Kitchen Renovations

Or perhaps it's more kitchen decorating. Mom helped me install some fabric panels on the back of my kitchen to cover those holes the manufacturer left... I went with blue --  it's more masculine. Nothing says manly like blue damask. That's what I always say.
And Nate Berkus is my idol.

If only all of Mom's projects for me could be finished so quickly and easily...

We're supposed to be hanging hooks in my kitchen for some of my stuff, which might involve Dad. Mom thought a hanging pot rack would be overkill. And might make walking treacherous for the folks over 3 feet tall.
Nonsense Smonsense. But I don't know if my drill and hammer will get the job done, so I might have to go with Mom's idea.

Miss Ellen

As mentioned before, we go and see Miss Ellen on Fridays.

Oh nooooo

We practice talking. It rocks but is kind of a short visit. One of the first things Miss Ellen got me to say, possibly inadvertently, was "Oh noooo." It's funny when she says it so I tried to copy her. Now I just parrot whatever anyone says:
  Mom: Marcus, what would you like for lunch today?
  Marcus: Lunch today?!
  Mom: Would you like toast with butter or a peanut butter sandwich?
  Marcus: Toast with butter. Cinnamon. Peanut butter sandwich. Toast with Butter. Peanut Butter.
  Mom: Ok, which one?
  Marcus: Ok ok ok.
  ...

Amazingly, Mom does finally figure out which one I want.
She has the special decoder ring.
It was particularly useful before I could say hun-gee (hungry) -- I would say ha ha. You can imagine the confusion this caused.

Regardless, we really have Miss Ellen to thank for a lot of my progress. She's pretty great and is a major highlight in my week.

Supervision Required

The question is, who is supervising whom?

Mom and Dad (who are we kidding?) decided that it would be a good idea to redecorate the powder room. This project has, as with most things in this house, taken on a new life. We won't go into the details; suffice to say, she is making progress on it.

(Now all Mom has to finish is the powder room cabinet and shelf, the big rocking chair, my rocking chair, my table and chairs, and the Jack and Jill bathroom. Possibly even before I outgrow the "my" ones.)

They did get the walls repainted this lovely dove-grey color -- while I was sleeping no less. The nerve of some people. Well, truth be told, Mom couldn't finish it while I was sleeping because she underestimated the amount of paint required. Oops.

Then she realized that Dad is a lot messier than she is. At least he didn't put his whole foot in the paint tray...

Thank goodness I got involved with putting the hardware back up. Dad might have been there all day.

Yes, we have matching drills. Mom is smart that way. 

Practice spot

Showing Dad where to drill

Pilot hole

Back to the real work

Wednesdays

Wednesdays are Zoo Day. Or Aquarium Day, if the weather is being uncooperative. It's one of my favorite parts of the week.

Gramma and Grampa are so nice: They renewed my membership for 2012. Thank you! I'm really looking forward to the new card coming because then Mom will give me my very own card for my wallet. I like to drive to the zoo on my fire truck. With my purse. (Or backpack, if I'm feeling racy.) Of course, I'm just pretending when I drive. Mom drives when we go for real.

We're regulars at the zoo, so we have a pretty good routine.

First, I help Mom get tickets -- the person at the membership desk always appreciates my help.

Then we hand the tickets to Marcus. Not me. The grown-up Marcus who lets us in.

Also known as "Stinky fa-meen-goes"

The flamingos always greet us.

Next, it's off to the fountain and elephants. Sometimes we get lucky and the elephants make a poop. I'm always very impressed with it. Usually they just eat hay. Or tree branches. Neither seems particularly tasty to me, but different strokes... Elephants are one of my favorite animals right now. I'm not quite sure why we can't get one, but Mom mentioned dung shoveling=problematic -- not sure how it's different than scooping GeeGee's poop.

Mom said actually she's not sure either...

On the way there, we always stop to visit the duck parade. Definitely one of my favorite parts. I like to test each duck for ridability. It's important to get a good fit.

Usually we head to the playground and the Carousel at this point. I prefer to call the Carousel the Meh-Go-Roun. Probably because Mom calls it the Merry-Go-Round. (Sometimes Big Marcus works at the Carousel.)

On any given day, I prefer to ride an elephant. If only they had a giant duck...

Then we go choose-your-adventure and visit either:

- the lion, tigers, and bears. Oh my. And the monkeys and apes. But Frank*'s right: They're not all in a zoo...

- the sea lions -- who put on a show rivaled only by my attempts to kill myself in the stands

- the snakes and spiders

- the swamp

Mom tries really hard to make sure we head home for lunch before I turn into a lunatic. But whatever we miss, we can always see the next week!

Today was fun because I got to ride in my friend's wagon. I like me some wagon!

And we got a special treat: This lovely fellow escorted us out.

Ok, he might have been trying to break into the Cafe, but we can pretend.

And we made it home and had lunch before I went lunatic.

* That would be Sinatra

And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo

Every day you meet quite a few

So you see it's all up to you

You can be better than you are

You could be swingin' on a star

GoodYear

WOOOSH.

It's never a sound you want to hear when exiting your car. Mom thought the neighbors had a gas leak. Or a water leak. Or a something leak. That is, until she realized the leak was the car.

There may have been some leaking of the eyes the next hour. I think Mom was feeling a little dejected. Or rejected. One of the 2.

One moment* of OhBother, OhGeez, OhCrap: free

One negotiation of handling-the-Dad's-territory-but-he's-out-of-town-crisis: can you put a price on the inevitable?

One friendly neighbor: free**

One giant screw in the tire: $179

Me at the GoodYear Store: Priceless***.

What better way to spend a rainy Saturday, right? At least it wasn't raining on Friday during the tire change part. Mom was at step 7 before she realized that she might need "adult supervision." It's probably a good thing she doesn't have that much first hand knowledge of tire changing. The manual actually leaves out a couple key steps, so thank goodness for neighbors.

* it may have been more than a moment. Though it did only take the tire about 2 minutes to deflate to the level of pancake. Nothing slow about this leak, folks.

**there may be some beer involved. Hey, it's New Orleans. And it's Mardi Gras. We serve beer after road races, so the involvement of beer shouldn't come as a surprise.

Special Person Breakfast

School hosted a Special Person Breakfast. I brought Aunt Donna because (1) she's special and (2) she's my peeps.
We ate muffins and bananas. It was delicious.

She got to see my school and meet some of the other kids. It was a really lovely morning that I hope we can repeat.

Mom's mouth doctor

I know that Mom has taken me somewhere too many times when we get a few blocks away and I feel the compulsion to scream out where we must be going. Oftentimes, I'm right. Mostly when it's TJMaxx, Marshalls, or PetSmart*. And my favorite: Worl Mahket.

Although, sadly, the the last time we went over to TJMaxx-Mahshalz-Worl Market-PehSmah, we were actually going to "different paint store." I prefer the regular paint store, which we've been frequenting. More on that later. Really, I prefer Ole Foods and Hodware Store, but I like to shop, what can I say?

Anyhow, Mom likes to go see a new doctor a lot lately. She's a very nice lady that Mom calls The Mouth Doctor. This Mouth Doctor apparently cut a hole in the roof of Mom's mouth and then sewed it onto her teeth. Pretty cool. Except for the fact that Mom was somewhat incapacitated for a week or two. And when I say incapacitated, I mean in the worst way: No Up High, No running, No eating solid food. She was not much fun.

But, she is doing much better and has shiny new gums to prove it. I was hoping The Mouth Doctor was going hook Mom up with some of these:

But I was sadly mistaken. I guess shiny pink gums are exciting, too.

And now every time we get near the Mouth Doctor's office I scream out: Walgeens*. Mama Doctah. It's particularly funny if we happen to be going to a playdate. Or Temple. Or for ice cream/coffee.

You should see what happens when we get near my doctor's office...

* Mom went there a LOT around the holidays. Partly thanks to GeeGee and partly for presents. Who am I kidding, it was mostly for GeeGee.

**I heart drugstores. Mostly CVS, which I currently prefer calling CVI. Walgreens is cool, too, though. In fact, anytime I see a white logo with red cursive shout out "Walgeens!!!" Even if it's some dude's Chick-Fil-A bag (or cup).