20 Questions

More like 200 questions. 

My son Daniel turns 4 at the end of this month and he is smack dab in the “everything is a question” phase.  EVERYTHING is WHY? and HOW?  It’s cute and funny and exhausting and sometimes frustrating (when I don’t know the answer, that is.  Let’s be honest.)

His favorite questions surround the day’s meals.  How do you make oatmeal? How do you grow blueberries?  How do you make cereal?  How do you make toast? How do you make the bread?  Why is the edge of the bread browner than the middle of the bread? How do you make milk?  Why is it white? How do you make strawberry jam?  Why is it bumpy? How do you make green beans?  Why are they green?  Why is ice cream cold?

And it continues on and on and on.  How do you make french fries?  Why is ketchup in a bottle?  How do you make turkey meatloaf? How do you make chicken?

(I always cringe a little talking about the animals we eat.  Thank goodness he has not associated eating chicken with killing a chicken.  At least not yet. )

It is very interesting because all these daily questions force me to be on my “A” game.  He’s smart enough to follow along and when we talk about how you have to plant seeds to grow different fruits and veggies, he called me and my husband on it.  He said how do BANANAS grow because they don’t HAVE seeds?  How does THAT work, Mama and Daddy?

Turns out you plant the banana leaves.  Thank you, Google.

He asks the general curious everyday questions that you would expect – why is the sky blue?  But then he asks how the clouds make rain and why does it thunder and lightning and I try to answer everything as simply as I can.  Short and sweet.  Because sometimes it can turn into a 30 minute back and forth session of more questions and I fear I’m confusing him.

Or he’s confusing me.

And he notices every little thing.  He asks me how  the refrigerator door connects to the refrigerator.  He asks my husband why we have a new license plate on the car.  He asks why I moved a book or changed a purse or drove a different way to the library.

He asks where all his body parts come from and how did he get his hair, his blue eyes, his white teeth.

He also uses his “whys” to question my authority.  Why do I have to clean my room?  Why do I have to brush my teeth now? Why do I have to put pants on?  Why do we have to go to swimming lessons today?  Why do I have to wear a Polo shirt to church? Why? Why? Why?

BECAUSE I SAID SO, Daniel.

(Okay.  I get it now, Mom and Dad.)

PS: Guess what hubbie just sent me a link for?  This brand new BIG Book of Why: 1,001 Facts Kids Want To Know.  I’m ordering it for (me and) Bean. Pronto.

Bethenny Getting Married? Season Finale: Sneak Peek

I can’t believe it’s the Season Finale!  Don’t forget to watch this awesome show.  Tonight at 10 on Bravo.

Annabel’s Curls

My daughter’s curls are her trademark.  She looks beautiful with curly hair.  It suits her so well.

And her curls looked the best during our beach vacation.  It was something about the pool and the ocean and the salty air that made them look perfect. 

Perfectly Annabel.

La Roux: Bulletproof

I love ’80′s pop music.  I’m an ’80′s kid at heart.  When I was growing up, I would dance around my bedroom listening to my cassette tapes while rocking my leg warmers and jelly bracelets. (Those were my version of these crazy Silly Bandz.)

Anyway, this song totally takes me back.  It has that fun ’80′s vibe.  The video is awesome too.  Both the song and the video make me think old school MTV, Pretty in Pink and You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive.

Loves.

Annabel’s First Dentist Visit

Annabel had her very first dentist visit yesterday! (I documented Bean’s very first dentist visit HERE.)

Annabel was a little nervous and clung to me while I filled out the paperwork.  But her fear soon turned to curiosity and excitement.  We have the best pediatric dentist because his office is an amusement park of giant sized crayons, fish tanks, and video games.  There are even TVs on the ceiling so the kids can watch a Disney movie while they get their teeth cleaned.

The ceiling movie was Toy Story 2.  Annabel opted to sit on my lap during her time in the chair, but she did OPEN HER MOUTH (Yahoo!) and let the hygienist brush and floss her teeth.  She was practically lounging when the dentist came to examine and count her teeth.  It was a huge success! (Oh, except for the part when the dentist told me she will need a mouth guard and braces.  Again, how do they know this already?  She’s TWO!)

The grand finale was the wall toy box.  And my kiddies can not resist those funny face glasses.

John Mayer – The Today Show

It takes a cool, confident man to rock some plaid high-water pants.

Just sayin’.

Seashells

Daniel and I started a new beach vacation tradition: Looking for seashells together.  Just me and him. 

The best part?  We went on our adventure after Annabel was asleep and it was “really, really late.”  Like “super late.”  Like the only other kids awake at the same time were the “big kids.”

Bean thought it would be “really, really dark” so we had to bring a flashlight.  (It really wasn’t that dark out at 8 o’clock, but he didn’t mind.  He still used his flashlight. )

It was perfectly warm with an awesome ocean breeze as we searched the wet sand.   He was in his jammies with blue Crocs.  He held my hand as we walked but then he would let it go to run after a piece of white or black or silver shell he saw floating in a foaming wave.  We carefully placed our treasures in a mini blue  pail.

The best part?  It was just me and him. 

Just him and me.

Miranda Lambert – The House That Built Me

Here’s another PopMommy confession.  I LIKE COUNTRY MUSIC.

Yes, it’s true.

I actually worked in country radio for many years.  I was the promotions director.  I was in charge of all the fun give-a-ways and I also met a bunch of up and coming artists.  The one thing that struck me the most was that the people in the country music industry are the nicest people around.  From the record reps to the band roadies.  Everyone was just super cool.  It made me enjoy the music more.  I never really listened to any country music before I worked in country radio (well, aside from some old school country my Dad played when I was growing up.) But I learned to really love it and appreciate it.

I’m a fan of mostly the boys – Kenny, Keith, Toby, Alan, Garth, and the cuties from Rascal Flatts.  But there are some great country chicks out there too.  Miranda Lambert is one of them.

Miranda Lambert got her big break on Nashville Star which is basically the country version of American Idol.  She DIDN’T win.  (She was third. I have no idea who actually won.  Isn’t that always the case?)  But it didn’t matter because she was signed to Sony Music and her debut album went straight to number one.  The girl can sing  AND write a great song.  Like this one which I just heard today while driving the kiddies to their swimming lessons.  I was trying not to tear up.  I know it’s been out on country radio for awhile, but I just discovered it. 

Lucky me.

Family Beach Vacay ’10

I FINALLY downloaded all my beach vacation photos and it was so nice to relive it all again.

We stayed at the super family friendly Dunes Village Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC.  The key feature for us was the nice covered pool area. (This is very important for my pale family.) 

The pool area also has a lazy river…

and TWO water slides.

Bean was in heaven and could not get enough of it.  Annabel was a little hesitant of all the pool stuff the first day. But by the second day, she was a little princess mermaid.   She would sit with me for an hour in the kiddie pool area and just swim around in circles.

She also liked to lounge with me at the beach.  I could not ask for a better companion.  Something about the salty ocean air must really mellow a crazy 2 year old because she was my beach chair buddy.

Daddy and Bean did a lot of sand castle building and wave jumping.

And each day ended with ice cream on the balcony. 

Annabel always had “pink” (strawberry) ice cream from the ice cream parlor.  Bean always wanted a fudge bar from the freezer because that’s what he picked out from the grocery store the first night we arrived.

Family. Pool.  Beach.  Ice Cream. 

Perfect.

The Hills – The Rest Is Not Unwritten

I was getting bored watching the series finale of MTV’s The Hills last night.  I already knew I liked Lauren “LC” Conrad better than the f-bomb throwing Kristin Cavallari.  I skipped a couple of episodes this season so I was playing a bit of catch up with the crew.  (It wasn’t that hard.)  And “Speidi” (the crazy, yet super media savvy, couple Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag) were not even in The Hills finale.  WHAT?

But then, BAM! The big surprise ending.  Brody Jenner is waving a (sorta) tearful goodbye to Kristin who is heading off to Europe for the summer. Just then the iconic Hollywood sign behind Brody starts to move and it is revealed that he is on a sound stage.  The cameras and crew members come out.  Brody starts to smile and clap. The car with Kristin stops and she runs over to give Brody a finale hug.  (And…SCENE.)

Hilarious.  One of the best finales ever.   I loved it.  I’m glad they FINALLY let us in on the joke. I think we all suspected the show was mostly scripted, didn’t we?  But then I read about these “characters” constantly in US Weekly and various entertainment websites.  Were they really fighting or hooking up?  Was it all fake?  I mean Heidi’s ten plastic surgeries can’t be staged?  I will admit it was hard to believe Kristin and Justin Bobby ever liked each other when they were dating.  And then I read about Brody dating pop star Avril Lavigne (he tweets about it too) while he is supposedly single on The Hills and heading to Costa Rica with Kristin and the gang for an impromptu vacation.

So now I’m left thinking about The City and The Jersey Shore and all the other MTV reality shows.  (Or ALL reality shows for that matter.) Should I now assume most of them are scripted?  Or at least partially scripted?

The answer is probably yes, but either way, that Hills ending was genius MTV.  Just genius. 

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