that's what chocolate milk is made of

I took my 3 children out today for the first time in a week since Henry is, as you may know, beginning potty training. Potty training is a perilous time to take a child away from his home toilet so I have been at home with Henry and his potty chair. The time came, however when we had to venture out. Our books were overdue so Library here we come! We went to the library successfully with no accidents so I decided to tempt fate and hit the Walmart of Death (I hate Walmart) since we are COMPLETELY out of milk. At the Walmart of Death I let the kids pick up a chocolate milk if they agreed to behave at our third and final stop, Jiffy Lube. I let them carry the chocolate milk bottles throughout the store and finally opened them once we got into the van and everybody was buckled in. We were just pulling out of the parking lot when Austen took a closer look at his chocolate milk bottle and noticed that there was a cow on it. "MOM!" he exclaimed, "did you know that chocolate milk is made out of cow...nectar!?"

Rewind two or three days:

Austen: "why are there bees on your flowers?"
Me: "bees fly from flower to flower to spread pollen and to gather nectar"
Austen: "what is nectar?"
Me: "nectar is what honey is made out of, it is sweet"

Makes so much more sense when you know that, does it not? Shortly after his remark about "cow... nectar," he realized what he meant and corrected it to "cow milk, chocolate milk is made out of cow milk, but with sugar, it is made out of chocolate candy and you break it up and put it in milk and it has sugar like candy and it tastes good" (Austen is the reigning ruler of the run-on sentence, as you can see)

Loving to watch him figure the stuff out,
Austen's Mom

My Children are Traitors

I made liver and onions for dinner last night. For Tyson. Expecting that only Tyson would eat it. I knew I wouldn't. Seriously, it was disgusting. Stunk the dump up! Guess what? Tyson wasn't the only one who ate it. Who else, you may ask. Austen. Okay, so maybe it was just another stop on his "I am going to eat what they give me when I am told it will make me stronger" trip. But there is no excuse, NO EXCUSE, for Aaron. Aaron ate liver. With gusto. Disgusting. Little traitors. At least there's still Henry.

I hate potty training and I particularly hate potty training Henry

I have to admit, though, he is doing alright. He is, however, tired of not wearing clothes I think. He has been wearing underwear only. So today he decided to get dressed for the first time in 3 days. He selected first a pair of shoes, then socks. I put them on and I confess to being a little nervous about how easy it will be to change underwear 30 times on a 2-year-old with giant Thomas tennies. With Henry you have to pick your battles, so I put them on. Next he selected a basketball jersey. So far so good. I waited for him to select some pants or shorts and for the battle to begin. I definitely did not want him to be wearing pants. For some uncanny reason, he did not. Perhaps he has become accustomed to not wearing pants. Good for today... not so much down the road. Anyway, here for your viewing pleasure is a photo of Henry's garb.

Duck Duck Juice

Have you ever watched a 2 man game of Duck Duck Goose? It goes a little something like this:
Austen: "Hey Henner, want to play Duck Duck Goose?"
Henry "Oh! Duck Duck Juice, I do. I do. Where's my water?"
Now one boy sits on the floor (in this case Henry) while the other (Austen) pats him on the head several times saying "duck... duck... duck... duck... goose!" At this point Henry leaps up and proceeds to run around in a circle "chasing" Austen, all the while shouting "I'm running! I'm running!!" When there are only 2 players this looks a lot like 2 boys running around in a circle. After many times around, the chaser becomes the chasee by pretending to get caught. Now it is Henry's turn to "pick" the goose:
Henry: (patting Austen on the head) "My turn. My turn. Duck... duck... duck... duck... duck... duck... JUICE!!!"
Now shreiking and running in circles ensues. It truly is a sight to behold.

Ice Cream Truck

I have always wanted to get my kids an ice cream from the ice cream truck. I only remember doing this as a child a couple times but those memories were so special that I wanted them to have the same experience.







When we heard the ice cream truck drive by, we all ran out onto the yard and waved him down. Inside the truck was a big giant man with a scary accent that I cannot identify. Austen was not intimidated. He told the ice cream man all about his new swimming pool, his Transformer bed, and how much he liked ice cream. Then he picked a fudge bar. Just like that, "I want that chocolate one".

Henry was so scared of the ice cream man that he would not make eye contact- with the man or with me. When I asked him what kind of ice cream he wanted, he turned his head and refused to speak. I asked Austen what kind Henry wanted. He of course, picked the same thing he had gotten. This did not stop them from arguing the whole time they ate the ice creams about who's was bigger even though they were the exact same thing.