The Next Food Network Star

Claire LOVES the Food Network.

She knows all the stars and asks to watch their shows - especially Giada De Laurentiis in Everyday Italian. She'll play in the bathtub with bowls and measuing cups like she is adding ingredients and making some sort of dish - and explains everything as she goes. The other night at dinner (Dave was working late, so we were having a very easy baked potato bar) she was thanking me for making dinner and in a very Giada-like fashion (hand gestures and all) said, "mom, this is SO good. I can taste the potato and the sour cream AND the cheese and it is just sooo good."

I am so hoping that Claire will keep her love for all things in the kitchen. I would love to have one good cook in our family!

Our Garbage Man

Our Owen has two responses when we ask him what he wants to be when he grows up: one is a garbage man, the other a garbage truck.

He LOVES practicing dumping stuff from one thing into another or simply dumping stuff on the floor. The problem with this is that lately our toy room is NEVER clean because Owen loves to dump stuff out, but doesn't love to clean up afterwards. I've tried to tell him that the garbage man doesn't make a mess, he helps us by taking the trash away so we don't have such a mess, but he isn't grasping the concept. A few responses he has made when i've been frustrated with the mess he mas made have been: "but, I was making a mountain" or "but, I was being the garbage man". I wish you could see the innocent look on his face - I just can't stay mad.

Before bed on Sunday night, Owen dutifully helps Dave gather up and take out the trash and organize the recycling. His Monday mornings are spent patiently waiting at the front window for the garbage man and the recycle man to grace the curb in front of our house. One day Owen was standing in our front yard to get a closer look at the trash being lifted into the truck and the garbage man waved at him as he went by. Owen had the biggest smile on his face for the rest of the day.