Cooking Gets Ugly
Today the boys helped me make stuffed chicken, twice-baked potatoes and a Missouri Scripture cake. The only REALLY ugly part of the afternoon was when Ror tried to taste some baking powder. ICK. First I asked them to scrub the potatoes before we cooked them. Then we had to go change their outfits because they were soaked from head to toe-- they somehow discovered while washing the potatoes that Riley Kate would laugh till she gagged if they put wet sponges on their heads. After we cleaned up from the first attempt at helping, I told them to put the bread cubes into a bowl as I was slicing them off of the loaf of bread. Ror was putting one in the bowl, then one in his mouth, alternating. We've got a household of ten and I only had one loaf of stale bread to make the stuffing with, so I admonished him, at which time he grabbed the entire loaf and went running through the house. I was saying, "Rory Kelly, give me that loaf of bread. You need to go sit in thinking time and think about doing better listening." He yelled, "No WAY!" and Connor shook his head sadly and said in a knowing tone, "Oh Mommy. He's not going to listen to you. You need to SCARE him." "How should I scare him?" "Like this: 'RORY KELLY ELIO! GET IN THERE AND SIT IN THINKING TIME!" Ror answered, "I'll GO sit! But I'm eating this bread!" He's usually so compliant!
At the gym today, Riley Kate wowed the crowd, and Mom and Dad too. We go to a gym that's crazy expensive, but worth it because it has what Connor and Ror call "the playplace," a room with toys and a nice teacher to watch them while Mom and Dad work out. Connor and Rory are now more enthusiastic about Chris's and my cardiovascular health than we are. Every time we turn around, it's, "Hey, don't you need to go to the gym?" So anyway, after we had worked out (okay, after Chris had worked out and I had limply walked on the treadmill at a snail's pace while whining to him--he was on the next treadmill-- that pregnancy really IS going to kill me), we picked the kids up from the play room, and Riley Kate walked out primly while I held her hand, then in the lobby she turned to the desk receptionists and a few other people who were standing there and said, "I gotta go. Bye-bye!" And the desk girl said, "You gotta go?" And she said, "Yes. Bye-bye." All of the people looked really amazed (doubly so, I guess, since she looks like she's eight months old) and the girl said, "Wow, she can have a conversation?" And I just said, "Uh, I guess so..." She normally says Bye-bye, but she had never announced that she "gotta go" before! Then as we were walking out, I was really flipping out, saying, "You are SUCH a BIG GIRL! I'm so PROUD of you!" And she just kept laughing hysterically like I was nuts. Kids-- they always keep you guessing!
Baby Girl Elio is kicking up a storm and making Mommy quite breathless in the heat. TP Tuesday (every Tuesday I measure my tummy in toilet paper squares) revealed that I haven't gained any squares this week, but I FEEL alot bigger. No weight gain this week, either, but the baby is DEFINITELY growing in there, or else her leg muscles are just getting mighty strong-- I can even see some kicks on the outside occasionally. She's jumping around in there right now, as a matter of fact. This is the first of all my babies that I'm predicting will come BEFORE the due date. As long as she's here within two weeks after the due date, we'll be totally satisfied with our darling little tax deduction. :)
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