Rose

Summer Vacation, Day 81: Trevor’s Malt

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

We picked Betsy up at the airport this morning, then took the older boys to tai chi, and finally, to lunch at Annie’s Parlor in Dinkytown. Had burgers and fries, of course, except Emma, who had chicken fingers, and Trevor, who ordered a corn-dog. Once we had eaten more than our daily allowance of calories, we ordered two ginormous malts for the table to share. Hot fudge and wild blueberry. So good.

Trevvy wound up with blueberry and insisted upon using his straw, not the spoon. As a result, as he put it, “This ice cream is going down reawwy slow!”

Brendan finished his hot fudge and asked if there was blueberry left. There wasn’t – but I suggested that he might help Trevor finish his. Trevor, however, was showing no signs of letting up – until he decided he needed to use the restroom. I went with him.

When we returned to the table, Trevor took one look at his malt cup and said, “Hey! Who drank some of my malt?”

No one thought he’d notice. Everyone laughed.

Now, Trevor considers Bren his best buddy, and Emma is closest to him in age, so he has made it known that Gabe is his “last favorite.” He scowled, turned his squinty gaze to Gabriel and asked, “Gabe! Why did you drink my malt?”

“I didn’t!” said Gabe, and Brendan roared with laughter. “No, Trevvy – I did it!” he said.

Trevor looked at Bren, then a smile broke across his face. “Is it okay that Brendan had some?” I asked.

“Yeah,” said Trevvy.

Gabe decided to test him further. “Actually, Trevor, it was me!”

The look of anger was instant and unmistakable on Trevor’s face. His buddy Brendan was fine, but not Gabe. Never Gabe. We all laughed again, and Brendan reiterated that he had, in fact, been the culprit.

* * * * *

Trevor finished with what Bren had left him, and he used his straw the entire time. We warned him he wouldn’t be able to get the blueberries out of the bottom of the glass, but he proved us wrong.

We all watched as a great gob of blue traveled slowly up the straw to half-way and stop. “See, Trevvy?” I started to say, but he was focused, his cheek drawing deeply inward.

Suddenly the berry burst loose, upward into his mouth, exploding into a delicious grin.

Summer Vacation, Day 68: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Belated)

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

On Monday, Emma got sick to her stomach, Gabe got stung by a wasp twice in the neck, I wrote several more pages of a novel, Brendan battled his cousins on the Wii, and Trevor approached Jodi out of the blue to admit, “Mommy? Sometimes I don’t listen to you …”

We still don’t know for sure what that was about.

Headed to Mom and Dad’s today to see the horses, mules and longhorns, then from there to the lake and campground. Probably won’t blog again ’til Thursday at the earliest. Take care out there.

Summer Vacation, Day 60: The Wizard of Oz

/ J. Thorp / 4 Comments

Last night the kids wanted to watch a movie. It’s sometimes a challenge to get them to agree on a single flick – but our DVD player downstairs isn’t working, so we’re limited to the older movies we have on VHS.

Still they were going back and forth, so I said, “How about The Wizard of Oz?” Why, you ask? I dunno – maybe because Jacqui had been blogging about it …

“Yeah!” said Emma.

“Yeah!” said Gabe.

“Um – no!” said Trevor.

“You haven’t even seen The Wizard of Oz, Trevor!” I said, although Jodi’s eyes warned me otherwise.

“Uh-HUUUH!” insisted Trevor.

“Really. What did you see?”

“There were monkeys, and even they could fly!” he said, a big smile breaking across his face.

“Flying monkeys?! That sounds pretty cool! What else?”

“And there was a lion!”

“Was it a mean lion?”

“No, he was a nice lion – even there was a scarecrow!”

“A scarecrow, too? Was he scary?”

“No, and even there was a dog!”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “The Wizard of Oz has flying monkeys, a lion, a scarecrow and a dog? This sounds like a pretty good movie!”

Trevor, by this point was grinning ear to ear, and nodding along with his description.

“And even there’s a collection!”

“A collec … a what?”

“There’s a collection, and even he can move!”

“A collection that moves?” I asked.

“Even the collection has an ax, and even the ax can break wood!”

But of course: the Tin Man, a collection! “Well, Trevvy – that sounds like about the best movie ever!” I said. “Wanna watch it?”

“Yeah – let’s watch it!” he cheered.

Summer Vacation, Day 41: Birthday Boy!

/ J. Thorp / 2 Comments

Eight years ago yesterday, on her birthday, Jodi had an OB appointment, and the doctor had an announcement – the baby in her belly was bulking up fast and needed to come out. We were a only few days overdue, but all her measurements suggested that whoever was in there seemed content to simply expand. The doctor would induce the next day.

We postponed celebrating her birthday until after Gabe’s birth. He was 11 pounds 11 ounces, dwarfing his big brother’s substantial birth weight of 9-9. (Emma, incidentally, weighed a petite 9-5; Trevor frightened the hospital staff at 12-2.)

He’s eight. I can hardly believe how the time passes. Almost makes me want to run.

Summer Vacation, Day 39: Non-Stop Fun

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

Gabe turns eight on Monday, so last night he hosted a sleep-over birthday party. Bren went to a friend’s house, so it was our Gabe and his friends Gabe A., Jack, and Cole, plus Emma and Trevor. The boys were awake until around 1 a.m., and rose around 7. Ah, to have that youthful energy!

They left around 9:30, Bren came home around 10, and Bren, Gabe and I left at 10:15 for kung-fu class in St. Paul. (This is the first weekend in the last five or six that we’ve made it.) Then home again for lunch, then Emma and I left to get the oil changed in the Golf and finish birthday shopping for Jodi – hers is tomorrow. Returned from that in time to get ready for Bren’s final baseball game. They lost a great game tonight, 10-8. Well done, Radiators – kudos on a great season! Got home around 8 for supper; showers and baths and clean-up until right about now – quarter to 10 p.m.

Tomorrow looks like church, a special brunch for Jodi, gifts, yard work (a ton!), then a cookout at a friends place. Still haven’t gone fishin’. Still having a pretty good time.