Ramin Noodles for Dinner

The other night I was trying to decide what to have for dinner and it was a toss-up between rack of lamb and duck l'orange.

Oooooo-kay, maybe a little bit of here's the truth about the other night.

I was walking from our pantry to the fridge and back again trying to decide what to have for dinner. Katie was following me back and forth and on about the 3rd trip into the pantry (I guess I just kept hoping something new would magically appear to no avail) Katie pulled out the ramin noodles I bought for John on our last grocery trip. (I don't make him eat these, he actually asked me to pick some up!)

Katie picked one out and said, "Mommy, I want to have this for lunch." I decided that lunch was close enough to dinner and if I add a pudding cup and an ear of corn, I would have an *almost* good-for-her dinner.

After reading the directions on the pack... at least three times because I have never in my whole life made ramin noodles and I thought there might be some kind of small print because they can't be that easy, can they? ... I boiled the water and got cookin'.

Katie was thrilled with her noodle soup and I actually liked it!

Now I just wonder... was it so tasty because I had worked up an appetite after my fridge to pantry workout?

Play Dates

A few weeks ago I figured that the best way to see some of the new babies in the family (and when I say new, I mean 6 months old but new to me!) would be to host a play date.

So, I invited two cousins and my sis in law AND all of our kids for a play date last night. Well, the play date was last night but our facebook conversations have been going on for at least two weeks, if not longer! Yes, it's true. We never talked in person, we "facebooked". And it worked great! It's so hard to have any sort of conversation on the phone these days between diapers, bottles, sippy refills, meals, lost toy finding... well, I'm sure you get the picture. And though I was a little resistant to getting on Facebook (you can ready my long winded post of a few months back, if you really want to know how I feel!) now I'm a fan... at least of some parts (I'll be checking my crops later).

We ate pizza and cake and the kids played while we moms talked. Our kids are about the same age and it was fun to see how they reacted to each other. The babies... not so much of a reaction, more of a "huh, I know you're there but your toy is more fun to play with" but Katie, Alex, and Paige were fun to watch.

Katie is working very hard on sharing but it's still a challenge. She was very angsty about her toys being touched - even the bin of her "miscellaneous (junk)" toys. But everyone found something to play with and Katie didn't have any meltdowns!

Kim mentioned that it was fun and we should do it again. I totally agreed and wondered where we could meet... Jenny thought maybe we could go to her place...

and...

Lindsay said

"Let's facebook it."

Caution **Mention of Inappropriate Tushy-Butt Showing**

Last night we were finally alone, just the four of us. We had visitors all weekend (Joe, Paige, and Hunter) and it was so quiet with just us.

Katie was standing on the back of her pink cushiony chair next to the window and as she leaned over, I joked that her tushy butt was showing. We laughed and I looked away for *just* a second. Next thing I heard was her little voice saying "Mommy..."

I looked at her and saw that my dear, sweet, darling daughter was ... MOONING her mommy.

To my credit, I did not laugh. I was very stern when I explained that showing her tushy butt is inappropriate and to fix her underpants and her skirt right this second. Then I heard John choking back his laughter. That made it extra hard to look her in the eye while she sorted it all out. Standing on her pink chair in the window. She was still staring at me and I was still trying to hold it in... until I just couldn't anymore (a combination of John's laughing and Katie's mischivious eye-twinkle). I started to laugh, John let loose and, trying to salvage the lesson I was trying to teach her, I started to say "Oh, Jacob... you're so funny!!!" and John did the same in between gales of laughter! Katie got in on it too after she gave me and Daddy a strange look.

Jake didn't seem to care. But boy was it funny.