fish sticks

This morning, Cole played in his room while I was preparing his lunch and getting ready for work. I heard lots of talking going on as he played with his friends.  Mostly, I heard singing.  Wonderful songs narrating what he was doing mixed in with words from Thomas' theme song, Twinkle Twinkle, and Hickory Dickory Dock.

Randomly, he'd yell from his room, "Mom, what are you doing?" "Making your lunch." "Oh, okay. Making my lunch."

Microwave beep.  "Mom, it's ready! Whatchoo makin'?" "Peas for your lunch." "Oh, okay. Peas."

Oven beep. "Mom, it's ready! Whatchoo makin'?" "Fish sticks." "Oh, fish sticks. I like fish sticks.  Can I eat them?"

Out from his room he emerges with Percy.  Turns out Percy is the one who wants to eat the fish sticks, not Cole. "Percy, you can have fish sticks for dinner.  These fish sticks are for Cole's lunch.  Okay?" "Okay."

Fortunately, Cole likes fish sticks too and he ate his lunch...except for the peas and, surprisingly, the cookie treat.

pepper tree

We love pepper trees.  When we began looking for trees to plant at our house, the pepper tree was the first one we added in our front yard.  I feel so "in the know" of trees whenever I spot one.  This is a tree we discovered along a street in San Juan Capistrano that had a hollowed out trunk.

Looking inside the trunk.

Here it looks like a shrub.

Someone's up to something.

cheetah

Whenever we go to the zoo, he always wants to see the cheetah.  Last weekend, he drew one -- a one-spotted cheetah.

{these moments}

{these moments} A Friday-ish ritual. A photo - no words - capturing a moment from our mini-vacay. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

superheroes

Cole likes to sing and hum.  His tone is pretty good too.

Recently, we figured out that a little tune he's been humming is the beginning of the theme for Superman. For a while, Brian would say it's the Imperial margarine tune because it sounded like a perfect fifth.  I had to remind him that Cole has never heard that commercial because, um, he was born less than three years ago. Randomly, he'll ask to wear his Superman cape and grin in the mirror as he turns to try to see his back.

Every now and then, Cole will strum on the open guitar strings and sing the Spiderman song: "Spiderman, Spiderman. Friendly, neighborhood Spiderman. Catches people..." I love how he ad libs.

Another great diddy was, "Bob, the builder.  He likes ham!"

Cole was introduced to Captain America from the Avengers movie. I didn't think he noticed him, but he insisted on this costume when we saw it at Costco. I thought he would go for Spidey, but instead said to buy that for his pal,William.  What a thoughtful friend!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a mud mask on.  When Cole saw me, he asked, "Are you the Green Lantern, Mama?"  Of course, I was. If I was raising a little girl, I wonder if she would have asked if I was having a home spa treatment instead.