Hummus Among Us

The word hummus sounds gross. And when I first tried it, back in 2006, I thought it tasted gross too. Seems like it would always show up at book club and I was like, “Hummus? Ewww…”

 

But then a month ago I tried it again. And again and again and again and now I’m like a hummus freak! I’ve had hummus every day since that second taste. Hi, my name is Elsa and I am a hummusaholic! And I didn’t just stop with classic hummus. I had roasted red pepper hummus, garlic hummus and edamame hummus (which basically tastes like guacamole).

 

It’s kinda like a cheese spread but it’s GOOD FOR YOU! It’s made of chickpeas (who knew those were good?) which are high in fiber. Hummus also has olive oil and we all know that olive oil is good whether you eat it or rub it all over your body. (Hmmm, a hummus body wrap, perhaps?)

 

Not only have I been dipping everything from crackers to Cheese-Its to bread in my hummus but put hummus on things like turkey wraps and hamburgers. Yes, a hummus hamburger!

Anyway, I just want to say sorry to hummus for misjudging it. I was wrong. So wrong. And now, all I can say is, "Thank you for taking me back, hummus!”

I may need an intervention…

Bend it Like Leo

I guess all that World Cup hype got to Leo because he is ready to play soccer. I mean, just look at him:

 

He’s got the soccer ball, the water bottle (with soccer and other balls on it), soccer balls on his socks and a sweat band. (Okay, it’s really Granny Jo’s headband which he insists on wearing but we’ll tell Daddy it’s a soccer sweat band).

 

 

 

Action shot! 

 

Playing soccer with Granny Jo:

 

I just hope he doesn’t marry a Spice Girl.

Haircut + Hysterical Laughing

 

These two events having nothing to do with each other. However, I wanted to show you some cute pictures of Leo with his new haircut (his third!) and a video of John and Leo laughing when they were in Columbus at John’s Grandparents’ house last weekend. Oh, and anytime I can use alliteration in the title, I figure it works.

 

 

   

 

Cell phones: convenient or catastrophe?

 

Cell phones are supposed to make our lives easier, even safer. But I believe they are making our lives more complicated. I first thought this on the eve of the 21st century, when I was at a little party called A2K—Austin’s New Year’s Eve block party. We spent the whole evening calling people on cell phones, trying to meet up. Maybe if we had gotten off the phone and looked around, we would have seen that the people we really wanted to see were right there (and that whole Y2K thing turned out to be no biggie).

It’s funny that I noticed this on New Year’s Eve because I think this whole dependence on cell phones really started 1/1/00.Ever since then we’ve been attached at the ear. It’s getting OOC. (And I’m not saying I’m innocent.)

Rather than ramble on about the whole thing, I’ll illustrate my point with a little exchange between two fictional friends named Ann and Fran.

 

Here is how Ann and Fran met up for lunch in 1994:

Fran: Hey, you want to go to lunch?

Ann: Sure. How’s Wednesday?

Fran:“Okay, see you there at 12.

(Wednesday, 12:00)

Fran: Hi, good to see you.

Ann: Thanks for inviting me. Let’s eat.

 

And here is how Ann and Fran meet up for lunch in 2010: 

Ann: “Hey, you want to go to lunch?”

Fran: “Sure. How’s Wednesday?”

Ann: “Okay, see you there at 12.”

(Wednesday, 10:00am, text exchange)

Ann: Are we still on for lunch?

Fran: Yes.

Ann: Okay, see you there. Call me when you’re leaving.

(Wednesday, 11:30, phone exchange)

Fran: Hey, I’m going to leave in, like, five, minutes.

Ann: Okay, call me when you’re in the car.

(Wednesday, 11:45, phone exchange)

Fran: Hi, I’m in the car. I’m on the freeway. I’ll probably be there in 15 minutes.

Ann: Me too. Call me when you’re exiting.

(11:53, phone exchange)

Fran: I took the wrong exit so I’m going to be about three minutes late. Sorry.

Ann: That’s okay. Call me when you’re, like, four minutes away.

Fran: Where are you?

Ann: I just exited.

Fran: Okay, you call me when you’re at the light in front of the restaurant.

Ann: The light on Mills Rd?

Fran: No, the light on Hills Rd.

Ann: Oh, I’m there right now.

Fran: Okay, then call me when you’re at Mills Rd.

(11:55)

Ann: I’m at Mills Rd.

Fran: I’m at Hills Rd.

Ann: I’ll call you when I’m in the parking lot.

(11:59)

Ann: I’m in the parking lot. Where are you?

Fran: I’m in the restaurant.

Ann: How did you beat me?

Fran: I don’t know but I’m at a booth in the back.

Ann: Okay, I’ll call you when I’m walking in.

(12:01)

Ann: I’m walking in. I don’t see you.

Fran: I’m way in the back. I’m wearing a red shirt.

Ann: OMG. I’m wearing a red shirt too!

Fran: I think I see you. I’m waving. Do you see me waving?

Ann: No.

Fran: Oh, I’m waving at the wrong person.

Ann: I see you! You’re on the phone!

Fran: Yes, I see you too! You’re on the phone!

Ann: I guess I’ll hang up.

Fran: Well, wait until you’re sitting down just to be sure.

Ann: Okay, I’m here now. You’re right in front of me. I’m going to hang up.

Fran: Hi, good to see you.

Ann: Thanks for inviting me. Let’s eat.

Leo says the darndest things

 

This morning I was changing Leo’s diaper and he was holding two of his trains—Percy and Christmas Percy. He was just chatting away and he said, “Percy and Christmas Percy get diaper changed. No. They don’t put diapers on the wheels. They get peed on.”

 

Another one from this morning:

Me: Leo, did you watch soccer yesterday?

Leo: YES!

Me: Who won?

Leo: I don’t know. (He says this all the time; it’s sometimes preceded by “I say…”)

Me: Was it the Netherlands?

Leo: Noooo

Me: Was it Spain?

Leo: Yes. Spain won, Mommy. Who won the basketball game? The circus!

Me: The circus? Who did the circus play? The zoo?

Leo: Noooo. The Lakers! 

Me: Oh, you meant the Celtics!

Leo: The Celtics.

Me: Who won that basketball game?

Leo: I don’t know.

Me: Yes, you do. Who won? The Celtics or the Lakers?

Leo: The Lakers!!

 

From a few weeks ago:

Me: “Where is Christmas Percy?”

Leo: “Maybe ask Percy!”

(I love how that not only makes sense but that he uses the word ‘maybe.’)

 

If we’re at a store and he wants to leave, he says, “I don’t like this store!” We were at HomeGoods and he said that. I said, “Really? Because I was just thinking that I like this store a lot!” When we got up to checkout, he stood on his tippy toes and got his chin right up to the counter so he could tell the lady, “I don’t like this store!”

In fact, he says he doesn’t like a lot of things:

“I don’t like the sun.”

“I don’t like Rah Rah’s show.” (The news)

“I don’t like Mac N Cheese.” (A lie.)

“It’s no big deal” is what he says when things go wrong: trains fall off tracks, he misses a basketball shot, etc. But he says it as he’s screaming or crying, “IT’S NO BIG DEAL!” (hence making it a really big deal).

 

Last night I said, “How is your ice cream?” He said, “It’s good. It’s cold.”

 

 

He likes to tell  us what to say:

Leo: Mommy say who says choo choo

Me: Who says choo choo?

Leo: Thomas!

 

He’s also into that stage where he wants us to “watch” everything he does.

“Watch this!” he says. And when we say, “Okay, we’re watching,” he does some crazy little dance. This weekend in the pool he said, “Watch this” and he would jump off a step. I guess after the 100th time I forgot to praise him so he said, “Mommy say ‘Good job doing that!’”

 

I should point out that he doesn’t say all these things totally clearly but we can understand 95% of what he says. But   here’s something I don’t understand at all: “Tee tee tot. Alsa Fwank.” And then he laughs hysterically. We now get that “Alsa Fwank” is “Elsa Frank” but we don’t know why he says “Tee tee tot” before it.

 

He LOVES to pretend, especially with his Little People. He puts them on the school bus and says they’re going to various places like Babies R Us (which is a rug in our kitchen). They’re always buying a football there. This morning he was pretending that he was giving Ernie (from Sesame Street) a ticket to get on a train. He makes up this whole story and dances around, saying, “Here is your ticket, Ernie!” Oh, and Ernie is his own shadow. He also loves his shadow and yesterday, tried to hug it. Right now he’s skipping around singing, “Go see my shadow!” And now, “Look at my shadow! Look, the shadow’s clapping.”

 

Here are a couple of videos of him playing with his shadow:

The Couple That Runs Together…

Frank and I ran our first race together back in 2001. It was called “Cupid’s Chase” and it was Valentine’s Weekend in Dallas. At the end of the 5K, they combine your totals. I think we placed like third in our age group. I also think there were only four couples in our age group.

But look, we won medals and everything!

After the above picture was taken we took another one where we posed like runners, ready to start a race.

 

 

 

We waited nine years to do our second run together (this time a 10K) and thought it would be cute if we did that same pose again:

 

This blog would be so much cuter if I could actually find that original picture where we are posed like runners. But alas, I put it in my picture shower curtain and when I threw that out, I think the picture (which was probably mildewed) went out too. (I miss that picture shower curtain.)

So anyway, we may only run together every nine years (and actually, neither time did we actually run together) but we have fun when we do it.

We better start training for our race in 2019!

Heat Wave

This hot weather can’t slow Leo down. This past week he played all kinds of sports with Grandpa Ron, got patriotic, chased his friends, hugged John some more, splashed around in the sprayground, enjoyed lollipops with Aiden and finally--when it got really hot--took off al his clothes and lounged around on the couch in front of the TV.  

 

Aggressively Affectionate

Leo likes to hug. A lot. And sometimes he hugs his friends so hard that they both fall over, bump their heads and scream. The other day he was hugging John so roughly that I had to put him in a time-out. “A time-out for hugging?” Frank asked. Hey, it’s better than a law suit!

I’ve labeled this behavior “aggressively affectionate.” Now we are working on learning the difference between “hugging rough” and “hugging gently.”

Before this video was taken, Leo had hugged John to the floor. Then, after I pulled him off of John, he came running at him for more:

 

 

This video below doesn’t show any aggressive affection, just a couple of CRAZY two-year-olds!

Drawerganization!

 

If it’s weird for me to feel totally giddy every time I open my kitchen drawers…

 

…and see my new, awesome drawer organizers from The Container Store,

then I don’t want to be normal!