Well......technically

Aunt Jennie brought the boys chocolate bars which I told them they could eat half of in the car on the way home from the park. They were to save the other half for after dinner.

Of course, my law-abiding oldest ate exactly half of his chocolate and set the rest aside. He then informed me that his brother ate more than half.

Me - "JJ, did you eat half the chocolate?"

Him - around a mouth full of chocolate "Yes."

Me - "How many pieces to you have left?"

Him - around another mouth full of chocolate "Two."

Me - "Stop eating. No more chocolate."

Him - "OK."

Him 30 seconds later - "Mom, I'm going to eat one more."

Me - "No. You have two pieces of chocolate left, you had better have two pieces of chocolate left when we get home."

Him - "OK."

At home he climbs out of the car with a piece of chocolate halfway in his mouth.

Me - "Don't eat that."

Him - "I was just licking it."

I decided it was best to remove the temptation and took the chocolate. Then that I realized that the two pieces had handed me were actually the final square of chocolate - broken in half.

Did I mention that we live FIVE MINUTES from the park?

I guess I can't punish him for being clever.

Car conversation

From the back of the van. . .

Boy #2 - "Mom! He hit me!"

Mom - "Ian, did you hit your brother?"

Boy #1 - . . . . .

Dad - "Son, you need to answer. Did you hit your brother?"

Boy #1 - " . . . . Well. . . . Do I have to tell the truth?

Dad - (trying VERY hard not to laugh out loud) "Yes."

Boy #1 - "Yes."

I probably shouldn't be encouraging this

Or blogging about it for that matter.

So my kids have this obsession with pretending to be animals. It is fairly common for kids their age. Mostly they love to be cats. Almost every morning my oldest climbs in bed with me with this information: "Mom, we are a family of cats." He is not satisfied until I respond with a "meow."

On my (fairly) recent trip to DC I was looking for something to bring home to them. The Smithsonian has all these cool science toys and things, but after looking around I decided to get them something they would get a lot of use out of, and came home with stuffed kitties.

The boys sleep with them every night, and the other night JJ woke up from a nightmare that I had taken his cat away in punishment. (OK, I admit that I do occasionally put toys in time out - so it was not really an unrealistic nightmare.)

In my on-going attempts to get them to eat and to make life fun, I had this brilliant idea -

The dishes were only 99 cents and I promise they were clean. We don't even have any pets at our house, so it isn't like they will be mixed up with actual pet dishes.

Anyway, they liked it.

freakishly adorable

there is just no other way to describe it

We have reached my favorite baby developmental milestone EVER - clapping.

I love the delight that a baby gets on her face when she first realizes that she can clap her hands. Everything else that she does seems to have a purpose: movement, more control - but clapping is just for the joy of doing something new with your body. It's fun.

It is also cool because the baby does it almost every time she can catch my attention. I feel like I'm being given a (sitting) ovation for every little thing. "Yea, Mommy! You're doing the dishes. Go, Mommy! Way to walk into a room!"

It's awesome.

Plus, she is, as I said, freakishly adorable - even with spaghetti all over her face.

More of the same. If you don't need a baby fix you can skip this one (but it is adorable)