The Small Family     

First and foremost, happy Memorial Day, everyone! And a big thanks to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country. We owe you bigger thanks than I can ever express here, for sure.

But on a Smaller scale (ha ha, get it? “Small”-er?? I kill me!), Memorial Day weekend around the Small household was a fun time. We went down to San Jose (with a stop at the famous Falafel Drive-I--yum! We heart falafels!) to visit Grandpa Tom, Grandma Kathy, and family and to meet the newest member of the extended family, Mr. Liam Kristian Fletcher. Liam is Bill and Sarah’s son, and he was born 11 weeks ago. We were actually in San Jose when he was born (for Nik’s birthday party), but Sarah and Bill were understandably busy with their newborn son that weekend (with Sarah recovering from the birth, of course!), and since then, our schedules haven’t linked up for us to meet him. But that all changed on Saturday, when we met the sweet little guy. Such a happy, mellow little fellow! He let us all hold and cuddle him without so much as a fuss. And it was semi-chaotic to have so many people crowding around him, so I was really impressed by how well he just took it all in, occasionally looking at us as if to say, “What are all you people looking at?”

Uncle Bill and Aunt Linda (Liam’s proud grandparents) were also there, so we got to visit with them as well…and of course, with Auntie Tanya, Uncle Steve, and Nik. Theo and Nik are playing more and more together. They’re still too young to really play “together,” but they’re playing in the same area and chasing each other around, which is really fun to watch. They’re both very good at sharing so far, too, which is a really nice thing. They had great fun playing on the side of the backyard, taking turns with a broom Grandpa Tom had back there.

Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy fed us a yummy spread of two types of lasagna and a fantastic salad with all manner of goodies in it, so we were full, happy campers after dinner. And you’ll see in this week’s pictures that Theo quite enjoyed sharing some chocolate cake Grandpa Tom made. (Just like his mama, Theo likes cake! He doesn’t get it very often, but when he does, he’s a big fan.)

We stayed overnight this time, with the intention of going to Happy Hollow on Sunday. After an uneventful night at the hotel (where Theo was sure the dogs from P.D. Eastman’s Big Dog, Little Dog were staying--the dogs stay in a hotel in the book, and Theo kept asking about the dogs all evening and the next morning at the hotel), we headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruit. Then the five of us set out for Happy Hollow (a park and zoo in San Jose), only to discover that it was mobbed. The parking lots were full, and we would’ve had to park close to a mile away. We figured with that many cars, the park/zoo was sure to be jammed, and Theo was already very sleepy in the car (due to a somewhat shortened night of sleep in the hotel), so we just hit the highway and headed for home instead. Ah well, it’ll give us something to do next time we visit.

We also had a fun “date night” on Friday. Since Theo is very hit and miss when dining out at the dinner hour, we usually stick to something very simple for date night--most often, a trip to the mall play area and dinner at the Mongolian BBQ in the food court. It’s not overly exciting, but it does the trick. However, on Friday I got it in my mind that I wanted to try Tres Agaves, and Mexican food restaurant at a nearby shopping center. Chris was a little skeptical, since our last two dinners out with Theo (other than the aforementioned mall stops) have been disastrous. But we went early and gave it a try, and much to our delight, he did great. We ordered chips, guacamole, an order of chicken mole to split, and their special “frites,” which are essentially French fries with some sort of chili powder and cotija cheese on them, with a side of chipotle aioli for dipping. Oooooh, yum! It was definitely the best mole I’ve had--perfect balance of spicy and sweet. The guacamole was good, but nothing overly exciting. But Chris went bananas for the frites…he’s still talking about them days later. And Theo sampled everything--he’s a huge fan of beans, so he ate a lot of pinto beans and tortilla. He also liked the chicken and the baby carrots served with it, but the frites were a bit spicy for him. But, as I said, best of all was that he was very well-behaved, and we were able to eat our dinner (albeit quickly) and enjoy it. We’ll definitely be going back--they had several other menu items that looked really good.

We had kind of a funny moment on our date night. At least, I thought it was funny. Chris’s car happens to be a silver 2003 Mazda Protégé. It’s a nondescript, reliable car, which fits Chris’s personality pretty well. He’d prefer something with a little more oomph, but Chris, as you can imagine, is not the type to drive a monster truck or a super-fancy luxury car. He’s not a showy guy. However, the Protégé has forced Chris to stand out, and this amuses me to no end. How, you ask? Well, some months back we got some work done on the belts, and ever since, at random intervals, the Protégé will start squealing loudly like a wounded dolphin, causing anyone in earshot to turn around and stare, and leading me to lovingly dub the Protégé the “Porpoise.” Poor Chris, Mr. I-Like-to-Stay-Behind-the-Scenes, gets to stand out in his noisy Mazda Porpoise. But he weathers it well, since the car runs fine and a new one is not in the budget anytime soon… Anyway, as we walked through the parking lot Friday night, we suddenly heard a familiar WHEEEEEE-EEEEEE-EEEEEEE! “Honey!” I exclaimed, “Someone has a Porpoise!” I was kidding, but we turned around, and lo and behold, the vehicle squeaking and squawking by was indeed…a silver Mazda Protégé! Ha--I don’t know why they didn’t just name that car the Porpoise right off the bat, since it seems this must be a somewhat common problem. Maybe Chris should start a support group for embarrassed drivers of noisy Porpoises….

But back to dinner and discussions of food and outings. I got the idea of Tres Agaves in my mind from some of my girlfriends, who I went out to dinner with on Wednesday evening. It was our monthly “girls’ night,” and we went to another Mexican restaurant in Roseville (Mas) and then to see Iron Man 2. I haven’t seen Iron Man (and to be honest, it’s not usually my type of movie),  but it was actually pretty good. I enjoyed myself, but even more, I enjoyed the dinner and chatting with my friends. Going out once a month on my own is a really good way to decompress from the world of work and mommyhood. I look forward to these monthly get-togethers. Next month, I’m trying to convince them that we need to see The A Team. I used to watch that show on TV with my Dad, and as much as I’m not usually into action movies, I would like to see that one.

In Theo news, I’m pleased to report that our son has entered the Land of Verbs. That’s right--he has added verbs to his vocabulary, which means he’s now able to put together a few very short sentences. What fun! For quite a while, he’s had a lot of nouns in his vocabulary but no verbs. And now, the verbs cometh…and with them, a wealth of information. Most often, this comes in the form of “Peep peep fly!” (which translates to “Birds fly!”) and “Daddy work!” (which means pretty much what it sounds like…Daddy goes to work. Sometimes he adds “vroom!” onto this to let me know that Daddy goes to work in a car.). As he has proven to us time and time again, Theo is a much happier fellow when he can communicate, so this new Land of Verbs is a very good thing. I’m looking forward to seeing what other interesting things he comes up with as he continues to learn more verbs. He’s such a chatterbox that I’m fully expecting long, detailed descriptions of anything and everything on his mind in the near future. And I am very curious to finally get a glimpse into what goes on in that little mind of his.

Last but not least, I’ve posted two more videos on the Videos page. They’re short and nothing fancy at all (just shot with my iPhone), but I thought they were cute. One is of Theo mowing in the backyard, and the other is of him dancing for us at Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom’s house this weekend.

That about sums out our week. Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day!