John's birthday was Saturday, and I did my very best to give him the complete and shameless spoiling he fully deserves. After a relaxing and fun day we went to Red Lobster with the boys for dinner. John decided to get a whole lobster, partly because he's never gotten one before.

The look on Seth's face when the waiter set the plate down in front of John was priceless. And it lasted for a full 10 minutes at least, without even the slightest variation. I think I would call it stunned. Mentally, emotionally and physically stunned. He was literally frozen in unbelief; completely stunned to see a huge bug-looking creature belly-up on a platter, stunned that it was that close to us all, and stunned that John would even consider eating such a beast.

Jonathan was interested and excited to try some, and liked it, but Seth just slowly shook his head and wouldn't hear of it. He couldn't take his eyes off it. He kept an extremely tight vigil, not even blinking. I honestly think he may have been worried that if he looked away it would flip over and come after him, snapping its pinchers and waving its antennas. One can never keep too close of a watch on a big crawly thing. Even John and me laughing our guts out couldn't distract him. His expression was frozen in a mix between complete shock and intense, incredulous, wide-eyed study.

Only after John had broken it up piece by piece and hollowed it all out did Seth want to have any part of the experience. And then, when the threat had been devoured and defeated, it became cool, like a battle wound or the enemy's banner. He carried that hollowed-out claw around with him for the rest of the day, and eagerly tells anyone he sees about how they saw the lobsters in the tank, and how his dad ate one, and liked it.

Quote of the Day

From Seth, looking down at his hand: "YESS! I love looking at my watch and CTR ring!"

He's been wearing a watch now for a week or so, and just got a new CTR ring from church today, so the look is complete and the coolness factor is at an all-time high.


He told me, "Mom, look at my cookie smile," (with the curved cookie.) Note how awesome he is looking in that watch. :)

The funny thing is I remember Jonathan being really into watches when he was this age, (even though neither of them could tell a lick of time, and often even had it on upside down,) and a check in my journal shows it was the same age to the month. Evidently this is the month were little boys become enamored with watches, and looking as cool as they can possibly manage.

Which turns out to be pretty dang cool.

Fish tales

John made some incredible broiled fish tonight for dinner. While we were eating the boys asked where he got the fish, so he told the most outrageous, intriguing and hilarious story about him and his pet tiger, Weatherford (who kept on growling very loudly and unexpectedly, making the boys jump and laugh every time,) and their journey all across the ocean to get the fish and bring it home for our dinner. The boys were delighted, and hanging on his every word. He's an amazing storyteller. Then they asked where he got the squash, so he launched into a "scary" tale (after making them promise that they wouldn't be terrified and cry all day with fright) of him and his pet goat, Alfonso, and their journey to the squash patch (oooooo!) to get the squash. It had a hilariously plain and quick ending that left me rolling and the boys still wondering how such a detailed story could have possibly ended so suddenly, and what had happened to the scary part. They also asked about how he got the rice, and that one had them spellbound when he had to go down, down to the bottom of the ocean to gather what he thought was rice (but ended up being seaweed,) and we were all in stitches with him acting out how hard it was to carry the heavy bag while trying to paddle up to the surface.

Now that's some excellent dinner conversation.