"I don't like popcorn balls"

Monday morning was library story time. It's the first we've been to in a while, because 10 am usually comes earlier than I expect. Turns out while we've been gone, Jack has grown quite a bit. He was the biggest kid in the group, and was happy (for once) to sit on the rug and listen to the stories. He sang the familiar songs, and generally participated in a socially acceptable way. (!) The craft was a spider for Halloween. Jack's spider didn't have any legs, but it did have two heads and several googly eyes.


In the afternoon, he played with legos and with a building toy from Ikea. That building toy had been sitting virtually untouched since last Christmas, but it's suddenly the coolest thing ever.











After dinner, we went shopping for ingredients to make popcorn balls, according to the recipe in The Preschool Busy Book. Jack said hello to the lobsters on the way in, and helped me bag the groceries on the way out. We got home close to bedtime, but since I promised, I got started on the popcorn balls. It turns out that this simple recipe requires half an hour of constant stirring while watching a candy thermometer. While I did this, Jack transferred the popped corn from the bag into the mixing bowl, one piece at a time. "No seeds, just popcorn." The final sugar mixture was like molten lava when I poured it over the popcorn. No way was it going to be cool enough before bedtime. I had to finish it after he was asleep, but before it got so cool as to become a brick.


It turned out pretty well, but when Jack tried it today he pronounced that he does not like popcorn balls. Great, now I've got about 15 of them left, at about, oh, 5 weight watcher points apiece. We're seeing friends tomorrow. Let's hope no one's allergic to popcorn, sugar or large quantities of butter, because I want these things gone.

This morning started off with chaos. John missed his ride to the airport, so we all rode together to Philadelphia. By the time we got home, it was pouring snow. Can you see it?

Today was a quiet day at home. More blocks, legos and building toys. We tried to go to Chik-fil-a for dinner because they have an indoor playground, but Jack fell asleep in the car on the way there. He's still sleeping. Sometimes when he's really tired, he'll sleep straight through from afternoon to morning. I certainly need it.

Replacement ghost tattoo. ("taptoo") First ghost tattoo was prematurely washed off in the bath.