MacGyver and the Nip-Napper

MacGyver

My oldest seems to take after his father in many respects, both positive and negative. My husband is an amazing 'Jack-of-all-trades' and fixes, or finds someone to help him fix nearly everything around our house. His ability to repair & do handiman jobs is one of the traits I appreciate so much. Our son is trying to be just like his Papa. He takes whatever 'tools' he finds, sometimes hit toy tools and sometimes random utensils from the kitchen, to 'fix' his toy cars and trucks. The other day, he informed me that he was 'fixing' his toy car. I mumbled some positive reply and continued with the laundry. Sometime later, he appeared with a door-less, window-less toy car and proudly informed me that he had 'modified' his BMW. I asked what tools he had been using and he produced our wine opener and a tea-ball-strainer. How my 3 year old  managed to remove toy car doors & a windshield with those household objects, I will never know. I think that even MacGyver would have been impressed with those skills!

The 'tools' and removed car parts

The Nip-Napper

My husband and I LOVE the affectionate kisses, slobbers and hugs we receive from our two boys. As they have grown, those small acts of affection have changed from an open-mouthed, silent, slobbery sucking action to a quick hug or a silent peck on the cheek. Our favorite is the "AAAHH-BWAAAH!" kiss that our boys gave us from around 10 months through to 2 years. My husband enjoyed it so much, that he re-taught our 3 year old to kiss that way, even though he had started kissing normally with a slight smacking sound. Our younger son has just started giving those slightly slobbery "AAH-BWAH" kisses. He seems to notice that we like them & enjoys giving them to us repeatedly, especially after naps. However, recently he's started starting with the "AAH" part of the kiss and leans in as though to kiss, but does a large chomp on my shoulder or cheek. With only 4 teeth, he manages to clench his jaw so tightly that it inflicts a huge amount of pain. As a result, I shriek "OUCH!" He lets go & smiles at me. He got what he wanted: an exciting response. Regardless, we will continue to enjoy all those physical tokens of affection while we can because we know that a day will soon come when they won't want to be hugging or kissing us anymore.

Long Overdue: Father's Day

My husband is a wonderful Father. His parenting skills extend from wrestling diapers onto a wriggly baby to wrestling with a rambunctious pre-schooler, from re-wiring a baby mobile to re-routing wiring, so that the children won't be able to attack it, from creating simple meals when Mama is at her wit's end to simply putting up with Mama at her wit's end, from disposing of dead birds to reposing with earphones and a squalling newborn, and the list goes on. He's my 'Knight in Shining Armour' on many an evening when my patience has worn thin and the boys are heading into 'the witching hour'. He's devoted and dedicated to his family which means so much to me, especially in an era when the only thing anyone seems devoted or dedicated to is pleasing themselves, or making themselves look and feel better.

Each year since he become a father, we've made him a handprint in clay as a present from our oldest son. With 2 children, that would be a lot of clay and not easy to display, so we painted a picture for him, using handprints. It includes all three of our handprints and took more than a week to complete since each of the boys could only do a few prints at a time before getting bored, and because a lot of layering was needed. However, I was pleased with the end result. My oldest can't see the whole picture & when asked what it's a painting of, he says very matter-of-factly, "Handprints!"

Eat, Manger, Essen...

My boys all enjoy their food. My husband savours his Italian pasta. He spends hours using every pot and utensil in the kitchen to spatter tomato sauce on cupboards, floors, ceilings and walls with the sole purpose of creating "Papa's special sauce" as my oldest has named it. I have to admit that it does taste pretty good & I do appreciate having containers full of pasta sauce in my freezer.

My 3 year old loves eating pasta - almost any kind - and will eat enough for 2 adults if he's really hungry. He also loves pizza, end enjoys helping Mama make it; he actually just eats all the grated mozarella cheese and drives his cars through the flour while I make it, but to him, it's 'helping'.

My youngest must enjoy the feeling of food spraying past his lips & onto every object in a 1 meter radius, including whoever is feeding him. He loves eating & our grocery bill has definitely increased since he started on solids, but I am convinced that I end up wearing more than half of the food I prepare for him!

Today, I made Calzone. It's the Italian version of an English pasty or an American pizza-pocket, but don't say that to an Italian! My son  loved the fact that the cheese was 'hiding' inside the pizza. I just used my regular pizza dough, rolled very thin into small rounds & then popped on my filling (bacon & cheese & pizza sauce). Then I folded the circles in half and pressed the sides together well. I put them on a very well oiled baking sheet & put them into a hot oven until they were golden. YUM! Later, I prepared a pear raspberry tart for tomorrow (the original recipe is apricot & pear from Real Simple, but I changed the topping & added a chocolate base, instead of just almond).

All that, just to say we each enjoy our food in different ways.