It is really amazing how much my boys can eat… especially when it comes to pasta. If it were up to them we’d have pasta every night. I try to keep pasta to a 1-2 night per week maximum. But if you ask Kyle — anywhere, any time of day, at any moment — what he wants to eat, he’ll always say “PASTA!” He likes all shapes of pasta; he likes whole wheat pasta, fresh pasta, or absolutely any kind of pasta; he likes red sauces, cheese sauces, garlic and oil sauces, pesto sauces, cream sauces, lemon and butter sauces; he likes filled pastas– ravioli, tortellini, and he likes plain pastas. The boy just really likes pasta. Watching Kyle eat pasta is quite something. People who witness it find it rather shocking. Even though I witness it over and over and over I still find it rather shocking. He can’t shovel it in fast enough. He almost always ends up using both hands to try to manage the pasta and get as much of it as possible into his little mouth as quickly as possible. That boy can put it away. I simply cannot imagine how much pasta I’m going to have to produce in order to keep up with feeding him when he’s sixteen. And Owen, well, he loves his pasta too. But he’s especially fond of the parmesan cheese. Both boys love parmesan — fresh paremesan — the sharper and more aged the better — they particularly love the super-expensive, imported-directly-from-Italy parmesan (is that weird for 2 year olds?!). They’ll eat it in chunks right off the wedge, or they’ll eat it grated — they don’t care how they get it, as long as they get it. But Owen… he verges on parmesan obsessed. I’ve taken to trying to limit his parmesan intake because it just doesn’t seem right to let a 2 year old eat a whole pound of dense, sharp, seriously expensive parmesan. So, now I give it to them grated, and I give it to them pre-rationed off in little bowls. They each get one bowl-full, they can do with it whatever they wish, but once they’ve eaten it all they get no more. Kyle has taken to just pouring the whole bowl over his pasta right off the bat. Owen, however, carefully tries to pace himself by sprinkling a spoonful or two over his pasta then patiently trying to not be tempted into eating the whole bowlful straight up. This works for him… for about two minutes. But his temptation always gets the better of him. By five minutes into the meal (max!) he can’t take it any longer and he just lifts the whole bowl full of freshly grated parmesan to his mouth and downs it.
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Some days just feel almost too perfect to be true. A day at the ocean in March just couldn’t have possibly been any more beautiful. And our boys just couldn’t have possibly been any more cute.
This is a great blog that I really like and read regularly. The author is Keith and his son is Devin. Devin is a little bit older than Kyle and Owen, but still Keith’s stories about his antics remind me a lot of my own boys. And I love Keith’s perspective and style. The most recent post, 3/7/07: “This is not an emergency,” is especially poignant. Check it out:
African American Dad Blog: One Good Black Father Among Many (click here)
Tonight after supper the boys were playing in the playroom while I was clearing the table.
Kyle: It’s airplane time! Right Owen? It’s airplane time?!
Owen: Yes! It is airplane time!
{they both go to get their toy airplanes}
Owen: Kyle, is this one your airplane?
Kyle: Ummm, yes! It is my airplane!
Owen: Oh! O.k.! Here you go!
Kyle: Thank you very much!
Owen: You’re welcome!
Kyle: O.k. my brother, up in the sky!
Owen: Here we go!
Kyle: Hey, Owen, look! It’s Kyle and Owen inside this airplane!
Owen: Yes! It is!
Kyle: Going so high! Up in the sky!
Owen: Here we go! Up in the sky! So fast! Up in the sky!
Kyle: Hey Owen?! It’s chainsaw time!
Owen: Yes! It is chainsaw time!
{they both drop their airplanes and go to get their toy chainsaws…}
And so it goes… Life with my boys is so good and so sweet!
After Mor Mor & Mor Far left today we went to Panera for lunch and Lowe’s to get some birdseed. At Lowe’s, naturally, we had to sit on the riding lawn mowers (first things first of course), then we got the bird seed and then we looked at the washer and dryers.
While we were browsing the washing machines a nice black family came up and starting chatting with us and smiling at the boys. Both O & K pounded (when you hit your fist on the other person’s fist) with them as a way of saying hi.
Then as we were heading to the checkout line Owen exclaimed: “Look, it’s just like Joy-Lin!” and pointed to a cute young Asian girl with her mother. Joy-Lin is the Chinese adopted daughter of Chris and Lisa.
After passing them, Owen then points to a middle-age white woman and states: “Look, it’s just like Amy!” Amy is our great neighbor who is white.
This all took place in the span of 3 minutes or less. And they are not even 3 yet.
K & O are starting to recognize numbers – 1, 2, 3, 4…. And even the letters O, K and sometimes M and P.
And they evidently recognize R, even if they don’t yet recognize the letter.
Really we kind of live two lifestyles. Lifestyle #1 takes place the vast majority of the time. In that life we live as a dual-career family of four with no extended family anywhere within a day’s drive. We spend a lot of time as a foursome and we do a lot of stuff together. Lifestyle #1 is a rich and full life. It is a crazy, but good life. Lifestyle #2 takes place when my parents visit — which is usually about every 8-10 weeks or so. When they come they usually stay for several days or even up to two weeks. They live with us. In this life we live as a multi-generational household. We eat meals together, all pitch in with cooking and clean-up, and all love on Kyle and Owen round-the-clock. My mom does the laundry. My dad does lawn-work. We all take turns going grocery shopping and running errands and checking our email and doing daycare drop-off and pick-up. The four adults try to keep up with our work and go to meetings and field phone calls. The two toddlers go to daycare shorter-than-usual days and at home they keep us all on our toes with their antics and wild behavior. After the boys go to bed we watch TV and chat. On the weekends we go to Little Gym and try to do at least one big daytrip or outing. We all come and go and work and play. Lifestyle #2 is a rich and full life. It is a crazy, but good life. #1 and #2 are neither better or worse than each other — just drastically different lifestyles. Both drastically different, but both drastically good lifestyles.
We got home from Atlanta at 11pm on Monday night. We were all drained from the trip, and Braydon had a bit of a flu bug (which I now have too). The refrigerator was empty. I had not even the faintest of a plan for meals for the week. And there’s a lot going on with work right now for both Braydon and I. But… not to worry!!!… MorMor is Back!!!!!! She arrived yesterday afternoon with a car full of groceries and a heart full of energy. God, what would I do without my mother? I feel so fortunate, so blessed, and so so so grateful for her in our lives. And of course the boys are in HEAVEN when she is here. And putting this all over the edge — putting us all on Cloud 900 — my dad arrives tonight! We get to have MorMor and MorFar with us until Sunday morning. It feels blissful.
We went to Atlanta for a 3 day whirlwind trip to visit Grandpa Robert and Carol. We had so much fun!!! Robert & Carol have a new house now — right on Lake Lanier — and it was a fabulous place for our little mini family vacation! And Carol went all out with the special food and drink purchases for all of us. We had so many treats while were were there! We travel quite a bit with the K & O (well, at least quite a bit for a family of four with twin two year old boys!), and they really really love the whole entire process — especially going “on a big airplane” (Owen) “up in the sky!” (Kyle). That is definately always a trip hightlight for K & O. Other highlights of this trip were throwing rocks in the lake; going on the “motorboat” (Robert & Carol’s pontoon boat) in the pouring rain Sunday morning, and then again in the beautiful sunshine Sunday afternoon; a ride in Grandpa Robert’s golfcart!; the hot-tub!; the new bikes Robert & Carol gave the boys; and K & O’s favorite new discovery — Strawberry Spritzer! Best of all we all got some good family bonding in. And Robert and Carol, Kyle and Owen really got to know each other well. It really was a great, great trip!
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