Out of the mouth of my babe

A few things Biscuit has said recently:


Helpful hero: Biscuit announced at the dinner table the other night that he had created a new superhero.

His name? Easy Man.

"What is Easy Man's power?" I asked Biscuit.

"Well," Biscuit said in his explanatory tone. "Easy Man helps people do things that are usually hard, but he makes them easy. Like, if you tried and tried and tried to do something, but you couldn't do it. Easy Man could help. And then it would be easy."

I wish I could capture Biscuit's tone of voice. He explains things with such confidence, like how could it possibly be any other way?

I like the idea of Easy Man. I think I'll get him to come to work with me from now on!


It doesn't add up: We were practicing math with Biscuit at the dinner table the other night, and we were telling him how you use math all the time.

"Do you and Dad know about math?" Biscuit asked.

"Yep," I said. "Watch this."

I turned to Jeff and said, "Jeff, what's 52 + 40?"

"92," Jeff said, and Biscuit's eyes got really big.

"Whoa!" Biscuit said. "That was good."

Then I said, "Okay, Jeff, what's 120 + 110?" 

And without missing a beat, Jeff said, "226" and grinned at me.

I guess Biscuit sensed that something wasn't quite right.

"Mom, is that right?" Biscuit asked.

"No!" I said. "Dad's being silly."

"I just think Dad is not too good at math after all," Biscuit said.

"I think maybe you're right," I said.


Real or make believe: Jeff and Biscuit were watching TV this evening. Biscuit still has a hard time trying to figure out what is real and what isn't when he sees it on TV.

"Dad, I know that the gecko isn't real, but is car insurance real?" Biscuit asked.

"Yes, boy," Jeff said. "Car insurance is definitely real."

And although I can't imagine Biscuit being anywhere near old enough to drive, he'll find that out for himself one day!

The toy invasion

People tell me it will get better. That it won't be long until Biscuit wants to spend more time in his room, and he will want his toys in there with him.

But until then, I'm stuck looking around, trying to remember what my house looked like B.B. (Before Biscuit)!

Super complicated

Playing superheroes is hard. There are more rules than an audience with royalty.

See these guys? From left, there's two Captain Americas, two Wolverines, two Spider-Mans and two Iron Mans. When they're all together like this, they're fathers and sons, as in Dad Captain America and little son Captain America.

But wait, there's more.

If he's playing with just the little superheroes, they're not sons anymore. They're just regular superheroes. Or if he's playing with just the big ones, they're not dads anymore, they're just regular superheroes.

Got it?

Nope. There's more.

Sometimes any one of these guys can be his superhero self OR he can be his alter-ego self. But since you can't remove their masks, you never quite know when this is happening. 

Biscuit knows all their real names.
Captain America = Steve Rogers
Wolverine = Logan
Spider-Man = Peter Parker
Iron Man = Tony Stark

So depending on what he's pretending, that big Iron Man can be Iron Man or he can be Tony Stark or he can be Daddy Iron Man.

I told you it's complicated!

Sometimes Biscuit is the superhero, and you have to try to figure out who he is by his actions. Like if he's pretending to shoot webs everywhere, he's Spider-Man, of course. Or if he's pretending to throw shields, he's Captain America.

This is Iron Man.

But THIS, is Tony Stark. See? His mask is raised.

And just when you think you've got it all figured out, the rules change again!

Meet Iron Spider!

Scenes of the season, Part 3

Here are a few more pictures from the past week or so:

"Look, Mom! I can stick to the back of the couch
like Spider-Man sticks to the walls of a building!"

Our server gave Biscuit some kiddie chopsticks, and he went to
town with them ... with his LEFT hand! Dude! Make up your mind!!

He's not holding them exactly right, but hey,
he ate every piece of chicken on his plate.

I love how sticking out his tongue helps him concentrate.

Jeff started rocking in my chair, and I couldn't figure out the weird noise it was
making. I asked him to spin around. There, on the back of the chair, is Biscuit's "
spring" (aka Slinky). I assured him that this is not his Slinky storage area.

I though this was Biscuit's blog. Who is this guy?!

Out of the mouth of my babe

A few things Biscuit has said recently:


Biscuit's books: Biscuit loves, loves, LOVES books. We read to him a lot, usually at his request. And every once in a while, he'll say something that makes it evident that we read to him a lot.

Remember how Biscuit scuffed up his face last week? Well, it's healing very nicely, but we've still been telling him not to touch the spot under his nose. He's been really good about it, but it's taken him a while to figure out which parts of his face he COULD touch.

Biscuit explained to me, "Mom, I can touch the side of my nose as much as I want, said Dad."

Not "Dad said I could touch my nose," or even "I can touch my nose Dad said," but exactly as it's often written in his books.


Word association: I've told Jeff that we have to be very careful what we talk about in front of Biscuit because he is all ears and has the memory of an elephant.

He's also getting better at finding the right word for the right situation.

Like when I make him sit down and write a few letters, he used to say, "Mom, writing my letters is bored." Now, he knows that "Writing my letters is borING."

It's the little things.

But sometimes, like the other morning, he'll say something that just tickles us.

Jeff was in the bathroom getting ready, and the hosts of the morning show were having a trivia contest. "Just call in and say the magic word, 'cash,'" the hosts said.

Jeff hollered from the bathroom, "Cash!"

And within a second, Biscuit said, "Register!"

"What? Are you playing $10,000 Pyramid?" I asked Biscuit.

He didn't get why it was so funny, but Jeff and I laughed and laughed. Funny, but that seems to happen a lot.


On walkabout: Biscuit plays superheroes all the time, and you never know which one he is, unless you closely study the props he has - sword, bow and arrow, shield, etc.

Jeff and I were sitting at the table after dinner tonight, and Biscuit came strolling through with a very serious look on his face. He had a bow thrown over his shoulder and had some arrows stuck down in the back of his shirt (when you don't have a quiver, you make do).

As he sauntered through, he used to fingers to make a casual salute, like men would do back when they wore fedoras, and said, "Nice evenin', huh?" and kept right on walking.

I told Jeff that Biscuit could've won an acting award for his portrayal ... even though I'm not really sure which superhero he was.

Replacement gift

So remember how Jeff and I had that big talk with Biscuit about being gracious about birthday gifts? How if he got a gift he already had, he should just say "thank you" and we'd get it all worked out later?

Well, we forgot to have that talk with him before he opened a gift from his aunt, uncle and cousins.

As soon as he tore the paper, he said just as nonchalantly as you can imagine, "Oh, I already have this." 

Ugh!

They just knew he was going to be so excited about the gift they picked out, and instead, their faces just fell.

One of the first Ninja Turtle toys Biscuit asked for was a Raphael costume. Well, it wasn't really a costume, just a red mask and Raph's weapons of choice. And that's exactly what he got from his aunt, uncle and cousins.

I told them that if Biscuit didn't have it already, it would've been the perfect gift because it really was the first turtle toy he wanted. I assured them that we'd get it swapped out for another character, and it would all be good.

So when we got home this evening, we scooped up the package off the porch and after I cut the tape, Biscuit got to check out what was inside.

And here's Biscuit's, I mean, Leonardo's sword in action. (That dang mask just wouldn't stay out of his eyes!)

A Happy Biscuit Birthday

I am way too tired to share all the details of Biscuit's big day, but I'll share a picture now and stories later.

Halloween party

Jeff, Biscuit and I went to an annual Halloween party this evening where we hung out with friends, ate lots of yummy food and had an overall good time.

Back in September, I asked Biscuit, "What would you like to be for Halloween?"

And he said, "I guess I'll just be a firefighter."

And I said, "What do you mean you GUESS you'll just be a firefighter."

"What else can I be?" he asked.

"Oh, sweet boy," I said, "you can be anything you want to be."

So I named off all the possible costumes I could think of, and he got really excited to imagine being a superhero. I asked him if he wanted me to make him a costume or if he wanted to buy one.

"Can we go to the store and look at them?" Biscuit asked.

It took walking halfway down the costume aisle, and Biscuit's decision was made.

Meanwhile, I hadn't even thought about mine and Jeff's costumes. I did a couple of searches on the Internet, but I didn't see anything that really spoke to me.

So we decided since Biscuit was going as a superhero, Jeff and I could be villains.

Here's who we're supposed to be - Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus aka Doc Ock.

Here's how it turned out. See Biscuit's web-shooting hand positions?

It was a potluck event, and my plan was to make cupcakes. I found these cool little cake decorations that looked like knives. So I wanted to stab one into each cake with a little red gel icing around it. But as much as I hate to admit this, I ran out of time today, and I drove to the grocery store and bought cupcakes. I PAID MONEY FOR CUPCAKES BAKED BY A GROCERY STORE!!!

Anyone who knows me will know this is not normal for me. I called my Mama on the way to the store because I knew she would get a kick out of me telling her.

She answered, and I said, "I have to tell you something, and you can't judge me for it."

"Uh-oh," she said. "What is it?"

"I'm on the way to the grocery store to BUY cupcakes," I said.

"Do whaaaat?" she said, in full Southern drawl. "What have you been doing all day?"

"Finishing YOUR grandson's new room," I said with much attitude.

She laughed and said, "Well, if you see anybody in the store that might know me, just don't tell them that you belong to me."

I called her again on the way back home. "It's done," I said.

She made a clicking noise with her mouth and said, "That's just SHAMEFUL!" and started laughing again.

Here are my store-bought-but-Kim-decorated cupcakes:

Do you hear that "reek, reek, reek, reek" noise from the horror movies?

Behold the before and after

Tada!

Biscuit's room is almost done. When I asked him what kind of decorations he wanted, he said, "I think I'd like firefighters, cowboys, ninja turtles and superheroes."

No problem!

All the big stuff is done. All that's left is details. And although I've always heard that the devil is in the details, we WILL get this done! (And I say that just as much to hold myself to it as to share the thought).

Anyway, not much to say except that here's what we did:

1. Cleaned out and rearranged the attic to accommodate a piece of furniture that we were moving out of Biscuit's new room.
2. Moved out the old furniture, including a cedar chest (the piece for the attic) and an entertainment center.
3. Cleaned the daylights out of the whole room, including window sills and baseboards and dusting the walls with a swiffer mop.
4. Painted the walls.
5. Painted the dresser and bought and installed new knobs.
6. Installed new switch and plug-in plates.
7. Tracked down, bought and hung posters of the boy's favorite things (I figured posters would be an easy thing to swap out as Biscuit's tastes and interests change.).
8. Assembled a set of shelves with cubby holes.
9. Hung a picture taken by one of the photographers at the paper (Soon, there will be a small shelf under the photo that will hold a firetruck.).
10. Moved everything from Biscuit's old room to his new room, including sorting through all his clothes and deciding what goes where, since his new dresser is horizontal, and old dresser was vertical.
11. Created a pretty hefty haul for the donation store.

Projects still in the works:

1. Swapping out of the closets. (My wedding dress, some of mine and Jeff's out-of-season clothes and other items are in the closets - count 'em, TWO - in Biscuit's new room.
2. Painting the nightstand (It does need one more coat, so you won't see it in the pictures below. And it will have a new drawer pull.).
3. Printing pictures of family to put in frames.
4. Waiting for a cowboy print and a U.S. map to arrive in the mail. (When Biscuit saw his mostly completed room, he said, "Mom, this is really cool. Now all we need is the cowboy poster." And crazy me thought I was almost done!)
5. Getting rid of the entertainment center (It's a nice solid wood piece that I bought unfinished. But it's made for old-style square TVs. One of my friends thinks she might be able to turn it into a bookcase, though.)
6. And the most dreaded of all, finding new homes for all the stuff we cleared out of the room to get it ready for Biscuit.

Here are some before and after photos, as well as some details shots. The lighting in the room doesn't make for great photos, but you can get the idea.

The nightstand (which is painted the same red
as the dresser) will be where that TV table is.

The room has one big, long closet with two sets of doors.
When we did a walk-through before we bought the house, I
opened the left doors, Jeff opened the right doors, and he walked
through his side to my side and scared me half to death.

Biscuit seemed to like having
his table in front of the window.

The dresser doesn't look very long from
this angle, but it's actually 48 inches wide.

Pinto and Puppy seem to be adapting well to the move.

When I first found this piece of furniture, I thought about getting the
bigger version that is five cubbyholes high and five cubbyholes wide.
But the more I looked at it, the more overwhelming its size was. I
think the four-by-four is just big enough. I'm sure the contents
will get rearranged and swapped around, but there it is for now.

I wasn't sure if Biscuit's name train was too baby-fied or
not, but I figured I'd put it in and wait to see if he said
anything. He hasn't mentioned it yet, so for now, it stays.

This photo was taken by one of our photographers at the paper. It's
not staged. It's a photo that ran in the paper. I did some editing for
some of the photographer's work, and he wanted to do something for
me in return. I told him no, but he brought in this print for Biscuit. How
could I say no? Plus, we work with some of the best photojournalists in
the country, so I was really pleased to have this photo in Biscuit's room.

These are some of the Little Golden Books from
Jeff's childhood. Biscuit has enjoyed reading them.

The boot is a heavy piece of pottery that I painted. I figured it would fit
the cowboy part of the theme. And since Biscuit loves musical
instruments, I added in some flutes and whistles and things I had.

And speaking of musical instruments, that is a den-den daiko,
or a Japanese pellet drum. You hold the handle between your
hands and roll it back and forth. The little balls on the strings strike
the drum head and make a fun percussion sound. The shells are
ones we've picked up on trips to the beach with Biscuit.

Some things I did for my own amusement ... like putting
a pan flute on the same shelf as a Peter Pan book.

Here are the requested superheroes.

I thought these porcelain knobs were just too cute to pass up. They had three
of them, and that's how many small drawers are on the top of Biscuit's dresser.

Biscuit has all his necessities on the makeshift 
nightstand - a lamp, tissues, a coaster for his water and
a flashlight (which we found under his pillow this
morning, after his first night in his new bedroom).

I don't know those people in the small picture frames on the dresser.
Pretty soon, though, there will be faces of people Biscuit knows and loves.