Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson
We were sitting down to a tasty hot-dog dinner a few nights ago, and Magoo was having a difficult time with the mustard. He simply could not squeeze it hard enough to get it to squirt.
“Let me help you, Buddy”, I said, “this mustard bottle is really hard to squeeze”.
“I know!” exclaimed Laylee. “When I put my mustard on, I had to use both hands and squeeze the bottle against my forehead!”
May that mental image remain with me forever.
As we sat down to breakfast this morning, Laylee expressed her happiness with her situation in life:
“Everything is going great for me right now. My hair is turning curly, I have a loose tooth, and I brushed my teeth with my timer this morning.”
Right on, sweetie.
Yeah. That guy’s pretty much a freak show.
Overheard recently:
DYM:Â Does anyone know where the scissors are?
Magoo:Â [drawl]Â Nooope. [fast]Â I-know-I-know-I-know! [pause]Â Whaaaat?
____________________________
DYM: [putting on Magoo’s elbow pads]Â It’s elbow time!
Magoo: I LOOOOVE ebow time! … Wha’s ebow time?
____________________________
DYM:Â We’re having some bacon for dinner.
Magoo:Â I LOOOOOVE bacon! … Wha’s bacon?
Bonus line from Laylee:
Laylee:Â It’s a good thing I washed my hands because bacon is hard to fork.
Â
Kathryn’s back is “out”. Not “out” as in “un-cool”; “out” as in “out of commission”. (I find her back very cool.) So she asked I post a little something to let you all know that she has not, in fact, passed away, but is merely immobilized for the time being.
Because staying on her back is crucial to her recovery, today was a unique Father’s day–I got to really be a dad, full-bore, the whole day. It was tiring, but I love my family and it was great to be able to run the whole show for them.
Thank you so much to those who have been aware of Kathryn’s sidelined state and have been so kind. Your encouraging words and especially your helpful hands (thanks for the dinners!) have really cheered us and helped us along.
One such friend, whom I will call Brandy, went so far as to take Laylee shopping to get a Father’s Day present for me. Laylee had decided (on her own) that I needed new “work shoes”. Not your everyday Father’s Day gift idea, for sure. I guess my current pair are starting to deteriorate a bit. So Kathryn sent her to get me a new pair like my old ones:
Instead, here is what she came home with:
Apparently, the trip to pick them out was quite fun, too; Brandy sent us an email afterwards to detail their exploits together, from which I quote:
“Laylee was so adorable today =) She made Roberto and I laugh the entire time! I’m going to try and remember the funny things she said and share them with you.
But first you should know that Laylee picked out the shoes for Dan all by herself-—she didn’t want to get him tennis shoes-—she wanted to get him ”˜work’ shoes. She was so cute-—very particular about which shoes he’d like. So, yeah — I hope you like them, or rather Dan likes them!
Laylee was very proud of herself. I pointed out many Skechers and Laylee would say ”˜those actually look like Bobsled shoes’ if the soles had bumps on them—-which most of the Skechers had. She said that about 3 pairs of Skechers. It was hilarious—-like when have you ever been shopping for Bobsled shoes before and how does she know what those would look like?!
She liked the fact that the shoes she chose would look good with “jeans… and even sweats”—-she’s so funny. I tried to steer her towards running shoes like you described or other Skechers that you had to tie up and had some design on them-—like two-toned or stripes, but she was set on black as he already had a brown pair of shoes. I had Laylee try on the shoes for comfort testing—-it was cute—-she tried on one pair and said they had ”˜bumps’ on the sides, so they wouldn’t work. She really thought the ones we ended up getting were comfy!
Laylee told us she made a Father’s Day card and said ”˜I wrote a Father’s Day card and put “To Dad” and other Father’s Day stuff’ =) It was funnier the way she said it because it sounded like ”˜To Dad’ was a Father’s Day saying or something.
Laylee said ”˜I am a good example in my family because I always have to remind my mom and dad to not say bad words’. Which after we laughed, I told Roberto it is probably words like ”˜hate (I hate peas) or stupid’ etc. But it sounds so funny coming from a child — as though you used swear words 😉 <ed.: We used to sometimes, in extreme situations, say “gosh”. I guess we still do, since Laylee has to remind us not too. 🙂 >
I told Laylee she could pick out Dan’s favorite candy bar — so we were looking at all the choices and she picks the Hershey Bar and says ”˜I’ve seen him eat one of these before, so it must be his favorite’. Ahhhhh, too funny.
Laylee told us she was going to keep Dan’s present a secret, so it’s like ”˜keeping the beans’ instead of ‘spilling the beans’–too clever! =)
We bought Laylee bubble gum and she said as she chewed some ”˜it makes me smile because it is so delicious.’ She then stated ”˜when people are sad, they should eat food because then it would make them smile and be happy’—-she has no idea that it’s called emotional eating-—LoL.
So, it was entertaining and enjoyable to spend time with Laylee-—she’s great Kathryn!”
Thanks for “keeping the beans”, Laylee. It was a great Father’s Day surprise. 🙂
P.S. I wore the shoes to church today, and they were comfy and looked great.
“Something happened to Magoo on his third birthday. As he collapsed into an exhausted coma on my lap after a fun-filled day at Disneyland and slept sweetly through the singing and the candles and the cake, some crazy switch of three-ish mischief flipped on in his head. He woke up a new man and he hasn’t been the same since.”
Read more about the Swedish Fish and the rocks in the milk jug over at Parenting.com.
With Kathryn at BlogHer, I’ve taken the helm around here. Let me tell you, it’s been surprisingly difficult.
No, not taking care of the kids. I mean, it’s really hard work, but I’ve been solo with them before, so it wasn’t a surprise how much work Kathryn does on a daily basis to keep our ship sailing. Since I’m the one hanging out all day with the kiddos, I figured I’d try my hand at the blog-about-how-cute-the-kids-are thing, and that’s what I found surprisingly tough.
How does she remember all the cute things the kids say? They are spouting cuteness at all times except when I have something to write with. There was at least one really, really great Laylee-ism, where she took some colloquialism and turned it funny somehow, and I cannot remember what it was. I’m so glad that Kathryn captures a few precious drops of toddleric wit and wisdom here on the blog. We’ll always have some little-kid fun-ness preserved here, long after they’ve broken the four foot barrier.
And then, when does she find the time to turn their antics into blog posts? Well, it’s true; I know where she gets some of the time :)… but still–it’s a big investment.
All of this on top of being the World’s Greatest Mom. (As the World’s Greatest Dad, I am authorized to write that about her with Proper Noun Casing.)
Thanks for all you do, baby.
Well, it’s the day before she comes home (well, it’s after midnight, so it’s technically the last day of the trip), and this is what I’ve got: one picture and one story.
Laylee dipping her cantaloupe in ketchup:
A few nights ago at teeth brushing time, Magoo wanted to rinse and spit just like Laylee. We don’t use toothpaste with him yet, so he doesn’t really need to, but it would be a good skill for him to acquire, so I hand him a cup of water to try it. He takes a swig, swishes it around, tips his head over the sink, and … *gulp* swallows. The lack of water to spit disturbs him. He repeats this two or three times, getting more frustrated with each failed spit attempt. I hope he didn’t notice me chuckling. Before I took the cup away, he did manage to get one good spit in. Good times.
I can hardly wait to snuggle on the couch with my schmoop while she regales me with stories of her adventures. Come home soon, baby!
[Daring Young Dad here. I’m a Guest Blogger Schmoop today. Hi! *waves wildly*]
Once upon a time, I did not know how to make chocolate-chip cookies. Shocking, I know. This is the story of how I learned.
My mom is a good cook. At least she has been for as long as I’ve known her. When I was small and trying to spend as much time as possible underfoot, I spent a lot of time with her in the kitchen. I loved to cook with her. I was fascinated with how you could put a bunch of stark, homogenous ingredients together in a bowl, mix them into some kind of batter or dough, and cook it, and then end up with ACTUAL REAL FOOD, like bread, or rolls, or cookies, or pies.
Hmmm… I don’t think I knew the word “homogenous” at the time. If I did, though, it was because my Mom taught me. she was well educated in the ways of organic chemistry, and explained lots of fascinating stuff to me about how yeast worked, and gluten chains, and how soap works (cleaning is too part of cooking! to my great chagrin).
Unfortunately, we kids were a lot of work. Also shocking, I know. I remember at one point that my Mom seemed to be extra tired all the time. In my defense, I think she may have been pregnant with her third or fourth kid at the time. She just didn’t seem to have as much time or energy to fritter the day away making cookies with me in the kitchen. But that certainly didn’t stop me from asking.
One day, she was lying on her bed with one arm draped over her head trying to shade her eyes, but I wanted to make cookies. Alas, I was not the caring and sensitive man I am … still trying to become. I’m sure I used all my little-kid wiles to coax her into some kitchen fun, but she just couldn’t muster the energy. So she finally said, “How about YOU make some chocolate-chip cookies?”
“But I don’t know how!”
“That’s okay, I’ll tell you what to do.”
“But I don’t know how!”
“It’s okay. Just go get the big mixing bowl out of the closet and put it on the counter,” [editorial note: yes, she really did have to be that specific] “and then come back.”
So I did. And then she told me to get two cubes of margarine out of the refrigerator and put them into the bowl. I did, and then came back. Then she told me to get the white sugar out, and to find the one-cup measure, and to measure a cup out, and put it in the bowl. I did, and then came back. Then for the brown sugar.
This went on for some time, with some confusion at some points, but generally making it through. For some hard mixing parts, I actually brought the bowl to her in her bedroom and she helped do the hard stirring. (My mom was STRONG; she could totally cream cold butter out of the fridge! With nothing but a spoon! Wow!)
And that’s how I learned to make chocolate-chip cookies.I don’t know the recipe by heart anymore. And I think perhaps in my mind I may have coalesced several experiences and maybe forgotten some unpleasant parts involving gross mistakes on my part, but I didn’t have a journal back then and that’s how I remember it now, so that might as well be how it was, to me anyway.
What were your special times when you were small? What did your parents do with you that you loved? That made you feel special? That was fun?