Our morning downtown

Looking to get out of the house today--and enjoy the 50-degree-plus weather--we took the train downtown Minneapolis to explore the skyways, drink some Caribou coffee (Angela defected to Starbucks) and check out the Minneapolis Central Library.

The story of the morning centered around getting the kids a drink. As Angela was picking up her Chai Latte at evil Starbucks, she decided to get a "Vanilla Milk" for Matthew and Amy to share. Here's what followed:

Matthew: (After taking his first drink and smiling) Is this ice cream?

Angela: No, it's not, but I bet it tastes like ice cream.

Matthew: (Running toward me) Daddy, look, I have a drink. It's called ice cream!"

There you have it. Your Matthew story for the day. You can laugh now. :)  You should have seen Amy fight him for her "turns" with the drink box.  Apparently vanilla milk is all the rage with toddlers these days!

Stand By Me

Saturday mornings are usually Angela's morning to sleep in, so I get to spend a few hours alone with the kids. Sometimes it's peaceful, other times it's quite chaotic. But no matter what the circumstances, it's usually one of my favorite times of the week.

Yeah, it typically entails getting up at 6 am, but it's great one-on-one time with my kids. We read books. We eat together. We watch movies (Madagascar 2 is the new fave). And we watch videos on YouTube.

For me, it's also a chance to reflect. On my week. My family. And my life. 

This morning, I stumbled on a tremendous spot on YouTube that we watched together. As I watched it with Matthew sitting on my left knee and Amy on my right knee, I got a little emotional. I'm not a hugely religious guy, but music just touches my soul in a different kind of way. Always has. And for me, listening to this song, on this particular morning, I again realized how lucky I am to have such wonderful people in my life. My wife. My kids. My parents. My extended family. My friends. My colleagues. 

So, take a peek at this video. It may not do for you what it does for me, but I think you'll enjoy it nonetheless.

Date Night

Last night, Matthew and I had our first official "date".  His behavior has been taking a downward slide, and I think some of i is due to the fact that he and I don't get a lot of 1:1 time together.  Therefore, Arik and I decided that Matthew and I need "date night" once a week.  

Date #1:  Dinner at Houlihans!

This was an easy pick, as they have macaroni and cheese (Matthew's favorite) on the kid menu.  In addition to that tasty treat, they give them a strawberry applesauce cup, and top it all off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  What more could a 4-year old want?

Our waitress, Kristen, couldn't have been funnier.  She commented on what a handsome "date" I had several times, and totally played it up for us.  The picture above is of our beautiful artwork on the kid menus.  We did a lot of coloring before our dinner arrived, and even attempted a game of tic-tac-toe (sp?) when we were done.  I think it is a little early for that one - he didn't really get it.

Matthew can't wait for date #2.  I have a feeling we may be going for happy meals ... but it doesn't matter.  It was really fun, and his behavior today was SO MUCH better.  Yeah!! 

Africa

Matthew ... Matthew ... Matthew ... That is all I have to say today.

On our ride to daycare this morning, Matthew was commenting on the fog. Yes, despite the snow on the ground ... we also have fog. I agreed with him that it was pretty foggy out. After giving him an explanation of fog that I thought he could understand, he responded with, "Yeah ... it looks like Africa."

What?

When I asked him what about the weather outside reminded him of Africa, he said, "You know... the fog and the snow and stuff." Interesting. We have been watching a lot of Madagascar 2. Perhaps Minnesota and Africa are starting to look the same from his perspective. I have no other explanation.

Happy Monday!