I came home from work this afternoon to find a landscape crew working hard in the backyard.
When Jack learned I had bought a new stash of jellybeans as potty-training
bribery reward he dashed to the bathroom (even though 2 minutes before he insisted he DIDN'T have to pee).
Once that business was all taken care of it was time to turn our attention to dinner.
Grandma Nancy gave the boys a really cute
book about a spoon who is jealous of his friends - knife, fork and chopsticks because they get to do fun things. Ryan and Jack are obsessed with the chopsticks, and Jack keeps asking if we can have "shushi" for dinner.
Earlier this week I pulled out some chopsticks we had stashed in a kitchen drawer and gave them to the children. Ryan in particular used them for pretty elaborate pretend play (none involving food) and Jack liked to strike them together like the sticks we use in music class.
On my way home tonight I stopped at our newly-renovated grocery store with its new in-store sushi counter and picked up a variety of sushi rolls. Of course I had to get the basic roll wrapped in nori (seaweed) like the picture in the book.
Jack was so excited to actually eat with the chopsticks, but he quickly realized they take a lot of practice to master.
Fortunately, he's been able to cram food into his mouth using his hands for a long time now (and yes, he uses his left hand predominantly).
While Ryan was not quite as enthusiastic about the sushi rolls on his plate, he was really excited about the green plastic "grass" sheets keeping the rolls separated.
Jack's not giving up yet!
Ryan vetoed the nori, and carefully peeled it off the rice.
Jack really loved the crunchy rolls, which had some kind of crab salad inside.
Ryan finally had success (sort of)!
So he'll use his teeth to tear the nori off, but not actually EAT it...
Turning his attention (and chopsticks) to the apple slices.
Jack had a good time rearranging that piece of ahi tuna on the roll, but didn't actually eat it. He was also enthralled by the nori that was inside the rice instead of outside like the other one.
Aaaaannnnnnndddddddd, there it goes.
Since today was a beautiful day - the first in a long while that didn't have a forecast of snow looming - we decided to go outside after dinner and ride bikes. Well, Jack is still very much attached to his scooter car...
... and he loves to gun it down the hill towards the cul-de-sac.
He will tell you that he's wearing a bigger helmet now, because he is "a BIG BOY" but he shows little interest in riding the
balance bike his grandparents gave him for Christmas.
Sam and I got out our bikes too and we all had fun riding around the quiet circle.
Aiden and Ella, our 5-year-old twin neighbors, ran outside to tell us they were just finishing dinner and would be out to ride their bikes in a minute.
Their parents came out with their bikes, too, and we had a great time hanging out and getting to know them better. There are two other families with little kids on our street too; I hope we all get to spend more time together outside this summer.
Both boys were utterly sacked out by the time we headed back up the hill but I think it was a pretty fun evening for everyone!
