Nuts!

   Yesterday, we took our dog, Charlie, to get neutered.  Poor guy!  We were all feeling sorry for him, and talking about him at dinner.
   I was not all that hungry, so I just had a small bowl of pistachios while the rest of the family was eating lasagna.  Sebastian demanded to have some of my pistachios.  Then Annie begged for some of my pistachios.  Then Leigh found the whole bag and plopped it on the dinner table.  The family was cracking away at the pistachios as we talked.
    Sebastian started to cry, and he showed me has fingernail which broke (probably due to opening the pistachios).  Clare got her fingernail clippers and brought them to us.  I cut Sebastian's hanging fingernail. Then, while I was at it, I cut all his nails.
   Our family continued to eat and talk, and I was in the middle of a big story when the kids pointed at Sebastian.  I stopped, looked at him, and he was trying to clip the pistachios with the fingernail clippers.
   Ron said, "Don't clip your nuts!  Only Charlie is getting his nuts clipped today!" We laughed till we cried.  A nice way to end the day (unless you're Charlie).

Humorous Highpoint

The girls and I held a dramatic ceremony for the throwing away of our old sponges!  (How bad can sponges get?  Just as US!)

We clapped and cheered that new ones have finally been "installed"!

Ah, now back to the dishes :(

Potty Training in Style!

All the trips to the potty over the past month. . . so exhausting, so NOT WHAT I WANT TO BE DOING. . . 

And then, he got all dressed up with his backpack: I could finally laugh and enjoy it!

Clare's Funniest Line of the Day

     At the dinner table, Clare was telling us about a picture of a woman who had been stung by a bee and had an allergic reaction.  Clare described the woman: "She was past the point of obese-ness!"
    We all got a good laugh.

"How was your casa?"

    Sebastian just began a Montessori program.  They call it "the casa."  Sebastian has needed phasing in, but he now really loves it.  The first day was 30 minutes, the second day, an hour, and so forth.  This week, he has had three days of the full day, which is 8-11:45am.
    The first morning, he asked, "Mommy, where did you go?"  I said, "I took a walk down the street and back."
     "Oh," he replied.  
     The second day, he asked, "Mommy, where did you go this time?"  "To Mass," I replied.
     "Hmm," he said.
     The third day, he asked again, "Mommy, where did you go today?"  I said, "To work."
     He said, "What is your work?"
     I said, "I am a teacher."
     "Like Ms. Polly [one of his Montessori teachers]?"
     "Sort of," I replied.
     "Hmm," he said again.
     Today, he asked, "Mommy, how was YOUR casa?"    

"Aqua On-ay"

    One of the funniest stunts Ron played on our kids was a few years ago at a restaurant called Da Agnese, a restaurant we went to last night.  It is a fabulous little taverna on Lake Albano near Rome, with the best porchetta in town.  To get to the bathroom, you have to exit the restaurant, walk along the sidewalk to the back of the restaurant, and then enter through a door marked "Toilette."
     There is a sink, and the way to turn the water on is by stepping on a peddle under the sink.  Well, our kids tried to wash their hands, but could find no knobs.  They got their dad to go with them and help determine how to turn the water on.  He figured it out but did not tell them.  He discreetly put his foot on the peddle, then said, "It's voice activated.  Watch this."  And he said in fake Italian, "Aqua On-ay!"  He used the english word "On" and then added "-Ay" since half of all Italian words ends in that sound.
     Then, when he said the magic words, he pressed the peddle, and the water came on.  The kids shrieked, and then tried it themselves.  "Aqua On-ay," they shouted to the sink.  But nothing happened.  He had them going for quite a while!
     Whenever we go to this happy little eatery, we laugh and cannot help but repeat the story.  

A 2 year old's Hail Mary

   As I drive my 2 year old around town with the other kids are in school, I often pray the Rosary aloud.  Recently, little Sebastian has started shouting, "My turn!"  So I'd let him give the Hail Mary a try.  But he would be silent.  So I'd pick back up.  But again, he would shout, "My turn!"  I was confused.
   Finally, I decided to stay silent while it was "his turn."  I'd say it in my mind.  Sure enough, Sebastian would be silent until, in perfect timing as though he had said the whole thing out loud, he'd say, "Fruit. . .  .Womb, JESUS!"
    These are his three words!  He must say the rest of it in his mind, because he says these words just when an adult would say them.  
    So, Sebastian "says" the first half of the Hail Mary, and I say the second.  We pray whole decades this way, driving around town!