me want food

I am sitting here having a few minutes of down time while Patrick is reading to H & C.  While Christmas shopping, I had found this version of "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" by Beverly Cleary that is the size of a picture book, but is the chapter book, so not an abridged version.  Anyway, Henry loves it.  Apparently Patrick does too, because I just heard him laughing out loud at the book.  

I was inspired to buy it because Henry was asking me recently when he could ride a motorcycle. (!?!)  I said when he is a grown up, he can make decisions like that for himself, but while he is a kid, he will not be riding a motorcycle.  Although, I have a distinct memory of riding on the back of my Uncle Steve's motorcycle, terrified, some time in late elementary school.  Lucky for me, neither of Henry's uncles currently have motorcycles.  I think I was really surprised when he asked me about the motorcycle because Henry is not particularly fearless, and I would assume a motorcycle would be scary to him.  But he never ceases to surprise me with his boy-ness.  I know not all boys are as energetic as Henry, but many are, and apparently Malcolm is, and sometimes I wonder how to be a mom of two such hungry, rough, loud, boisterous people. Ceci I got covered, but these boys... and if I think they are hungry, rough, loud and boisterous now, just wait until high school, when all their hungry, rough, loud, boisterous friends come over, eat all my food, have band practice in my garage, stink up my bathroom, and leave things like baseball mitts and random socks all over my house.  I am actually kind of looking forward to it.  

This brings me to my final story.   I was in the check out line at Publix last Tuesday doing our shopping for the week (head start on resolution #2) and behind me was a young guy, maybe 20 or so.  He said to me, "Man, that's a lot of food."  I wanted to say, "Are you kidding me?  This is nothing. Just wait ten years, and then see how much food I have to buy."  What I said was, "I have three kids."  He said, "Oh."  I said, "And two of them are boys."  "Ohhhh, " he said.  "And there not even that old yet," I said.  You see, Henry is hungry pretty much constantly.  And we all know Malcolm is no slouch when it comes to eating.  So, I decided I just need to keep an obscene amount of healthy snacks around, so I had yogurt, popcorn, pretzels, cheese, frozen corn (actually pretty yummy, Angie's suggestion) apples, bananas, cereal, string cheese, and I think that is it.  I understand why the guy said it.  I also know that all this food will be gone in a week to 10 days.  

And so it begins.