Basagna

That's what Ellie had for lunch yesterday. She also still says "popstickle," "bistickle," "aminals," and "ife."

Walker: Mommy, is Ohio in the middle?
Carla: Umm, yeah, it's pretty close to being in the middle.
Walker: So . . . it's on the Equarium?
Carla: You mean the Equator? No, Ohio's in the middle of America and the Equator's in the middle of the world.
Walker: So the top of America is cold and the bottom of America is hot and the middle is like Ohio, right?

Ellie walked into the bathroom and grabbed some makeup out of Carla's drawer.
Kurt: Ellie, why do you have makeup?
Ellie: Because I'm so beautiful.
Then she took the powder thing out and smeared it ear to ear, right across her mouth.

Falling rocks and dripping noses

A week or two ago, as soon as I walked in the door after work . . .
Walker: Daddy, there's some sad news about Utah.
Me: What?
Walker: You know that rock that looks like a fish whale? It fell down and split in half.
(http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/10/arch.collapse.ap/index.html)

Ellie's been struggling with allergies or something lately and she's been really stuffy so we haven't been giving her much milk.
Me, after she asked for some: No, milk makes your nose runny.
Ellie: Why does apple juice don't?

And then there's Walker again, who's also had allergies: I don't like Zyrtec. Can you buy the other purple medicine from Walmart?
Carla: No. Dr. Motz said Zyrtec.
Walker: How about that one that sounds like "tin" or "tic"?
Carla: Claritin?
Walker: Yeah. Can you talk to me about Claritin?

And finally, Walker, after watching a commercial on TV: How crazy is this? Something is 7 bucks for kids and 12 bucks for grownups. What's a buck?
Carla: A dollar.
Walker: Oh, so kids are on sale.

Also, I've finally fulfilled my life long dream of batting against a major league pitcher (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8331). Well, sort of. I batted against him in 1999 in a high school game and he didn't throw in the Majors till this year but I still think that makes me a little famous. I'm sure he's telling all his buddies out in the bullpen about how he once pitched to me . . . and about how he was first team all NBC as a sophomore. By the way, I popped out to the third baseman to end the inning but that still means I'm a better matchup to him than Rich Aurillia. And at least he didn't strike me out, Barry Zito.

Told you there'd be lots of pictures

Anderson's first solid food

Us leaving for our trip to the zoo and children's museum.

Walker in the climbing wall. That thing was pretty cool, like a vertical maze.

Ellie in the water works area.

More climbing. I put the camera on the ground to take this one of Ellie. She was about 2 feet in the air.

Fun in a Mini.

A couple pics from the zoo.


And here's us on the way home.

Anderson eating his first piece of toast.

Our trip to the Indians game.

Walker was excited.

Ellie was too . . .

At first . . .

Then not so much.




A couple cool shots of the current Cy Young favorite.

Then we went to an Aeros game. Ellie did much better at this one.

80's Glam Ellie? I really don't know what's going on here.

And the rest are all Anderson being cute.

There can be miracles

I tried all week to get a chance to post pics but it didn't happen. Here's a couple sayings to get us through the weekend, then pics next week. Lots. I promise.

Carla and Ellie playing grocery store:
Carla: How much does this cost?
Ellie: Umm, three much.
That's one more than too much, I guess.

Walker and I played us a mean game of baseball the other day. Afterwords . . .
Walker: Daddy, my team's name is the Utah Fireworks.
Kurt: Oh, OK, then I'm the San Diego Destroyers.
W: Where's San Diego?
K: In California
W: Hey! That means we're close to each other.
K (amazed at my 4 yr old's geographical aptitude): Wow, yeah, you're right.
W: If Nevada wasn't in the states, we'd be beside each other.

Walker: Daddy, it's a miracle when Anderson eats or drinks his milk or whatever you call it and when he sleeps.
Kurt, finally thinking I'm going to be able to teach my son something: Well, it's not really a miracle when he eats or sleeps because a miracle is something we can't do by ourselves, only with God's help.
Walker: No, it's a miracle when he eats and sleeps.
Kurt: Oh, yeah, I guess so, because that's something we can't do but God helps babies do it.
Walker: Yeah, because we drink from a cup and Anderson drinks from Mommy's belly things.

Stop me if you've heard this one . . .

Because I can't remember if I posted this before. I just found it written on a sheet of paper while I was cleaning out a junk drawer. Ellie was on the back porch playing and she pointed toward the propane tank on the grill.
Ellie: Daddy, what's the black fing and that white fing?
Kurt: Where?
Ellie: On that fire fing that you cook supper on.

In more recent news . . . I was getting Ellie ready for church on Sunday morning (after Carla bailed on me to go for a stroll with her friends and enjoy some hall of fame festivities). I put on her dress and she looked at me and said, "Where's my pantie toes?"

Walker, after some deep thinking in the car: Who's bigger than who: The Incredible Hulk or Jesus?

Oh, also, last Sunday (the Sunday before I was abandoned by my wife and left alone to prepare 3 kids, 1 pot of coffee, 1 snack of raisin cookies, and 1 4-5K Sunday school lesson for church - and I got them all there in one piece and on time, thank you) I took Walker to the Streets' lake house at Mohawk to hang out with the youth group. He and Micah and Addie and a bunch of youth were all sort of wrestling around in Cory's room and, you know how when Walker gets excited and competitive he says things like "OH, YEAH, BABY!"? Well, that doesn't translate so well into a bedroom. He said to one of the youth girls: "Oh, Yeah! Get up on the bed with me, baby!"

A couple Biblical truths from Ellie

Walker got in trouble yesterday for pushing Anderson. I told him he was making bad choices and I wasn't happy with him.
Ellie to Walker, in her motherly tone: That means God doesn't love you!

Later, she was looking at Walker's train table which has a lake and an ocean on it. "This is the ocean and this is the Red Sea. And God's people can open it up and they can be safe. And the mean guys can't be safe. And the mean guys don't like God or Jesus."

Man Work

Walker: Dad, can we change the oil in the Jeep today?
Me: No, it doesn't need changed but you can help me rotate the tires on the Durango.
Walker: Okay!
Ellie: Can I help?
Walker: No, Ellie. This is man work. It's too dirty for you. You have to stay inside and clean the house.

By the way, contrary to the rumors that have recently been circulating, the Jeep is alive and well. It hit a rough patch when the gear box went out but Brad and I revived it and it made a full recovery. However, I do owe Brad a new workbench, vice, and 2 new 1/2" ratchet extensions that I snapped while I was torquing on the new Pitman arm nut. Oh well, the Jeep's running like it used to again and, who knows? 250,000 miles is right around the corner . . .

In other news, Walker tied his shoes all by himself for the first time today, the right way and everything. He was apparently super excited because we had told him that if he practiced enough he might be able to do in a few months. Along with lots of hugs and giggles, he said, "See, Mom? I didn't have to wait till the end of summer!"

Ellie's been really into cooking at her kitchen lately. She runs over and says, "I'm Rachel Ray," then proceeds to cook all kinds of weird food. The other day, she brought me an orange cheer leading pom pom in a mixing bowl.
Me: What did you make today, Ellie?
Ellie: Chocolate Spaghetti Brownies.

And Anderson . . . Well, he's been scooting all over the place and he finally learned how to feed himself his puffs yesterday.
1. Grab puff in fist
2. Put whole fist in mouth
3. Wait for puff to dissolve
4. Remove fist from mouth
5. Repeat until gone, then do the hungry, wheezy laugh that means 'More please'.