August peanuts

• Our new HOA prohibits oil drilling on our property. Those fascists.
• Melissa: "If I had a nickel every time Matthew made a noise..."
• Took Matthew and Melissa to a free performance of The Sound of Music with Andrea and Jeremy. Matthew sat through it but Melissa was fascinated. (She was nodding off by intermission though so we called it a night.)
• Fifty something Iranian dude at a conference. "You know," he says, patting my gut, "that's not good for you."
• I had Isaac clean up the shredded Styrofoam that he scattered all over the back seat. He grabbed a handful. "Watch, Dad!" He dropped it in the trash bag. "Boom!" He did this with every scrap he picked up.
• Corinna's first word is "Bye," pronounced "Bah."
• Whenever one of the little girls in nursery sits down on Rachel's lap or mine, Corinna drops what she's doing to muscle off the intruder. Mission accomplished, she wanders back off. Jealous little one-year-old.
• The good news is, Corinna stops what she's doing when I tell her, "No." The bad news is, she also has a total meltdown every time. This may be the earliest we've had a child begin the terrible twos.
• The donut shop lady inquired after my health this morning when Rachel picked up donuts instead of me. Not sure if this is worse than the Iranian dude patting my gut but it's close.
• Me: "Let's not be sexist about this. Why is killing a cockroach strictly a man's job?" Rachel: "It just is."
• Matthew: "You know Dad, someday *I'm* going to post something on The Savage Peanut. Something about you."
• Corinna's second and third words are "uh-oh" and "bang!" Isaac taught her bang, complete with shooting motions. Uh-oh was more of an inadvertent team effort. Christine's first word was uh-oh, too. Rachel says it's a natural one for youngest children to pick up...
• Me: "So would you do the South Beach diet with me?" Rachel: "That's a pretty drastic step, don't you think? No, but I'd hide my carb stash from you."
• Corinna already has a favorite pair of shoes: pink, with flowers on the straps. She'll bring them up to me or Rachel and grunt at us to put them on.
• Rachel made brownies, from scratch, with a dark chocolate glaze on top. When they were done, I got the vanilla ice cream to go with it... but it was freezer burned. Undaunted, Rachel made ice cream too.
• Corinna's fourth word is "tae je" [thank you]. Yes, the pronunciation needs some work, but she uses it consistently. What a polite baby.
• Me: "Am I rubbing off on you, dear?" Rachel: "This isn't your fault. I've never had patience for people THAT stupid." 
• Matthew told his teacher that he wants to run away from home. Not bad for the second day of school.