Dinnertime commentary.

Thursday night. Long day. Bethany's exhausted. Richie watches Luke while she makes dinner. (Her usual preference after ten hours with the little fellow. By that time she is out of entertaining ideas, and he usually is bored with her, too. Chopping and stirring sound mighty relaxing.)

She looks through the frig. She looks through the pantry. She looks through the freezer. No inspiration. Plus, she feels too tired to make anything, so she asks for Panda Express. With a smile, Richie says he'll go get it.

Dollar signs blur Bethany's vision; she decides to buck up (no pun intended) and just make something. So she whips up a 30-minute meal of orzo with cream sauce and vegetables. Richie and Bethany find it quite tasty. Sarah, on the other hand, provides an unsolicited comment on the meal that would have been laughed at if Bethany weren't so tired and so not in the mood to do anything but splat on the couch:

"Well, I guess I'll have to pour myself a lot of milk tonight just to get this stuff down!"

Bethany has received no finer compliment on her cooking. This is Number One. For sure.

Anyway, she sassed back at Sarah (why does humor disappear with exhaustion?), and later apologized; and Sarah apologized, too.

Sisters. Can't live with 'em. Can't live without 'em.

On a previous evening, Bethany cooked another dinner that did not include meat, and Sarah sat at the table looking sourly disappointed. Finally, after a long bout of silent chewing, she said, "Sometimes I remind myself of Maryanne."
Bethany: "Who's Maryanne?"
Sarah: "She's a girl who hates vegetables and loves meat. I think I'm a carnivore."

That night, Bethany wasn't so tired, so she thought Sarah's cleverly disguised complaint about the vegetarian dinner was hilarious. We all laughed, and that was that.

Luke has been quotable lately, as well, with lots of "No!"s stated whinily, boldly, and defiantly. He understands almost everything we say, and it is neat to feel like we are able to have conversations with him. We can ask him fairly complicated questions, and he seems to comprehend what we're getting at. Two times lately we asked him if he slept well, and we got the same response both times:

"Did you sleep well?"
"Yah."
"Did you dream?"
"Yah."
"What did you dream about?"
"Papa."

We don't doubt that. The other loves of Luke's life these days are "Da Da" and "Ra Ra" (Sarah), and he loves to say their names. He often calls for them at the top of his lungs. He really enjoys exercising his voicebox. One afternoon he was begging for Ra Ra, and then she appeared through the front door from working at the library. His whole face lit up, he gasped, and then he sprinted--sprinted--to her and clung to her legs like a little monkey.

(Side note: How cool and weird and unique would it be to grow up alongside an AUNT with Down syndrome??? What an interesting, interesting thing. So far, it is one of the neatest relationships Luke has. It is so touching to see how much he adores her, how much he loves her humor, how eager he is for her affection.)

(Now we'll just have to see how much he likes her when he cooks her a meal and she says she'll need lots of fluids just to swallow it down. Let's hope he has more humor than his mommy did.)


Here's the celebrity himself. Going back in time to when Matthew Kwok was visiting. Matt uploaded his pictures onto our computer, so the majority of pictures on this post are from his visit. Thanks, Matt!


Hee hee.


Stealing a friend's toy, and veeeery happy about it.


Matt was a very education-oriented visitor. (With a Ph.D. in Education, this is no surprise.) He made it his goal to teach Luke to count to five, and here he teaches him tennis.


The men visited the pet store, and Luke loved the rodents. After this picture, they were scolded and told not to take any pictures in the store. Must protect rodents' privacy, you know.


Here are some shots Matt took when we were in Krispy Kreme on our way to Pacifica. Luke had a lot of fun with the swiveling stools...


...until he caught sight of the donuts.


We tested his dairy tolerance and gave the boy a donut. Result: sick tummy and yucky diaper. No more dairy for him for a while.


In the van on the way to the ocean. Doing lip tricks.


Richie must know how to give a really hilarious rendition of "Pat the Bunny."


Matt's rendition was a little more serious.


Matt, are you happy to know that at least Luke can count to 1?


Now some of Matt's shots from Pacifica.














This water always looks so inviting: "Jump in! Jump in!" (Truth for Richie. Sarcasm for Bethany.)


A braver California visitor than most we've had: He actually wanted to put his feet into the freezing water.


Wrestling the seaweed.


Check out the wooden building in the background. The world's best Taco Bell!


San Francisco. A couple in love and a wandering child.


Gotta get those Golden Gate shots!




Matt stayed in the downtown Econolodge and became a Davis local. UCD shirt, Habit for lunch...


Matt's last night in Davis, we went to the Orchard Park "Wild Things" presentation. Bethany had seen it a couple times when they came to Esparto Elementary; it was one of her students' favorite assemblies of the year.


When we got there, Luke was at times more interested in the toys than in the animals. (And what a serious skateboarder we have on our hands!)


"Oooooh... look what I found..."


Richie: "Luke, look at the animals!"
Luke: "BALL!"


Since there were two other people to tend to Luke, Bethany got to hold sweet Timothy. They're big fans of each other.


Watching the "Wild Things" presentation: You'd think an animal just died or something. So serious. A moment later, Luke burst out crying when the porcupine we were watching did a trick and flipped upside-down. Scary? Sad? Who knows. We also got to see a 4-month-old black bear, a spider monkey, a possum (yay)... They were all rescued animals who can no longer live in the wild.


At the end of the "Wild Things" show, we got to pet an alligator!






A shot of the five (six) of us at the end of the show. We had a neighbor take the picture. He is six or seven years old; his mom said it made his day. And what photography skills he has! :) (Or maybe the problem is the subjects of the photo.)


Back from petting alligators, Luke gets out his last bits of energy playing at home. (Showing off the cute shirt Matt brought him from Winnipeg!)


(And showing off the charming smile.) (Happy to have found a rock. As Grammy taught him, he calls it a stone: "tone!")


Matt even took him down to see the fire trucks!


We love awkward photos. This is one of the finest.




Matt's final night in Davis ended with dessert. Poor Luke couldn't have the ice cream the rest of us had, so he had to eat his goat-milk-with-strawberry-Nestle-powder popsicle. What a great Friday-night treat.


Watching Daddy eat his popsicle made him more interested in it. Everything tastes better when Dad eats it, too. (Verification that we're not poisoning him.)


Matt didn't leave until mid-day Saturday, so Richie got to take him down to the Davis Farmer's Market. Sarah indulged in a pecan sticky bun. Didn't know carnivores ate sticky buns.


Playing in the Central Park playground.






And the last thing Richie, Matt, Luke, and Sarah did before Matt left was to see yet another "Wild Things" presentation. This time it was at Solano Park, with a new selection of animals. Here Richie and Luke swing on the Solano Park playground.


At the Orchard Park swing one year ago. My, how Luke's grown! He doesn't look like Dopey anymore.

And so marks the end of Matt's visit. It was great to have a Winnipegian here in Davis. Thanks for coming, Matt!

Now for some more recent photos.


Kelly took this picture of Luke with Shealyn's Spanish-speaking Precious Moments doll.


Gutter fun! Kelly just sent us this picture from a while back.


Early-morning cuddles are the best. Since weaning Luke, we've been pretty firm about "sleeping is supposed to happen in the crib" (after he got 16 months of sleeping in our bed :) But Lukey got a bad cold this past week and needed cuddles. (Mommy still needs these cuddles sometimes, too.) Exceptions happily made.


Yesterday, Independence Day, we had a very relaxing time doing nothing, with a Richie BBQ for dinner, and sleep instead of fireworks. (How boring can you get?) (We loved it.) Luke started off the day working hard, toting stacks of books into the kitchen from Sarah's room.


We did take an afternoon trip downtown, where we watched one of the Criterium races. What a fun race to watch! You get to see the bikers so many times (some races are 100 laps), and they are so speedy! They sound like a swarm of athletic bumblebees as they round the corners.


Bethany was nervous the whole time, because she hates the idea of anyone falling and getting injured. And these bikers were way too fast. But Richie and Luke sure enjoyed themselves. (Bethany told Richie that if she were in the race she would stay 20 feet behind the last person just to keep a safe space cushion.) (Like she could keep up anyway.)


"Gee willakers, Dad, this is fun!"


Sarah enjoyed watching the race, too, because she got to eat frozen yogurt.


In between laps, Luke sang the national anthem.


"Oh man, here they come again..."


Other times as Luke waited for the bikers to come around again, he just went ny-ny on the sidewalk.


Then he'd pop up for more action. He watched the guys so very intently. Unfortunately, Bethany's fears came true and we did witness some real (and yucky) action. A few of the bikers got creamed as they rounded the corner right by us. It made Bethany sick for the rest of the day. Fire trucks, ambulance... Some things just don't seem worth it. It was one of the last laps, but the officials called off the rest of the race.


Unaffected by men getting smeared, Luke heard a train and wanted to go see. So we walked to the train station, where Luke played and waited for a train. None came.


Earlier in the day Richie was talking to Bethany about taking Amtrak somewhere, and never mentioned the word "train," just "Amtrak." We didn't know Luke was listening, but when Richie said the word "Amtrak," Luke said, "Oo oo!" (his train sound). How does he know that Amtrak is a train? It's quite frightening to realize how much kids pick up!


Why NOT mow the lawn on the 4th of July?


Even though it looks fun, Luke did not enjoy being in the backpack while Daddy mowed.


Superdad: Richie mowed as he waited for the grilled chicken and zucchini to finish up on the BBQ. He made the rest of the feast, too. All the girls had to do was to sit lazily, celebrating our freedom. (Thanks, Richie.)


Watermelon!


Luke plopped into Sarah's lap for much of the 4th of July dinner.


"Hmm. What food should I eat next?"


Potato chips!


Luke hung out on Daddy's lap, too.


Full of smiles for the camera.




A chicken toast: "Here's to another great year of life in the U.S.A.!"


"...where I can live as free as a bird." Flap, flap.

On that note, we hope that you all enjoyed your 4th of July and that, unlike us, you actually went out and watched some fireworks!

We'll keep you posted on Sarah's dinnertime one-liners. "Freedom of speech"... hard-fought for... but we recommend that the rest of you not exercise your freedom of speech next time Bethany cooks up a dinner for you. We'll leave that freedom to Sarah.