Still, All About The Wasabi .

I tell you, my kids have the strangest obsession with wasabi.
Yet they refuse to taste it.

Son, being a picky eater, is the Pepperoni Pizza King of the Nuthouse. We use this to our advantage on busy nights.
Because he does complain about what the meal plans are almost nightly, we pick on him a bit. If he asks what it will be, we usually say something we know he won't like. Its almost a game, because it's done so much.

This time, he asked what was for dinner.
I said, a big ol' bowl of WASABI sounds great ! maybe with some rice.

"uuugh ! no mama. not wasabi for dinner.. i know ! ! lets get pizza ! "

"oooh ! Great idea pal!! Wasabi pizza! YEAH ! "

The look on his face was priceless.

So, I kept going. " oh wow, that sound awsome ! I can't wait ! we can call it Pazzabiii ! ! "

The boy looked horrified. I could see the wheels turning as he tried to think of a way to talk me out of getting wasabi pizza.

"Mom, you can't. they don't have wasabi at the pizza store" (then he looked at me, waiting for me to tell him they do, in fact ,carry wasabi)

aaaw shucks.

now its not called pizza anymore at the Nuthouse.

its officially pazzabi.

Don't Blink !

Daughter has been reaching out to gain some "maturity". she wants more responsibilities, and we've been trying to keep up with her!
She's been doing laundry, vacuming, dishes, helping her brother with his room, dealing with her own room better, and she helps with dinner..

The 'maturity' is kicking in. As her Mama, its great to see her growing up, and doing a good job of it too. at the same time, it happens too fast.

As we were waiting for Son before leaving for school, I sat with Daughter a bit, just looking at her, enjoying her presence. I kissed the top of her head and told her " you're growing so fast now"

"yup."

"well, I think you should stop. If I blink, you'll be graduating high school. If I blink again, you'll be done with college! oh my, If I keep blinking all of a sudden you'll have a family of your own! .....
That's IT ! I'm never ,ever , ever going to blink again ! " I opened my eyes really wide and stared at her closely.

Daughter looked up at me, very calm, mildly amused by my little outburst.

"Mama, you go ahead and blink all you want, because I'll grow up anyway."

we've had other similar chats , me telling her i was going to "take the batteries out of all of the clocks, and never get new calendars ,so we would all stay the same age". . . that one didn't go well for me either, and I won't detail the riot when I announced "no more birthdays". . . but i'm not done trying !

Fish Are Fun

If you've read my blog before, you know we don't ever get "normal" fish. They may look normal, but they are part of the Nuthouse charm.

Son's tank once held 5 tetras, and 2 frogs. we lost a frog, and just recently 3 tetras. Time to restock.
I looked around at the fish stores, took the kids to pick out which they liked.
Son liked the really bright yellow and pink tetras. so, 2 yellow, and one pink.

we took them home and got them into the tank. Generally the bigger fish will go after the smaller ones- so we watched to make sure the 2 current fish didn't eat the new ones.

As it turned out, we discovered the smaller tetra was nibbling at the larger one's fins. When it wasn;t chasing that one, it went after the smallest of the new fish.

no! no ! no ! naughty fish!

A while back I had purchased a seperation 'pen' for the tank. its a net that hangs inside the tank, to quarantine or breed fish in.

We put the naughty little tetra in time out.

Getting Older

It happens every year.
There is no escape.
You can ignore it, but it doesn't go away.
It gets bigger every year.

Birthdays.

I had one recently, and was in a " i'm old" / "no big deal" , mindset. I did't want it to be a big deal this year, but having children also makes that close to impossible.
I will say, they made it more enjoyable though!

I did a bit of teasing,walking though the house bent over, limping, and "forgetful".

"ooh whats wrong with meee? ? I feel sooo OLD!"

Mommy ! you're not old, its just your birthday !

" of course I'm old ! look at me ! I'm always limping a little ! "

Mommy, thats only because your bad legs!

"what about my teeth? pretty soon I'll need false teeth too ! "

thats OK though Mom, you'll feel better then !

oh yea. my kids have all the answers. so i tried one more to convince them that Mommy was old.

" What about all my gray hairs ? "

I wait for the wise replies, and get blank looks and complete silence. after a few moments, Daughter softly says :

"I'll help you color it Mama. then no one will see it ,and won't think you're old."


Later, I was teasing at Son a bit. " oh I'm sooo OLD"
"no Mama, you're young."
I ask " but I am old, with all my gray hairs ! remember?"
he thinks for a minute.
"Then you're not young. . . but you're not old either Mama."
hmm.
"really?? well, them if i'm not young, OR old, what AM I?"

"you're love, Mama"

I think i can certainly live with that.

A Tribute

9/22/10 - we lost one of our Nuthouse residents.

Long story short, our dog, Huey, was hit by a truck and killed.
(there have been amusing notes, but out of respect for Daughter, we won't go there)

This has been a rough adjustment for us, Daughter has been devastated. I can't even begin to tell you how much she loved that crazy mutt.

It's been difficult to come into the house without welcome 'songs'. While cleaning, I constantly keep finding tied up socks or chew ropes- stashed safely away under beds, or behind shoebins. There seems to be a void floating through the house.

We had brought Huey home, not long after my own dog passed. He was a great comfort to us all, and Daughter's best pal. The children are asking for another dog.

We've decided to wait for a while before adopting another, so we can fence in a yard ,and be sure we have all we need to keep it safer. (and we have a few vacations planned, somewhat easier to do without finding a dogsitter)

We miss Huey, and he won't be soon forgotten.