with a lovely Barbie-style wig... until it occurs to me to start with perhaps a more simple explanation. "Justine, honey, did someone cut your hair??" Giggling. More giggling. "Um, Jenna cut it!" We all take turns rubbing the hair near the bald spot, which is just short of 1/12 of an inch and looks like stubble on a monk's head. She bolts off to play with her friends. As I fixate on the bald spot every time the sun hits her hair, I notice that she is missing a thick lock of hair on the side....

***

Vasco in the shower last week: "Mommy, I want to be a dolphin!"
Me: "But, honey, you can learn to swim like a dolphin, but you can't be one"
V: "But why?"
Me: "Because you are a little boy!"
V: "But I want to be a dolphin"
Me: "If you were a dolphin, you would have to live in the water, and you couldn't live with us!"
V: "But you have Justine!!!"

Luckily, this week he wants to be a frog.

***