Interesting Meeting You Here, Santa

Jedd's been dying to go see the newly opened Bass Pro in Altoona. Truly.

He finally wore me down enough, so last night we drove over for a look-see and dinner (Yes, Victoria, there is a restaurant at Bass Pro).

It just so happened that Old St. Nick had also planned to be at the Great Outdoor World that evening, and his Wonderland was all set up... complete with fake snow, fake elves and fake reindeer. How could we resist?

Just look at Quincy's face... I imagine him thinking, "Seriously, Mom? Bass Pro? This is your idea of meeting Santa?"

Quote of the Weekend

Quote of the Weekend is a weekly feature of Kelly's Des Moines Register blog.

Much like his father, Jack is a sucker for any commercial over 30 seconds long. A blue Snuggie is the first thing on his Christmas list, and he begs me to buy a BumpIt almost every Saturday morning. He can't understand why I don't drink my pops with one of those screw tops or bake in a Brownie in Minutes pan.

This weekend, his obsession with infomercial products continued as some Tempur-Pedic ad came on during one his cartoons.

"Mommy, you should get that bed," he suggested.

"Buddy, why in the world would I want that bed? I love my bed," I said.

"Because if you put wine on it and then jump up and down, it won't spill."

Sold.

Halloween on Parade

At preschool, Jack and his classmates got to go on a parade through the school. Looks like he was in pretty good superhero company.

Superhero Halloween

The boys had a great time carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating as Wolverine and Flash.

Quincy was a little awestruck, I think, by this holiday whereby you could walk from house to house, get candy and then leave. He wanted to do it for the next several nights and is pretty bored in the evenings now.

Quote of the Weekend

Quote of the Weekend is a weekly feature of Kelly's Des Moines Register blog.

If I were to use my neighbor's front-door Christmas wreath as a guide, I probably wouldn't write this Halloween-themed Quote of the Weekend. But I'm gonna ignore the holiday decorations just for another day or so and take a chance that this might still be relevant.

As usual, we were riding in the car, headed south on Jordan Creek Parkway and listening to Hannah Montana rhyme 'stilettos' with 'memo,' when Jack said in a rather meek voice, "Mom, I know what salamis are."

Kind of a weird thing to say, right? So, I take a peek at his face in my rearview mirror and see that he has that guilty look -- the kind that usually accompanies curse-word experimentation.

So, my dirty mind assumes he has overhead the older boys using the classic phallic meat to reference their private parts, and I brace myself for his answer to my follow-up question.

"What are salamis, Jack?"

Sheepishly, he answers. "Dead people."

"Did you say 'dead people,'" I asked, pretty sure I had heard him right.

"Yea. Salamis are dead people."

I turned on my internal preschool-speak decoder -- the one that apparently only mothers and grandmothers have access to -- and asked, "Honey, do you mean 'zombies'?"

"Yes! That's what I mean. Zombies are dead people."

"Right. And salami is a tubular meat."

"Oh."

And with that, our conversation was concluded.

Happy Halloween!

Am I a big boy now?

Quincy's on a major "big boy" kick of late. He wants to do everything he possibly can by himself, which he demands by shouting "Only me!" at anyone who attempts to help him.

He no longer allows us to put his jammies on, take his shoes off or help him into the car. These are all things that, true, he is capable of doing. But OMG, he's slow. Patience is a virtue... and it's in short supply around here.

He's quite proud of himself when he's able to do something without a parent, and here he is after insisting I take a picture of him drinking like a big boy.

Brand-Name Cardboard

Nothing but the best for our kids when it comes to the boxes they turn into boats, treehouses and apartments. Jack and Quincy have been enjoying playtime, snacktime... and even naptime... in their box house ever since the entryway was installed.

At Long, Long Last!

If you've been following my SmartyPig drama, you'll know how long and through how much drama I've been waiting for this...

My Pottery Barn shelf and bench finally arrived, and with a little help from my handy hubby, it's now installed.

Here's the before shot...


And, drumroll please, the after...


Now, of course, I have some decorating to do... like a cushion, some pillows, a few baskets, etc., but I'm just so happy to have this in my house and up that I couldn't possibly wait another minute before posting!

Quote of the Weekend

Quote of the Weekend is a weekly feature of Kelly's Des Moines Register blog.

Jack used to have this little T-shirt with a ukulele on it. It read "Aloha Jack's," and it was a sort of faux vintage surf shop T-shirt. Because it was one of my favorites, it became one of Jack's.

The problem now is that the T-shirt, a size 3T, belongs to Quincy.

My husband, who isn't privy to the tension this shirt causes between our two boys, made the mistake of dressing Quincy in "Jack's" shirt this morning.

Jack handled himself well, for the most part. This is how the conversation about the shirt went:

"Quincy, that's my shirt, you know," said Jack, while pulling on his socks.

"No!" hollered Quincy (pretty much his response to anything Jack... or I... or his dad... have to say these days.)

"Yes, it is," Jack pushed.

"No!" came the response again.

"Guys, cool it," I said. "Jack, you know that shirt used to be yours and now it's Quincy's."

"Yea," he said, as if I had said something specifically to bolster his argument. "That shirt was mine, and now it's yours."

"No!" screamed a now very frustrated little Quincy.

Jack just shook his head and said, "Quincy, you just don't know the ways of the world."

Road Trip!

After Jedd got home from watching today's historic ISU win against Nebraska (they haven't won at Nebraska since the day after Jedd was born -- Oct. 15, 1977), he was riding too high to just sit around and watch TV.

His solution was to take the boys up to Ames to greet the team upon their return from Lincoln.

Mommy got to stay home (still not sure how I managed that one), and the three of them celebrated with the rest of the crazies in a tent for a while, then in the Bergstrom indoor practice facility.



Jack got to shake hands with Coach Rhoads, who complemented his hat (an Iowa State Fair impulse buy), and Jedd got to meet the family of his favorite player, Jesse Smith. Quincy got to play a little football...


I almost wish I had been there. And then I see this...