March of the Penguin

We got tickets to the Lions Club Pancake Breakfast this morning. Each kid gets a raffle ticket and every now and then someone reads off ticket numbers. When your number is called, you can go up to the stage and choose a stuffed animal. Adin chose a patchwork elephant, Erik chose a penguin. He named his penguin "Penguinologist", but told me I could call him Penguin for short. He has been talking to his penguin and showing him around the house. We all went downstairs and Erik asked if Penguinologist could watch a show on the computer. Joe found "March of the Penguins". Once it started showing the landscape, Penguin said it looked like home. Then the penguins appeared. Erik started gently sobbing because Penguin missed his home and friends. Joe has offered to turn it off but Erik says it's more fun than sad. I suggested Penguin was excited to take this trip to Minnesota, but Erik says he still misses his home and friends. He's been crying for 5 or 10 minutes. Part of me thinks it's very sweet, part of me thinks it's hilarious.

Wheels

A couple weeks ago, Erik was riding his trike to the park and calling out, "look out, squirrels, here comes Trike." On Thursday our generous neighbors gave us their younger son's outgrown little bike w/training wheels. Erik is in heaven. He bikes to parks that are a half mile away! Today we were leaving a park and he started off down a gentle hill yelling, "look out, here comes Super Boy"!

Adin

I bought a container of cherry tomatoes last night, to use for beef and veggie kabobs. Adin was a big fan of the grape tomatoes from the garden last summer so I had high hopes. While he was waiting for dinner, he asked for an apple, which I gave him. Then he asked for grapes. I said, "no, but you can have tomatoes." So he said, "Want 'matoes, mama, in my mouth." He's been requesting food that way for a couple weeks. "Want ... in my mouth." It's so funny. I have no idea where he picked up that phrase. He ate lots of tomatoes, by the way, also the sweet peppers on the kabobs. He did not like the onion, though.