Chickpea Central: October 2010

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Princess of the Pez

The great Walt Disney has infiltrated our home, not in the form of classic cinema but via Pez candy and underpants.

Audrey got some new, bigger underwear this week and some of it features Elmo and Zoe just like the last even-tinier-than-these set of panties, but *some* of it now features princesses. Of the Disney sort. Sigh, moan, all the insidious marketing, blah, blah, blah. Well, why don't you try shopping with a three year old and see if you can do better?

And Audrey quickly recognized Cinderella of the underpants as being the same Cinderella whose head tips back to disgorge a pellet of candy from the new dispenser Daddy gave her. (I tried to tell Scott that he was setting a bad precedent by pulling gifts out of the suitcase all the time, but the guy likes to shop.) "It's the Princess of the Pez!" she cried, enraptured, and pulled on the Cinderella underwear over the two pairs she already had on.

Won't she be blown away when she realizes that the Pez & underwear princess is also in a MOVIE?!

Blog? What blog?

Scott is threatening to start guest editing Chickpea Central if I don't post. This month I have been faced with some difficult choices like, "Should I upload that video of Scott and Calvin dancing, or take a shower while Calvin is napping so that I don't have to wait until midnight to wash my hair?" It's not anyone's fault. Scott is traveling a lot, Calvin takes only one nap a day for about two hours if I'm really lucky, and Audrey is... Audrey. Plus I don't multitask with much grace. I try to write, to post, to cook a little, to keep us all in clean clothes, and to take time to get outside with the kids and collect leaves and acorns which later have to be fished out of the washing machine. Isn't it supposed to be easier for me to get things done? Three years into being a stay-at-home, I still feel it ought to be, but I cannot figure out how. Honestly.

Meanwhile, Calvin can walk and almost run and Audrey is starting to listen to chapter books and to recognize letters. The "Overheard" column could go on for pages. Calvin adds the occasional "Uh-Oh!" and "Mama!" And so for you, dear readers, I will go unwashed another day in order to bring you this clip of Calvin and Scott dancing.

Get up and shake it like a polaroid pitcha, wont' you?

Monday, October 4, 2010

The racing grocery cart

Friends, I give you the two-seater racing-car child-minding grocery cart. Trying to steer this sucker around the narrow aisles of a crowded supermarket is not easy, but it is now the only way I can take both kids shopping. Even with both of them strapped into these seats, I still find that the cart mysteriously fills up with boxes of cookies that I do not remember pulling off the shelves.

Scott says this is how he feels when I'm driving. Shall we install a passenger side steering wheel for the Matrix?

Calvin warms up his Grocery Store Grin for all those adoring women in the produce section who just can't wait to pinch his fat cheeks. Careful, ladies-- behind those cherubic lips are four very sharp teeth.