Family Outing At Starbuck's and Recent Quotes

I'm sure Alex won't like me posting this photo. Oh well. He never wants me to take photos of him. I had to snap this one quickly. Thankfully it's in focus. He likes to wet his hair in the morning to tame the bumps and then comb it forward. He denies that he is combing it forward and on one side of his head, the hair does grow forward. Maybe he's just trying to make both sides match. He's also been pushing our limit on how long we'll allow him to grow his hair. I insist that I want to be able to see his eyes. Patrick just wants him to get a buzz cut. I want him to have some freedom in deciding the length. This is our "compromise".

I was on call yesterday, so I was home during the day. The whole family had breakfast at the nearby Starbuck's, except for Anthony who stayed in bed and didn't want to eat too much because of soccer at 10:30am. Patrick and I shared our Venti Mocha Frappucino with no whipped cream and non-fat milk. I had a free coupon because they messed up my order on a previous visit. He had the banana chocolate chip coffee cake and I had the pumpkin bread. Alex had the
Tall Vanilla Bean Frappucino with whipped cream and orange and cranberry scone. Natalie had the Strawberry Smoothie (only comes in the Grande size) with the Old-Fashioned Glazed Donut. Eric had his usual Strawberries and Cream Frappucino with whipped cream (he got upset one time when they forgot the whipped cream) and blueberry scone. Eric has to have the same thing every time he goes to Starbuck's (definite OCD).

He was upset this morning. When I came home from work, he wanted me to take him out for breakfast. I wouldn't have minded, but I really don't want him to get used to that every morning, or even every morning that I am post-call.

I also wanted to share a few recent quotes from the kids:

--Yesterday at breakfast, we were talking about how Natalie always tries to get in pictures (and she usually has a goofy face when she does) whereas Alex likes to avoid them. He gave his sister this piece of advice, "When you get in a picture, Natalie, you don't want to look like a doofus."

--On the way home from piano one day last month, Natalie tells me in the car, "Explosions are cool except if you're the one in it." This is from the Mythbusters-lover who had just finished watching "X-Men: First Class" at the movie theatre.

--Last week, I was with Eric in a public restroom. He had finished going to the potty and I was just finishing up myself. He tells me, "Mama, you have really big underwear." Thanks, Eric. He doesn't have a good idea about sizes. After all, recently he told me, "Mama, I'm really, really, really, really big."

--Natalie and Eric were both taking a bath together earlier this week. She's always had a problem with dry skin on the back of her legs/bottom area. She tells me, "Eric has such a soft bottom. I want to have a soft bottom." Eric says, "Natalie, you'll never have a bottom like me."

My mom and dad are coming for a visit tomorrow. Yay! Dad is slowing down more and more and I cherish when the kids can spend some extended time with them so they can get to know them while they're still around. Mom and Dad enjoy keeping up with the kids' activities on this blog, but it's nice when the kids can get to know them too.