"Bye-bye, you cutie." (Wink!)

The temp is 29 degrees Fahrenheit, and Robbie is out running with 9 1/2-year-old Olivia.  I love how their Daddy-Daughter dates evolve.  Evelyn just decided to train Henry with some workout moves, and she rewarded him with homemade ribbons constructed of yard and construction paper that read, "#1 Henry Overlease," and, "Good Job!"  Vivian is in her favorite floor-length flannel Hello Kitty nightgown (which she changes into in the middle of the day right before we are supposed to leave our house), and she's playing with her castle set.

Evelyn's reading exploded this past week, so I got her seven new fairy books from the library.  Olivia was into those at the same point in her life.  Ev is honestly reading by the backpack load, and I love this new found literary freedom she is experiencing.  I've been working with Henry to point out and teach short sight words as we read storybooks daily.  He's learned quite a nice string of them, and Evelyn ran with this yesterday.  She produced her old kindergarten Busy Bee Binder, and set to work with a handwritten list of sight words for her brother and a yellow highlighter as used by her teacher.  She added PIZZA to Henry's word list.  I love it.  Olivia is a voracious reader, and she's blazing through her Battle of the Books list of 20+ titles for an upcoming team competition. While in the van with the family she said, "What's cat piss?"  Robbie and I exchanged looks, and he said, "What book are you reading?"  I knew it was The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  We explained that the word about which she inquired, which I spelled back to her, is a slang bad word for urine.  Robbie wanted additional information about the context in which the phrase was used.  In the book a granddaddy said this to a young girl, and Olivia read it aloud..."I have managed to take perfectly good pecans and ferment them into something approximating cat piss."  Obviously, Robbie and I laughed out loud.

After passing through my initial fury over Robbie's decision to eat a Paleo Diet and forego all dairy (read...CHEESE, BUTTER, MILK, YOGURT!!!), beans (which I love) and legumes (No peanuts?  Really?  Sweet peas and beans are bad?), and grains (no rice, bread, pasta, etc., etc.) I am pleased to share that I am in a better place about it.  Robbie bought me three Paleo cookbooks, and we are working together to figure out the new contents of his lunchbox and our family dinners.  On that note, last night after mass we went to a health food store.  All six of us shopped, and the place was busy for a Saturday night.  Henry had his own small cart, and he was thrilled to load it with fruit and nuts.  At one point I left the group to go for some carrots, and I happened to look over my shoulder as Henry was sprinting towards me up the frozen foods aisle.  Unfortunately, he was racing to catch his runaway cart!!  I've never seen a cart roll so fast in a grocery store in my life, and I'm lucky it was pint sized.  I'd love to view the surveillance footage of that scene as I turned and caught it just in the nick of time before it bowled me over.  I'm certain it would go viral on YouTube.  We had a serious discussion about his use of little carts. Vivian has learned to wink, and she made friends in the checkout lane with a rather effeminate Asian male.  She winked at him, and got a big smile and chuckle.  As we left the register, she said in a slow and flirty voice, "Bye-bye, you cutie (wink!)," and the kids and I roared.

Vivian turned three on the 8th, and I made her the much requested for many months...pink Hello Kitty cake. I researched decorated cake images and pink cake recipes.  I ended up with a delicious pink strawberry cake with pink strawberry frosting and buttercream marshmallow white icing for Hello Kitty's star piped 3D face.  Hello Kitty had a hair bow made of pink marshmallow hearts.  Vivian asked to help me bake the cake.  Henry assisted, and we had a great time in our aprons.  However, once the pink cake was cooling, Vivian appeared and said, "Henry says my cake tastes GOOOODD!!"  I ran to the kitchen and discovered that my son had taken a couple of handfuls of cake out of the edges of one of my cake layers.  I was furious with him.  He was sent to a lengthy timeout and ended up falling asleep for three hours.  That part was good.  Vivian and our guests loved her birthday cake, and Robbie ate some too.

For all of Henry's typical little boy antics, he is really a darling and loving child.  I asked him one morning if he wanted to make up a gym class.  "No, I want to stay here close to you."  I said, "You are a funny little guy."  He told me, "You are a sweet, precious, little mama."  He just walked into the room where I'm writing this in my big fleece robe, bed head, and glasses and said, "You are soooo pretty."  I suppose love is blind.  On Valentine's Day I said to Vivian, "I love being your mommy."  "I love being your baby," was her sweet reply.

I hear my sweet husband upstairs, back from his run, and his plan is to make sweet potato latkes and try to pass them off as "pancakes" this morning.  The time he made sweet potato pancakes with almond butter and coconut milk, Olivia entered the kitchen and asked if he was putting squash in our breakfast pancakes.  It was pretty funny.  The kids are trying to get used to our carb-free weekend breakfasts and dinners too.  Change is a process.