Brownies and cookies

Clara's Brownie Troop was just formed a couple of months ago, so we dove straight into Girl Scout cookie sales (as I am now diving into the cookies themselves). It took me a little while to convince the poor girl that there was more to Brownies than just fundraising. And while there haven't been any badges or jamborees or campfire singalongs yet, we did get to go uniform shopping! I delighted in buying her the brown kneesocks and dorky little brown hat...both Clara and I lucked out generationally, it seems, since our Brownie years coincided with the popularity of the color brown in mainstream fashion....
Clara is now trying hard to abide by the "Brownie Promise", which comes in handy when I want her to do something that she doesn't want to do *insert evil heckle*. Hey, if someone hands me a cattle prod on a silver platter, I'm going to take it.

You know what's crazy?

Trevi's favorite thing lately is to preface every statement with, "You know what's crazy?" He then goes on to tell us something which is most probably not all that crazy. Some examples of today's craziness:
"You know what's crazy? This yogurt has lemon pie on the picture, but it doesn't have any crust and you don't have to bake it."
"You know what's crazy? One cactus is just called a cactus, but two cactuses are called cacti."
"You know what's crazy? This was such a long day...it goed all the way to night."
"You know what's crazy? I didn't take off my shoes yet."
"You know what's crazy? There are real cats and fake cats in the cat bed."
Good thing Trevi hasn't noticed that his own mother is the hands-down winner of the crazy award around here.

The Power of Positive Thinking

I finally have proof that a positive attitude and good role models are the key to success: Our plum tree blossomed first.
There are 26 plum trees in the schoolyard (clearly the arborists involved in the project didn't think about the kinds of mischief 700 children can get into with stray fruit) and one of the trees is planted directly outside my classroom. A few weeks ago, to help us celebrate Chinese New Year, we made little blossoming trees as an art project. I proudly displayed them in the window for all passersby to enjoy.
Well, imagine my surprise when I arrived at work to find that the plum tree which stares at our artwork all day had burst into bloom.....
...while the next tree over (along with the other 24 on campus) had only a few open blossoms.
My class and I took a little tree walk to count blossoms and enjoy the sunshine. Then, we sat around "our" tree to come up with some theories. It seemed to us that the growing conditions were exactly the same for most of the trees, since they received the same amount of sun and rain, and just generally lived identical lives. What then, caused our tree to declare the arrival of spring a full week sooner than the others? A few out-of the-box thinkers figured that the tree was fooled into blooming by our decoys. The general consensus, though, was that the little plum tree just looked at the shining examples in our window, and decided that it wanted to be just like them. It knew what was possible, so it made up its mind to try hard to blossom. And by George, it succeeded! (I'm trying to not equate this with girls wanting to look like airbrushed magazine models, because that will spoil my warm fuzzy feeling about the whole thing.) My favorite insight came from a student who said, "Mrs. C., I think we should put pictures of ice cream trees in the window and see what happens..."

How many days until Halloween?

It all started with the bunny ears yesterday....then out came the dress-up bin.... and before we could stop the dominoes falling, we were on to a big discussion tonight at the dinner table about what to be (or not to be) next Halloween. Trevor envisions himself as a robot. Clara hasn't made a final decision yet, but we do know that she is adamantly opposed to all of Chad's suggestions that have anything to do with monkeys. I couldn't resist the opportunity to do a little Halloween retrospective....
2005

2006

2007

Now that I think about it, it's good to have all of these photos in one place, so that I can easily access them when I need to blackmail the kids as teenagers. Trevor as a flamingo will certainly come in handy.....

The Kitchen Table

I love it when people give Clara crafty things as gifts. I am always amazed at the way she will set up her area on the kitchen table, and then see a project through to completion. Today, she was trying out a new gizmo that she got last month for her birthday. Basically, there is a little wire that heats up, allowing you to cut through a sheet of plastic foam by melting it. Sounds toxic, I know, but the instructions assured us that it's okay... So, Clara was cutting out little foam shapes, and then painting them with special paint.
Naturally, Trevor always wants to try to do whatever his sister is doing. Luckily for all of us, she was very generous with her tools and materials today. Foaming was a team sport.The foam cutter thingy proved to be very entertaining, and both kids worked on their creations for ages. Clara made doorknob hangers for both of their rooms, then a framed mirror, and a little star to give a friend for her birthday. Trevi, never one to do things by the book, made a bunch of little shards of foam with blobs of paint on them, which he scattered around the house for Harold the Helicopter to rescue.
Clara's final project was a little orange cat that she carefully cut and painted as a gift for Trevor.
Later, Trevi put on some bunny ears and built a Lincoln Log house for the orange foam cat. Because even (non-toxic) foam felines need a place to call home.

The Cactus Store

Since Chad was away this week, and Clara and I had school, Trevor and Grammy headed to the Sonoran Desert, in search of Giant Saguaros and other prickly things (you rock, Grammy!). Trevi, other than being a bit disappointed that saguaros don't bear fruit at this time of year, loved everything about the trip. From the sounds of things, they had quite an adventure. From the looks of things, a gift shop in Phoenix has some serious restocking to do. Trevi is now the proud owner of his very own saguaro - this little guy is about 10 years old, and needs only one tablespoon of water per month. Watch out for the pokies, Manny!
Within 15 minutes of welcoming her brother home, Clara had commandeered all of the souvenirs and opened her own gift shop. She has quite a knack for store display, and her prices are very reasonable. Clara has opened at least three or four dozen different businesses over the past few years. She got her start in the restaurant industry, but her entrepreneurial spirit does not stop with food service. She has run beauty parlors, dance academies, craft workshops, and she has sold just about anything that she could find, create, or imagine. She calls herself, "Ma'am", and works the cash register, as well as most other aspects of the business. When the store is open, she mercilessly shouts, "OPEN! OPEN! OPEN!" until anyone in earshot is so desperate to quiet her down that we go and buy something. Sometimes, when I have spent all of my energy and 100 fake dollars buying beaded bracelets or my own pencils, I start to be less than enthusiastic about shopping. I try to convince Clara to close the store for awhile...go take her lunch break. But the girl has an unparalleled work ethic.
"Store" can be a great game. Fun and creative...even uses math skills! But it can also cause violent civil unrest. Clara is a girl who likes things the way she likes them. Trevor is a boy who doesn't find symmetry and realism all that important in the grand scheme of things. And, he doesn't always want to be the bag boy. He has aspirations of getting promoted to cashier...or, dare he dream it...of being a partner some day. He invented his own character name for the store game. He is, "Sirmamsircondry". Yes, you read that right... "Sir Ma'am Sir Condry". Although today, for some reason, he wanted to just be called, "Condry". Can't say that I blame him....
Chad, always a very, very kind husband, let me sit and drink my coffee while he dutifully picked up the official purse, and made several trips to The Cactus Store. He even bought a t-shirt that I know for a fact is way too small for him. Clara was glad for the business, since Trevor started boycotting after an altercation over the placement of the fridge magnets in the display.
There was a bit of thievery going on, too. Trevor hired Harold the Helicopter to swoop in through the store window and make off with a box of prickly pear candy. He then hid all of the candy inside Harold, to avoid being caught. Now that I think about it, that candy may still be in there....

Girls' Night Out

Clara and I had a GNO tonight. With the boys away, we figured that a glamorous dinner at Baja Fresh was in order, followed by shopping. On a Thursday night! We are livin' large!
In the car on the way to dinner, Clara informed me, with a giggle, that she had taken my cell phone out of my purse, and had put it in her own (little leopard print purse that she takes everywhere). She has been petitioning for a cell phone for some time now, but no one around here is signing the petition. So, she likes to hold my phone and pretend that it is hers. I don't like cell phones, to be honest, because I don't really need one in my line of work. The only calls I ever get are from Chad, when we are on opposite ends of some giant store and he can't find me. As I was driving, Clara was amusing herself with the phone, making it ring, making it beep, etc. Then, she said, "Mommy, you really should download some new ringtones. These ones aren't that cool." A minute later, she was chuckling about something, so I asked, "What's so funny". She said, "Oh, I just took a funny picture of myself and I made it your wallpaper." I asked her how she knew about wallpaper, and, more specifically, about how to change the wallpaper. Her reply was, "Mommy, it is sooooooo easy. I mean, you just go to the menu and select 'display options', then go to 'wallpaper', then hit, 'my photos', then pick a photo, then hit 'select', then hit, 'save'. Your wallpaper was so boring before." My wallpaper was boring.

As we ate our burritos, I couldn't help marveling at my little girl, and at how much she's changed over the past year. It has been more than just a chronological thing lately....more like a caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis. Midway through dinner, she decided she wanted some water, so she walked up to the counter and (politely) asked the cashier for a cup. It doesn't sound that earth-shattering, I know, but she would NEVER have done that a year ago. Oh, maybe if I held her hand and walked up to the counter with her and I did all the talking. But now, there is no fear in her. She trusts herself and trusts that she can get the job done. This, the girl who used to cry and cling at Birthday parties if she didn't know every single party guest. Amazing.
Throughout dinner, I let Clara keep the phone in her purse. She even got a call....Chad in Oregon, saying goodnight...and the way she sipped her drink and twirled her hair while chatting gave me glimpses into a future that seems to be sneaking up on me. Later, at the store, she took the phone out of her purse (even though I had told her not to), and accidentally dropped it. It was no big deal, really, and I managed to snap everything back together, then reclaim possession of the thing, tossing out a calmly spoken, yet snarky "I told you so" type comment about how she really is too young to have a cell phone. (Ya, I didn't need to rub it in...wish I could take that back). When we finally got home, I checked to see if the phone still worked, and was relieved to find that it did (or how would we ever survive a trip to Home Depot this weekend???) Clara, a bit shaken by the experience of almost breaking something expensive, got a bit teary-eyed and sniffly. She said, "Mommy, I am so, so, sorry. I would never want to break your phone. I just wanted to look like a big kid carrying it around the store." It makes me smile just thinking about it. I mean, her motivation was clear to me from the beginning, but I am completely shocked that she actually expressed it to me. She gave me a clear, honest, rational explanation for her behavior. This was a watershed moment. It made me so happy that I let her read for 20 extra minutes tonight, and I promised her that we could make smoothies on Saturday. My little girl can be rational! Hmmmm...I wonder where she gets it from?

I Intensely Dislike You, Evil Webkinz Inventor!

Last night Clara was in the bath, and suddenly she shouted, with the kind of desperation that only a seven-year-old can muster, "Oh no! Mommy! I need a pen and paper! Quick!" I wasn't too alarmed, since she frequently gets desperate urges to write down song lyrics for her future #1 hits, and she does some of her best thinking in the tub. I went in there and asked her what was up. Turns out that she had written a user name and password on her hand using a ballpoint pen, and the ink was washing off. Without the user name and password, she shrieked, fighting back tears, she wouldn't be able to play with "Jordan" all week! Jordan is a Webkinz. Hmmm, I actually don't know if it is Webkin or Webkinz in the singular. Anyway, Jordan is a stuffed animal- a black bear, to be exact, and Trevor took him along on a desert adventure trip to Phoenix this week (more on that another day). Without the password, etc, you can't access the website and play little games that let you purchase virtual stuff for a virtual world that you create. Clara, unable to stand the thought of going a week without buying cyberfiletmignon and cave accessories for the bear, copied its various codes onto her hand. Bathtime became problematic. That's where I came in. The biggest problem was that I was completely unsympathetic to her plight. She needed to "play" with a stuffed animal that was currently in Arizona? What ever happened to playing with actual stuffed animals that were in one's possession? When did this become so important to her? How has she managed to turn a few minutes of computer time here and there into some kind of obsession? And also, who the heck did she think was going to let her go on Webkinz.com this week? Because it certainly wouldn't be me, and I am the only one around until Friday.

Turns out she had a plan. She was plotting to invite herself over to a friend's house...a friend who has her own computer in her own room (and also a cell phone and an ipod...) so she could buy cyberjunk with cybercash to her little heart's content.
Part of me feels like a fuddy duddy for being so anti when it comes to these dumb little things. If you look at them purely from a stuffed animal perspective, they are cute. Lots of species to choose from, cute little clothes, soft and fuzzy... But what is the point of making them cute and cuddly at all, if kids just sit and stare at the 2-D version of their animal online???? I mean, come on, people! Why do you have to be so cruel as to try to turn little kids into online consumers? I am hereby making the executive decision that there will be no more Webkinz in our house. The three that Clara owns will be stripped of their internet capability and turned into regular old stuffed animals. Will this make my daughter a social outcast? If it does, then she will just have to rely on her sparkling personality to win friends and influence people. Sorry, Clara. I'm doing this because I love you. Well, and also because they are dumb.

Nosemary Park

This is another Trevorcentric episode of "Stuff". Clara, being the social butterfly that she is, has been overloaded with birthday parties and get-togethers lately. And for the past three days, Chad has been digging a giant hole at our Oakland house, trying to remove 8000 tangled redwood roots from the sewage pipes. Good, clean, outdoor fun! So Trevi and I have been hanging out. Today, after dropping Clara off at the latest shindig, we decided to find a new park. The one we found was full of rosemary bushes. Rosemary has been among Trevor's favorite plants for some time now, although, until very recently, he called it, "nosemary". We thought that was so cute (and such an appropriate name for something so aromatic), so we tried to keep everyone from cluing him in on the actual pronunciation. Don't know exactly how he found out the truth, but now he just calls it, "rosemary", like everyone else. Rats.
We spent a good deal of time walking in and around the rosemary bushes at the park, smelling and tasting the leaves, and collecting a few flowers. Then Trevi found a little bouncy ball, and we bounced it into the bushes and went searching for it over and over, until we both were so thoroughly seasoned that you could have used us to marinate some chicken.
As we drove off to pick up Clara, Trevor said, "We can call this park, NNNNNosemary Park if you want to, Mommy." He is so good to me. :)
Later on, after dinner, Clara decided to give Trevor a lesson in painting with watercolors. I love these quiet moments between them, where Trevor accepts the role of obedient student, as a trade-off for his beloved sister's complete attention.
The peace is usually short-lived, though, as Trevor is not all that into tyranny, and Clara has zero tolerance for noncompliance. When Trevor decided that he wanted to move his own hand where he wanted it to go, Clara decided that she would take her watercolors away, at which point Trevor decided that he would throw the tiny paint brush at his sister's head, prompting her to shout, "I'm never going to let you use my paints again!", which led to a wail of despair from the tortured young artist, resulting in me telling them both to go brush their teeth NOW, or the paints were going to be MINE. So we were all feeling pretty ornary at that point. But it was nothing that a few bedtime stories couldn't cure. Thank goodness for bedtime stories.

A Trains and Pancakes Kind of Day

This morning, Trevor announced, "This feels like a trains and pancakes kind of day". He was right - it actually did. Hang around the house, relax, play trains, eat something yummy. Sounded perfect to me.
The train thing started just before Trevi's second Birthday. Back then, his train vocabulary was limited to, "Woo Woo", and "BART Woo Woo" (That's Bay Area Rapid Transit Woo Woo, for those of you who have never ridden BART). We called him, "Cave Man", because most things he said were more gruntlike than wordlike. I am happy to report that he did, eventually, lose the Cro-magnon act, and trains have been a favorite topic of conversation ever since.
Trevor plays trains almost every day. His trains have all kinds of adventures and misadventures. They help each other, they battle for bragging rights on their branch lines, and they derail constantly. Many engines fall in the lake, the quarry, or the mud, and then need to be rescued by Cranky the Crane, or by a helpful engine who somehow managed to stay on the tracks.
Before the train-love began, it had never really occurred to me how much dramatic play is involved when you are operating your own train world. I love watching the plots unfold.
We didn't get around to the pancakes part until dinner. I must say that I love the "breakfast for dinner" concept, because I am not a fan of cooking (to say the least). This is becoming quite a habit, since Fat Tuesday was just a couple of weeks ago. We have whole wheat pancake mix, at least.....
The kids decided that we should make some saguaro pancakes. In goes the food coloring....
....and the finished product is tasty, and full of nesting holes for the elf owls and woodepeckers. An ecologically (if not nutritionally) sound dinner. Every time we make cactus pancakes, though, Trevor gets a hankering for REAL cactus. One of these days, I will have to get it together and google some recipes for sopa de nopal...

Sugar, anyone?

I am not completely without blame when it comes to peddling sugar to minors. Why, just today, I took cupcakes to school for my class. In my defense, though, no one else was supposed to bring treats to school. The cupcakes were supposed to be IT. "A low-key Valentine's Day mini-party", was what I called it in my newsletter last week. I guess I knew deep down that half a dozen parents would show up with heart-shaped blobs of frosting and sprinkles. So I'm sure my students crashed pretty hard tonight. As for Clara and Trevor, well, they both had parties at school today, too. So, see for yourself:

I thought I'd better try to channel some of this, well, let's call it, "energy". So, we decided to make a scavenger hunt for Chad. He gets home late tonight from a chilly trip to New England, and we figured that a little heart-warming was in order. Trevor thought of places that we could hide hearts, and Clara wrote clues that would take Chad from place to place. After everything was all set, we did a test run. Here's a bit of it:

Both kids started to fade as soon as we sat down to read stories, and they were both snoring (well, breathing loudly, really) within two minutes of being kissed goodnight. Whew! Another "holiday" under the belt (hmm...never realized how literally you can take that expression when chocolate and cupcakes are involved). There is no doubt in my mind that someone will mention "Easter" during breakfast tomorrow.

Valentine Central

Clara has been busily working on valentines for over a week. I'm amazed by the time and care that she puts into projects like this. She places a huge value on effort. I love that about her. Every kid in her class gets a one-of-a-kind creation, lovingly crafted, with a personal message. The only drawback is that it takes a long time to make cards for 19 kids and a few teachers. A looooong time. She is a determined girl, though. Being the generous and helpful sister that she is (most of the time), Clara helped Trevor with his Valentines, too. Since organization is her forte, she was sure to write a list of names for him to copy, then teach him how to cross each name off the list after he had finished that card. He is just learning to print his name, and I love watching the concentration it takes for him to form each letter. Bet you can find the three teacher names on these cards...
Clara worked way past her bedtime tonight, finishing up for the big day tomorrow. As she laid these out for me to take a picture, she said, "I hope that all of my friends will appreciate my hard work!" I hope they will, too, honeybun.

Sick Child + Healthy Child = Tired Mother

Clara woke up sick in the middle of the night last night. As Murphy would have it, Chad is on the opposite corner of the continental US. At 2 am, I was writing sub plans and taking care of sickness. Morning came, and with it a phone call from Trevor's babysitter, saying that her daughter was sick - no babysitting today. Luckily, it was a preschool morning, so at least Trevor could be out of the (germy, disgusting) house for a few hours. I hauled out the 3rd-string baby and kiddie blankets, and got my poor sickie set up on the couch. I imagined myself sleeping all morning, but then somehow got a second wind (commonly known as "coffee"), and got a few things done around here. No sleep. Clara, by the way, was basically a couch statue for the entire day. Make that one of those statues with a small fountain.
Enter Trevor at 12:15, full of energy. Me, not so much. But we had fun anyway. The sun was shining and it was just a flat out gorgeous day. Lots of fresh, non-contaminated air out in the backyard. It was a good day to make a "Flamingo Mango Smoothie" for Bendy, our plastic lawn flamingo. Bendy's favorite food is the aforementioned smoothie. It doesn't actually have mango in it, though. Ingredients may include (but are not limited to) stones, dirt, grass, wood chips, water (always from the hose), bubble soap, dandelions, and sometimes whiffle balls. It all gets dumped into a little tin pail, then mixed together with an old railroad spike. Bendy drinks it. His face gets very messy, so Trevor has another excuse to get out the hose.
I wonder if the neighbors are ever curious as to why we sometimes have a flamingo on the front lawn, and sometimes have only a set of flamingo legs. Perhaps they think it is a weird amputee thing....
I spent the afternoon and evening doing everything in my power to keep Trevor uninfected. I washed my hands so many times that my wedding ring is suddenly loose. Now, all I can do is be grateful that Clara seems to be on the mend, and hopeful that Trevi has somehow stayed clean. As for me, I am tired. Bedtime.

Some moments from this past weekend

To delay toothbrushing, Trevor built himself an arrow out of magnets, and then followed the arrow whichever way it pointed for him to go (needless to say, it didn't point him anywhere near the bathroom). This game lasted for a good 20 minutes or so before Trevi decided to try kicking the little ball bearings around the kitchen floor instead. He liked that game as well. I wonder how many of those things are under the fridge now....
Commercial TV has hit its target audience with Clara. She is young enough to want the dumb things in the first place, yet old enough to write out a persuasive explanation of why we should buy them. Unfortunately, she had a few things working against her on the Airblocks. For one, her birthday and Christmas have just passed. Secondly, we have no space for big giant toys. And the clincher: she got the price wrong. I googled these things (just to find out what she was talking about), and they can be yours for three easy installments of $29.95. Now that our daughter has the frightening skill of being able to repeat commercials verbatim (we don't let them watch much TV, I swear!!!), it's definitely time to go back to PBS only!

Trevor has always loved to cook (hopefully he will take over for us in a couple of years), but for some reason we never make mashed potatoes. We don't have potatoes all that often, really, and when we do, they are just steamed and plain. Well, we had some mashed potatoes at Nana and Papa's at Christmas, and the kids went gaga over them. Coincidentally, Chad came home from the grocery store one day last week with a humongous bag of potatoes that were free with the purchase of some other thing that we actuallly needed. There has been a fluorescent pink sticky note in the fridge for a week that says MAKE MASHED POTATOES!!!! So, finally, we actually cooked a dozen or so, and Trevor had the greatest time with the masher. Clara complimented the heck out of him for his culinary prowess, and everyone gobbled up their dinner. Good thing everyone liked them, because we have another 50 pounds of potatoes left to eat.

The Saguaro Play

Trevor loves saguaros. He is into all types of cacti, really, but of course he is most fascinated by the ones that can't grow around here. So, we try to make do by reading lots of books about saguaros. A couple of days ago, Trevi decided he wanted me to narrate the story of the life of a saguaro in the Sonoran Desert, while he acted it out. So that's what we did. Clara got in on the action, and she played the parts of the various desert creatures who depend on the cactus for food and shelter. Here we see Trevi as a 50-foot-tall saguaro with two arms. Soon, a gila woodpecker comes along to peck a hole and make its nest in the giant cactus.
The woodpecker helps the saguaro by eating nasty bugs that might hurt the cactus. Can you say, "symbiotic relationship"?
Finally, after 150 years, when the giant has fallen, the scorpions come to live in the decaying plant.
The End
"This time, you be the saguaro and I'll be a little elf owl and Clara can be the juicy, red saguaro fruit, okay Mommy?"
The Botanical Thespians welcome new members.
Our next production: The Cactus in the Rye.

Clara Montara

Clara started ballet classes recently. She goes to her class on Thursday after school, and then stays in character all throughout Thursday evening. Still dressed in full pink or black (depending on whether she has been dancing to Brahms or Beethoven), she leaps around the house, sometimes using her brother as an obstacle. I'm glad she likes ballet...it was my thing as a kid, after all (before I became a bowler :)), but I had no idea how expensive the whole thing was going to be! I expected to pay for the class and clothing, but I actually gasped when I heard that we need to fork out $75.00 for a costume for the recital. Then, we need to buy tickets to go and see the recital. Sheesh. It made me wonder how much my parents had to sacrifice to keep me on my toes for so many years. Thanks, folks.
Part of Clara's urge to perform comes from listening to Hanna Montana. We don't let her watch the TV show (one of the many injustices of her 7-year-old world), but she does have a Hanna Montana/Miley Cirus CD collection (I'll spare you the long story explaining why she has two names). Chad can't stand the music, but I don't find it too torturous. Anyway, back in December, Hanna/Miley was touring, and I toyed with the idea of taking Clara, until I found out the tickets ran about $300 bucks apiece. There I go, grousing about money again. But I digress.... As it turns out, the concert was made into a 3-D movie, for fifteen bucks a pop. Much better. So we went. Clara and I both looked very insect-like in the 3-D glasses, but it was the neatest thing! My first 3-D movie ever. I could have done with a little less screaming from the crowd, but we had a good time.
I can't really find the words to describe this little ensemble, but I will say that she never left the house like this.
Clara practices her routines for some future concert she will be presenting when she is a star. Trevor is one of the stunt dancers. His cat, Lisa, adds a feline touch to the whole performance.
Spring finally peeked its way through the grey today, and Clara was immediately struck with summer fever. This getup was not quite appropriate, but I applaud her conviction to the turn in the weather.

Sunshine

This boy is pure sunshine. He has such a joyful laugh...and I just happened to luck out and catch the progression of his laughter in these pics. It doesn't take much to get Trevor laughing, and we all spend a good deal of time trying to get him going. I feel so lucky to be able to share in his joy every day.



As he gets closer and closer to turning four, there are only a few precious words and expressions that still link him to the toddler he once was. He calls "cable cars", "table cars", for instance, and "Tabasco" sauce is called "Gobasco". From that, it follows that "Baskin Robbins" is "Gobasco and Robin". Our favorite, though, was the name he used for the sprinkler, back in the summer of 2006, when he was two. He called it a, "finker fanker". Now he'll say it that way when we ask him to, just to appease us, but he is quick to point out the correct pronunciation. Love him. Love him. Love him.