Story Time

It has been Story Time lately in the BAMC house with budding author, n x 1.6 km (for n>1). Here is a sampling of his stories he has been writing and I am preserving all his original spellings and capitalizations:

Once UPON A TiMe THeRe WAS 3 GOOd BOYS NAMed [MTD] & [CED] & DAddA. ONCe ON ONe daY THeY decided TO Ride SOMe TRAiNS SO TheY did it. AfteR RideiNG THe TRAiNS THeY dacided TO See SOMe COCONutS THeY CAMe ONTo a Tree BACK At HOMe. MOMMA WAS THeRe. SHe WAS HAPPY THeN [MTD] CAMe HoMe With dAddA & [CED]. THeN THey SeT UP CRAZY TRACKS.

ONCe UPON A tiMe tHeRe WAS A little boY named [MTD] He WAS GOOd TOO! He MaKes MOMMa HaPPY! He Rides TRAiNS AiRPlANeS BiKeS ANd flYiNG BeeS! ONe dAY He SAid LooK I see A flYiNG Bee! THeN He Ride THe bee TO A TRAiN! AT THe TRAIN [MTD] RiDe THe TRAiN TO A BiKe! THe BiKe WAS his biKe so He rideiNG it.

ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS SOME BiG GOOD BOYS NAMED DADDA AND [CED]. THEY LIKED eACH OTHER. ONE DAY WE CAME ON WITH MR [MTD] TO TRAVEL TOWN. THE END!

Once UPon a time there was a girl named Momma. She was good to things. one day she did not have any boys. So she made some. She named one [MTD]. Then she made A boy named Dadda. [MTD] & Dadda were good too.

Notes:
* I just substituted [MTD] for our oldest boy and [CED] for the youngest. MTD actually knows how to write both names fine.
* Crazy tracks are what our oldest son calls his wooden train tracks.
* Travel Town is at Griffith Park that has old retired steam trains that kids can look at and climb all over. We go there pretty often.
* If you were able actually able to see one of MTD's stories, you'd see how hard it is to read, because he likes to write on the back of unlined scratch paper and the sentences and words all run together and bend in interesting, hard-to-read ways.
* Hmmm. That last story needs a bit of work on family relationships. But it was so hilarious that I had to put it in.

Ice Cream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

On, my birthday this year, Mad Scientist got me an ice cream maker and a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream recipe book. So we have been diligently doing much research in ice cream manufacturing. Thus far, we have tried these flavors:

* Chocolate pudding
* Chocolate chip cookie dough
* Orange dreamsicle (2 times)
* Chocolate Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie
* Red bean
* Strawberry red bean
* Mint chocolate chip (non-green food coloring type)
* Peach

Thus far, our favorites have been Orange dreamsicle and I love the red bean. The red bean is a very Chinese/Asian concoction. When we were growing up, my Dad would make a red bean soup that was a sweet dessert. Those who have been to Japan, it is called adzuki there. Since there is a huge Asian population here, they have red bean as a flavor for shakes and stuff. So I made it as ice cream and it is delicious! At least it is appreciated by those who like red beans. Mad Scientist doesn't like it though. Anyway. We are going to continue our work in ice cream R&D.

Update: Also have tried Strawberry banana and Blueberry. The blueberry is to die for!

Stand in the place where you are

CED has recently acquired a new skill set that has allowed him to more fully explore his surroundings. He crawls, he climbs, he pulls himself up on things. For the most part these new skills keep him on the move, but one particular skill actually has impeded his mobility. You see, he loves to pull himself up on things. Any thing. Couches, chairs, people, people's faces, even walls. For the past couple of weeks he has been quite good at getting himself to the standing position. Unfortunately, he did not know how to get down. So he effectively gets himself stuck in the standing position. He would stay there eventually yelling in frustration. At times, this was a convenient way to keep him in one place. More often, it was problematic, especially when he would stand up in his crib instead of falling asleep. Finally, yesterday he finally figured out how to get back down.