Raising a Rider

Of roller coasters, that is. After a particularly busy week, we decided that tonight was going to be Family Fun Night. We headed to the Mall of America for dinner and decided to ride some rides at Nickelodeon Universe. Alan took Landon on the "Back at the Barnyard Hayride," while I waited to the side. As the roller coaster (okay, so it was pretty tame as far as roller coasters go, but still...) started out, I could see Alan trying to encourage Landon to raise his hands above his head. Landon tentatively agreed, but as they rounded the first corner, he thrust his hands into the air and kept them up the entire time while squealing in delight. As a lover of roller coasters myself, this makes me so proud!

"When You Get Older"

"When you get older," is a oft-heard phrase spoken and heard around our house. As in, Landon will ask about __________________ (fill in the blank: riding a two-wheel bike, using scissors, driving a car) and our response is, "When you get older." Tonight, Alan and Landon were driving home from a friend's house in one vehicle while I was in our other car. We met in the garage and the following conversation occurred:

Alan: Landon, tell Mommy what we were listening to in the car.
Landon: When I get older.
Me: You'll tell me what you were listening to in the car when you get older?
Alan: C'mon Landon tell Mommy what we were listening to in the car.
Landon: When I get older.
Me (a few seconds later): Okay, you're older now. Can you tell me what you were listening to in the car?
Landon (with a gleam in his eyes): I use scissors now?!?
Alan: Man, is he quick.

Quick and, perhaps, too smart for our good.

Oh, and they were listening to "Third Day," which is quite the change from our usual driving soundtrack - "Veggie Tales."

10:02 pm on a Saturday

This is what Alan and I do on Saturday nights when Landon goes to bed.



Well, it doesn't happen every Saturday night. It happened this past Saturday because I was inspired, after following I am Baker , to make and decorate Easter egg cookies for our brunch at church on Sunday. Landon and I made the cookies on Friday and Alan I decorated them on Saturday night. It might end up becoming a Saturday night "thing" for us, because:
1. It was fun
2. It was quite therapeutic
3. The cookies were delicious, and
4. I think we did a darn good job, for it being our first attempt at baking/decorating 'a la I am Baker .

It's a Bug's Life

I have a little boy who is curious about a lot of things. Things that he studies intently and asks lots of questions about. Yesterday, on a beautiful 70 degree plus day, he was curious about bugs.



Now, I don't like bugs. I don't like how they sometimes get into the house. I don't like killing them when they get in the house, but know that I have to since I don't like them in the house. I don't like how they fly around forcing one to swat around their face to avoid said bug landing on them. I don't like eating outside because I don't like bugs by my food or beverage. I don't touching them and I don't like them crawling all over me. It seriously gives me the wiggles just thinking about it. But, I have a little boy who was very curious about bugs yesterday, so I tried to encourage him.



I pointed the bugs out to him. I held his hand out to see if the bug would crawl on it. I even touched one of the bugs (gasp!) with the tip of my fingernail on its wing when it accidently flopped over onto its back. That was the extent of my touching the bugs. I was glad when Alan came over and picked up the beetle so it could crawl on Landon's shirt. I was perfectly content to stand a reasonable distance away and click pictures (I love zoom!).



You may think it's a "noble" thing that I put aside my own fears for the sake of my son's curiousity. Not really...because if he ever developed a curiosity for reptiles or amphibians, you can be guaranteed that I would run in the other direction : ).

Ice, Ice Baby

Or, "Toddler" if we want to get really technical...Anyway, yes, this is Landon sucking on an icicle from our house. My mom gave it to him. He liked it. She also took these pictures. I was worried that he'd impale himself. He didn't. I obviously just need to relax more as a mom. Perhaps my mom was the same way and really wanted to give me and my sister icicles when we were kids, but didn't out of fear that we'd impale ourselves. But now that she's a grandma she has learned to relax and instead gives our kids icicles. I doubt that. Enjoy the pics!

Ice Skating

We took Landon ice skating for the first time a few weeks ago. Ice skating went great; getting there was not. Case in point:

Amount of time it took to get to St. Paul: 20 minutes
Amount of time it took to exchange $1 for quarters from the bank to pay the meter: 3 minutes
Amount of quarters put in the meter: 4
Time that it allotted us: 24 minutes
Time it was supposed to allot us: 48 minutes (the first quarter didn't take, the second did, the third one didn't - at which point I called the meter repair line and was told that there was nothing they could do and if I wanted my money back I'd have to send in a self-addressed stamped envelope. He also said I could stay parked there but risk a $33 ticket or move and use my last quarter. We opted to put the last quarter in the machine, hoping it would "take." It did.)
Additional time in here to walk to the rink, pay, and sign waivers.
Amount of time to put skating gear on a toddler and 2 adults: 13 minutes
Amount of time actually spent on the ice: 9 minutes
Ticket: None (thank you, Lord!)

It would have been nice if we had more time, since Landon thoroughly enjoyed it (and we paid $4 for the experience, but we didn't want to chance it any further). Next time, we'll remember to bring more quarters/dollars.



When Landon got tired of us holding him up by the armpits, he was perfectly content to sit on the ice and have Alan push him around. As you can tell, it wasn't crowded!

Long Overdue

Remember this post in which I shared my dreams for a freshly painted kitchen to go with my white cabinets and the cute pear fabric I found? Well, the kitchen is just about done and I neglected to post pictures. Yes, I did paint my kitchen lime green and love it!

It matches perfectly with my lime green KitchenAid (not pink, as I was initially hoping for, but it was a very generous gift and Landon loves using it, which might not be the case if it was pink - ha!) and the paint casts a kind of eerie glow upon our kitchen windows when it's dark outside and the kitchen lights are on.



Thanks to another gift, I was able to get new hardware for the kitchen cabinets, which we are slowly but surely getting installed.

I have a few more finishing touches to go (like hanging my apron, a shelf, and some artwork), but you still get the general idea.