September Peanuts

• I can see where the kids get their touch of OCD from -- Rachel is going through Stacking methodically beating each stage with every possible solution before going to the next. (In gaming terms, she's a Completionist.)
  
• Another development milestone: Corinna is now ticklish. Lots of baby giggles with Dad!
  
• Melissa is enjoying Castle Crashers immensely. "I kicked their butt!" she cries, as her little green knight administers fiery death to goblin bad guys.
  
• Isaac peed in the toilet without being reminded. Maybe he's decided he's ready to be potty trained again, after deciding it was too much bother for months.
  
• Dinner at a large authentic-Chinese restaurant with a huge fridge of exotic drinks. Isaac picked a can of guava juice. Melissa got a clear peach soda. Matthew picked... Sprite.
  
• Matthew punctured the yoga ball, so I have to pace the floor with Corinna instead of bouncing her. Can't wait for the replacement ball to arrive.
  
• Puke is my least favorite body fluid and Melissa got it ALL OVER. Not sure how she managed, honestly: on the wall at the head of the bed, on the floor at the foot, and of course her hands and feet were both covered as she went through the house after she eventually decided "I should probably tell Mom and Dad."
  
• (Two days later) Me: "Time to eat breakfast!" Melissa: "My tummy hurts!" Me: "This isn't a good time for excuses. Come eat your English muffins." Melissa: puuuuuuuke.
  
• Rachel just beat me and Brian in Power Grid. Closest game I've seen: Rachel and I both powered 17 cities but she ended the game with $147 to my $146.
  
• So, that's our first employee to be hired away by Google. Feels like some kind of rite of passage. Bye, Eric.
  
• (Three days later) Isaac's turn to puke. At least he had the grace to (1) wait til morning and (2) do it on the tile kitchen floor instead of all over the bed. Still had to bathe him afterwards.
  
• Melissa: "D is for the Dark Side."
  
• Rachel: "While up with Corinna last night, I heard Jonathan talking to Isaac in French in his sleep. I wonder if he was dreaming about picking up toys, because I heard "into the sack" "Good job Isaac!" and "That's my boy!"
  
• Took the kids to an SCA event. Melissa and Isaac immediately declared it boring and scampered off to the adjacent playground. Matthew lasted about one minute longer before joining them. "I don't get it, Dad."
  
• It wasn't just a glass of juice making Isaac's face red: Rachel just discovered he was into her cosmetics.
  
• As we left for church at 11:27, Rachel commented, "I think this is the latest we've ever been." I thought ten minutes wasn't that late, but when we arrived the first speaker was already wrapping up. That's when I realized church starts here at 11:00, not 11:30.
  
• Matthew refers to Paul as "the guy who can blow up skinny balloons really easily." It's like a superpower. (I was completely and utterly stymied in my own attempts.)
  
• Rachel: "Interesting. Our blog has a 'messy' tag, but not a 'clean' tag."
  
• The spicy twice-cooked bacon from the Chinese place last night is the greasiest dish I can remember ever eating, and that's saying something. Paying the price this morning since before 5. [Two months later, I still have the food equivalent of PTSD when I visit that restaurant.]
  
• Lisa: "The problem with Jonathan's solutions is that he assumes that other people are like Jonathan."
  
• Found the missing Eneloop battery... in the bottom of the dishwasher. Sometimes the kids baffle me.
  
• Matthew: "The kids at school are mean. Vincent tells everyone that I'm bossy. And they wouldn't listen when I told them what they should be doing!"