Christmas wishes

Cameron recently began his Christmas list for '08. I mean, no sense leaving it to the last minute! On a green sheet of construction paper, he carefully wrote "DOG" and "PIG." Well, that should be easy, I thought. I'd been thinking we didn't have enough living beings in this house for me to clean up after! But just a moment ago, I saw that Cameron has made an update to his list. In scrawling, painstaking capital letters, the list now includes "LAPRQIN." You know, a laprqin. The green guys with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Well, perhaps the laprqin can clean up after the dog and pig.

Hat heads

St. Patrick's Day began with excitement in our house -- we were shocked to find that the leprechauns had played a trick on us and turned our milk green! With some trepidation, we took a taste and were delighted to discover that green milk is DELICIOUS! Cameron independently determined that leprechauns turn milk green "by dipping their socks in it." Mmmm.

After school, Cameron went to a St. Patrick's Day party and David went to an Irish pub with his co-workers. I, apparently, am no social butterfly, as I spent the evening carting kids from school to party to home. I think I am in a social cocoon stage of my life.

The party boy apparently has a really cool mom who somehow managed in 1 hour in 45 minutes to get 6 kids fed, play games, frost cookies and make pretzels and paint a toy train. Even better, each kid got a goody bag which, among other things, contained a very large hat. The hat was endlessly amusing, as you can see!
Cameron, recognizing that Matthew was likely green with jealousy, kindly allowed Matthew to try the hat on, too. You know, really humongous green hats don't work for everybody, but I think my boys really pulled off the look!

One Man Band

Take one baby, one whisk and one muffin tin and what do you get? Well . . . noise. But Matthew sure enjoyed it! It pretty much went down like this:

Bite.
Bang!
Bite.
Hey, if you were teething you'd be biting, too!

A roaring good time

Cameron has a white tiger named Zeb, an homage to his zebra-style stripes. They are the dearest of pals and Cameron frequently tells me how much he loves Zeb. If only Zeb could speak, I am sure he would say the same of Cameron, who dotes upon him. Cameron has made Zeb a comfy sleeping area with only the finest Kleenex linens. He brushes Zeb's teeth three times a day. And yesterday Cameron informed me very seriously that the next day was Zeb's birthday and he wanted to surprise his friend with a little soiree.

As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon this morning, Cameron appeared beside my bed whispering, "Mommy! Wake up, wake up! It's Zeb's birthday!" So, tonight, we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Zeb. He clearly had had NO idea we were planning this surprise for him. As you can see below, his mouth just dropped open in shock when he saw the cake! Cameron was filled with delight when Zeb succeeded in blowing out the candles. Of course, Zeb wouldn't tell us what he wished for -- then it wouldn't come true! -- but my guess is a plate full of raw meat instead of cinnamon apple bundt cake.

Lizard Watch 2008

48 hours 72 hours -- The Green grew so large, his head is actually poking out of the water!

Art and Astronomy

When I picked Cameron up from school yesterday, I noted that his cheek was festooned with blue ink. "WHAT is on your face?" I asked, expecting him to reply, "A stamp." Instead he said, with the patient tone of someone speaking to someone none to bright, "It's called the Milky Way." And indeed, on closer inspection, I discovered that it was a stamp of a tiny galaxy!

Leapin' lizards!

Once again, Aunt Beth made Cameron's day with a surprise package in the mail! After wildly tearing open the envelope, Cameron was overjoyed to find two little lizards that grow 600% when soaked for 72 hours. After debating whether or not the lizards would grow so enormous that they would need to be contained in the bathtub, we settled on a glass bowl. Cameron named the orange lizard "Pinky" and, cleverly, the green lizard "Green." I like to think of them as Pinky and the Green -- anyone out there remember "Pinky and the Brain?" Zack?

Here is Cameron hugging his lizard bowl at 0 hours.
A close-up of the pair.24 hours later.
And, since I reviewed my photos and noted that they are all of Cameron, Matthew and David, here's a rare shot of me and Matthew!