GREEN

It's almost St. Paddy's Day, so I thought this shirt was appropriate. Plus, he was really clean and that's rare, so we tried to take a cute picture. And if he had cheesy-smiled like he usually does, then our goals would've been met, but instead we got this. Nevermind. It's still delicious. And don't say differnt (spelling mistake intended).

We've had a busy week. First, Nana & Grampy visited last weekend (see pictures in my Flickr photostream), and then I started a new term of teaching. The Goose stayed home from school on Monday (for shame!) to play with his grandparents and I'm not sure who had more fun. We went out to eat Eye-talian on Saturday night and Mom & Dad went to a movie on Sunday (Los tres entierros de Melquiades Estrada -- totally engrossing).

And speaking of engrossing ...

Here is a picture of a coupla guys checking out some big noisy machinery while our driveway was being paved yesterday:

I mean, look at the drool. There was a steamroller and a coupla small bulldozers and some dump trucks. I keep trying to imagine the equivalent in my mind and I just can't come up with anything quite so intriguing. Free, organic make-up? Really strong coffee doused with toffee-nut creamer? A pedicure? A shopping spree? A trip to Ireland? None of those can quite compare to watching six men lay down a new strip of blacktop and then steamroll it flat. He even got to ride on the mini-bulldozer (in a circle) and make the front-shovel-thingy go up and down.

And speaking of trucks (and subconscious thought) ...

Yesterday I got a good laugh as I was reading one of my favorite blogs about a little girl almost exactly Goose's age named Parker Blue. PB's mama had written about how she was driving down the road and heard PB say "uh-oh" from the backseat. She looked back and discovered that PB was totally out of the carseat due to the fact that she had FORGOTTEN TO STRAP HER IN. I found this to be amusing because seriously, I cannot believe that I haven't yet done this.

UNTIL TODAY.

There must've been something weird going on in my subconscious, because today I was happily driving down the road singing along to, what else?, Laurie Berkner -- "Little Red Caboose" -- I heard Goose say, "VROOOOOMMM" really loudly from the backseat. I looked back to confirm, eye-to-eye, that yes, there was indeed a big "vroom" (truck) sitting behind us at the traffic light when I discovered that he was standing in his seat facing backward waving at the truck driver. I quickly pulled over into a pet emergency hospital parking lot and rectified the problem while apologizing profusely to The Goose for endangering his life. And to think: I used to stand up in the front seat belting out Tammy Wynette songs while we drove cross-country on vacation.

ION ...

El viejo MacDonald tenia una granja EE-eye-EE-eye-OH.

The Goose is totally obsessed with Old MacDonald. In the days when we used to watch Baby Einstein videos (in SPANISH), he became quite attached to the version of this song that is incorporated into the "Neighborhood Animals" video (Los Animales en Mi Barrio). In this particular version of the song -- which must be differentiated from the version that is included in the actual "Baby MacDonald: On the Farm" video, there are children clapping and SLOWLY singing the song while REAL black and white cows munch hay and twitch their tails. This same version is also featured on the Baby Einstein Playtime CD, which we keep in the car. Not to brag, but The Goose can identify the song, say "moo," and start clapping all after only four beats. If they had a "Name-That-Tune, Baby" gameshow then we would be golden.

So anways, he has developed a huge affinity for one of his bedtime books, The Midnight Farm by Reeve Lindbergh. In this book, (which begins: "Here is the dark when day is done/Here is the dark with no moon or sun/Here is the dark when all lights are out/Here is the heart of the dark.") we take a walk around the farm just before bedtime to look at the animals and prepare for rest. There are dogs, cats, raccoons, owls, geese, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, deer, mice, fox, bunnies, mamas, little boys, and teddy bears. I try to avoid this book because, frankly, I am sick to death of reading it and counting all the animals in English, then Spanish, then German (a trick that was started by Dad, thank you very much). I don't mind the Spanish, because I know MOST of the animals' names in Spanish (except raccoon, deer, and fox -- please advise if you know), but I don't know ANY German (except counting from one to ten) and this is just entirely too complicated. But I will acquiesce and read this book since it is clearly a VERY important part of our nighttime ritual.

Lately, however, I have not needed to read the book because The Goose himself prefers to read it while sitting on the floor and very independently exerting his will to stare at the "six cows stand all black and white" page for long periods of time. As soon as he finds the cows (which is after he finds the moon, the owl (hoo-hoo-hoo), and the "big wood stove where two white cats have a leftover glove and a birthday card that was signed with love" -- which, by the way, Mr. Lindbergh, doesn't even rhyme) he starts clapping.

It took me a while to get it. Duh. The clapping is in imitation of the kids in the video! So now I have to sing about Old MacDonald (ad nauseum) while he flips through the pages and points at which animals are on the farm ... or worse, while he stares, open-mouthed, at those six cows standing all black and white, intermittently emitting a whispered "moo." Tonight we spent seven full minutes in this endeavor. Not that I'm counting.

Next week is his 1.5 year birthday. He was just born, y'all. And now he's almost practically grown. And I've got a lot more gray hair and saddlebags. But he's worth it.