Third Tooth

Karston's third tooth came out! He forgot he had a loose tooth because he was so excited about Christmas preparations, so when he bit into his cheese-and-cracker, his tooth stuck in the cheese! Yes, a tooth stuck in cheese that barely has tooth marks all around is looks as comical as it sounds!

We are hoping that The Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus don't collide on their ways to our house tonight.

The Cocoa Shoppe

Karston's first grade class held a holiday Cocoa Shoppe, and read letters to parents. Karston's letter ...

Dear Mom and Dad,
I love it when you play chess with me. Mom, my favorite thing about you is you are sweet. Dad, my favorite thing about you is you are strong. It is so much fun when we go on Opa's motor boat because it is so fast.
I love you,
Karston

Meatloaf

I made meatloaf (with lots of veggies made mostly invisible through the food processor) for dinner for the adults. Since Cale is often willing to try what we're eating, I put a slice of meatloaf on his plate. Cale asked, What's that? I said, It's meatloaf. Cale put up his hands to block me from handing him a plate of meatloaf. Since I didn't want to give up easily, I said, Daddy and Mommy want to eat meatloaf for dinner. Cale switched to "gimmee" hands, and started eating meatloaf. Yes folks, the magic phrase for Cale appears to be telling him that's what the adults are eating! If only it were that easy to get his older brother to eat!

Zachary

Today we got our bike rentals delivered (eventually - they had to build one for me) and pedaled over to Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park just in time for lunch. The boys played on the beach, then we ate lunch, then we explored the historic fort. Each time I read out the full name of the park, Karston said "Zachary?!" because one of his friends since preschool is Zach.

3V's

We left the house early this morning to catch a flight to Fort Lauderdale. After an interminable line at the car rental counter, we hopped in a minivan to drive to Key West. Although we were hungry, we also wanted to get away from the airport before eating.

At the first exit, the best choice was Burger King, so we went on. The second exit had a Subway, so we followed the signs there. However, as we were walking up to the Subway, I saw the adjacent restaurant, 3V's Organic Cafe, had a special on a cuban mix sandwich. I couldn't resist! The restauranteur pulled out all of the stops (who cares what's listed on the menu?) to try to coax Karston to eat a reasonable amount of food, but he learned what we already know: Karston is pickier about food than you think. To his credit, he's sincerely interested in serving tasty food that's as healthy as possible.

Along the way, we stopped at Bahia Honda State Park so the kids could play in the sand.

We made sure to have an early dinner so we could watch the Key West Holiday Parade starting at 7 pm. The parade went on until 9 pm! Key West may be small, but you wouldn't know that from the number of floats. many of the floats tossed candy to the kids. Since this is the second time we've watched this parade, we knew to bring a bag for all of the candy! Karston wants to bring the candy to school for his class' gingerbread house decoration. When we left the parade, Karston said, "I'm tired of getting candy now."

C-a-l-e

This afternoon, Cale said, My name is spelled C-a-l-e, picked up a marker, and wrote his name on the whiteboard. He's three!