Thoughts on marriage and meals

Here are a few highlights of the last couple of weeks.

Coleman: Mom, do you think someday I’ll grow up and marry Claire?

Mom: No Coleman, you can’t. But you’ll meet a nice girl and fall in love and as long as I approve of her, you’ll marry her.

(The next day)

Coleman: Mom, can I marry a boy?

Mom: No!

Coleman: Oh yeah, ‘cause then who would cook the food?

Ellie has also shown interest in the subject lately. For the past few weeks she keeps asking various members of the family, "Will you marry me please?" We were a little confused by this until we figured out that what she really meant was, will you dance with me? I put the puzzle together by taking the fact that she was always dressed in a princess dress when the question came, and by reading a princess book with her and hearing her say "Look, they're getting married," when we got to the end of Beauty and the Beast and she saw the picture of them dancing. So now we happily answer, "Sure, I'll marry you!" (at least Dad and Mom do anyway) instead of uselessly trying to explain that we can't marry her. We catch on to most things eventually!

Garrett took Claire and Coleman skiing with the Coleman family and the Salisbury men. Ellie and I opted to go to Reno to meet Maegan, the newest grandbaby in the family. She is super tiny and cute (that’s kind of repetitive) and slept the whole time.

Just a thought I’ve been having—I don’t think kids are as bothered by hunger as adults are. I guess I shouldn’t speak for all adults, but as for me, I don’t like to be hungry. I don’t like it at all. I avoid it as much as possible. The kids, on the other hand, seem to enjoy the feeling. Or at least they dislike eating more than they dislike the discomfort of hunger pains. One day Coleman complained of being hungry for a while in the late afternoon. When it was time to eat he said he wasn’t hungry. I said, “you were just complaining about how hungry you were!” So he says, (this tops my list of Favorite Things to Hear From My Kids) “Well I’m not hungry enough to eat THAT!” Priceless.

Ellie is the only one who dares tell us she’s hungry as she’s going to bed. We’ve fallen prey to her devices a couple of times and we’ve paid the price—A week of refusing dinner. Anson still has a cup of milk when he goes to bed, so he doesn’t notice the hunger yet. Claire and Coleman just hold out for breakfast.

I'm going to share a soup recipe that I made tonight in the hopes that your kids will enjoy it too. 3 of my 4 actually said, yum! Claire even said it was a keeper. Anson got tired of his bib eating more soup than him, so he just picked up the bowl and started drinking. I should have videoed it—not because it was so cute, but because he was actually really enjoying a meal that didn’t include any dinosaur shapes, peanut butter, or sugary milk.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1696601

For those of you that subscribe to Cooking Light, it's the cover recipe this month. I didn't make the fancy toasts to go with it, but it was still wonderful. It will be a new staple for me.

Here is a picture of something Anson will eat. Frozen peas. Yep, still frozen. He was really enjoying them this particular day with his cousin, Brooklyn. They couldn't get enough of them.

I'd like to post of picture of Claire's new super-cute haircut, but we haven't taken a picture yet. So with that suspense, I'll bid farewell!