Seriously.

You know how the word of the last half of last year was "Absolutely." Well, seriously, now, it's "seriously." And G has picked it up. Seriously. "Seriously" out of the mouth of a 7-year-old just makes me laugh. Seriously.

Which reminds me...the best times of my life have been when I have taken life NOT so seriously. Join in. It's fun. Seriously.

Well, it's that time of year again.

Time flies. When your heart is working...

Tomorrow marks the fourth anniversary of my brother's heart surgery. The siblings gathered last weekend in Chicago to share a little time, food and drink with each other to celebrate. Well, maybe a lot of food. And a fair amount of drink. (Although why was I the only one having a liquid lunch on Saturday??) (It was already 2.30 in the afternoon??!!)

So, here's to you Dave. Happy heart-versary.

Checking in.

With a little inspiration from my little (!) brother, I seem to always try these various tracking sites: daytum is really pretty neat and you should check out the 2009 Feltron Annual Report if you like lists and nitty-gritty info. It's all fascinating. And beautiful. So the latest test was foursquare. I thought I might get hooked a little deeper after being named Mayor of the Kirkwood Y after only checking in there twice. But my whole day went by today and I couldn't even fathom dealing with checking in places. Let's face it, it all goes back to my earlier thoughts on how much time should we spend on documenting the minutiae when there are so many big things to do. But here I am, checking in (and home and your office don't count):

Kirkwood Y, Acme Printing, Saint Louis Bread Company in Old Webster, McCarties' house, Bristol Elementary, mailbox on the corner, Saint Louis Bread Company in Brentwood, FedEx Office in Brentwood, Whole Foods, credit union drive-thru, McCarties' house.

But it makes me laugh.

Is this appropriate to have around in a child-filled house?

My measuring cup was half full.

Or, what a difference a cup makes. Or why multi-tasking really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Speaking of cracked up, I did get both eggs in the batter. Along with the sugars and vanilla. Then a break to pick up G at her friend's house. Then home and a phone call. Get the latte order figured out (2%, no whip). Then back to baking. Oh, wait, move the mixing bowl b/c now G is home and C was doing all the baking and the bowl is in G's way to eat the Moonpie she got at school today (no, really, she did).

So we're putting in the dry ingredients and then hand mixing in the chips and everyone wants a spoonful (3 of mine + 1 friend). Fast forward 9 minutes -- they're flat! As pancakes! Hmmm. I don't know says MM. But they sure do smell good!

Okay, now it's just back to me and C. Did we put in two big cups and one small cup? No, mom, it was one big cup and one small cup. Oops. Well, we can take care of that.

It really was a lovely afternoon....at least that's how I'm choosing to look at it.

Quote of the day.

Actually from last week....but when discussing the health care reform bill that passed, and showing video of people who were against it saying, "I can't ask my constituents to pay for something they believe is morally wrong." Oh, but except it's legal. Which leads to The Daily Show: "It's not like I can walk into the zoo with its $20 admission fee and say, here, here's $18.50, I don't like zebras."

What I learned today from my 6-year-old.

That those four little boys in that book aren't really jumping over that tree. It's probably that the tree is really far away. (Wow, I think, someone had to explain perspective to me in maybe, junior high??) This made me very proud.

That it's still cool for a six-year-old boy to hold his mom's hand all the way to school. This made me very happy.

That there is a cuss word that's the f-word. Eff. You. See. Kay. That's right. He spelled it right out. So unfortunately I learned that there aren't many grown-up secrets in this world that six-year-olds don't know already. The innocence of children is lost. This deeply saddened me.