How I know I should probably be spending more time outside with my kids...

A few days ago we set up the dancing caterpillar sprinkler in the backyard for the kids to cool off. While they were running through it, Comma found a feather in the grass.

M.E.: Comma, do you know what this is?
Comma: A feather!
M.E.: Do you know where it came from?
Comma: The couch!
M.E.: Well, that's not a bad guess - the cushions in our couch do have feathers in them and once in a while one comes out, but this feather didn't come from there. Where do you think it came from?
Comma: A pillow!

Now I know how my mother felt...

...when I insisted on having mile-high bangs back in the late '80s.

Green Pea has been styling his hair to look like an old-man combover and regardless of how many times that I tell him it looks ridiculous, he thinks it's totally cool. I suppose that pictures like this will provide endless entertainment for his kids someday, but for now it just makes me want to tear my own hair out!

career changes

Our conversation while driving home from the store today:

Green Pea: I want to be a money loaner when I grow up.
M.E.: Ok.
Green Pea: What do you do if you're a money loaner?
M.E.: Well, you have money to invest and people who want to start a business or something come and tell you about their business plan and you try to decide who has a good plan and can grow their business and pay back the money.
Green Pea: I want to be a teacher and a pizza maker and then I'll try to be president.
M.E.: Oh, really?
Green Pea: Yeah, I'll be a teacher when I first move out of the house and get my own house and then after that I'll be a pizza maker and then I'll try to run for president.
M.E.: Where does being a money loaner figure into all that? I thought you wanted to be a money loaner.
Green Pea: (dismissively) Oh, I'll do that when I'm a teenager!

Scotch tape can fix anything

Comma is very fussy about his food being in what he considers good condition and consumed in the manner he approves. If a corner breaks off of a slice of cheese before it's placed on his cheeseburger, as far as he's concerned it's damaged goods and he doesn't want it. He likes to eat his bananas "like a monkey" - meaning with the peel partially peeled back but NOT completely removed. I made the mistake of peeling a banana too far down for his liking one day and he was adamant that he wasn't going to eat it. Trying to avoid a big battle over nothing, I offered to tape the peel back together closer to the top of the banana. Comma accepted this remedy and proceeded to eat his banana. I didn't think much about it until a few weeks later when he was picking up a burger (minus the bun, which he prefers to eat separately) and a large chunk of it broke off. He immediately dissolved into tears and insisted that I fix it. I tried to explain that I couldn't stick the burger back together - it would just come apart again. He started shouting, "Then tape it!" I told him that it wouldn't work and I was not going to tape his burger back together. His frustrated response: "Why not? It worked with the banana!"