Little Mr. Stubborn

Braden is a stubborn child. He does NOT like to eat.  Let me try that again: he doesn't like to eat anything that isn't sweet. He doesn't eat meat (other than McDonald's chicken nuggets, but that doesn't really count, right?).  He doesn't eat anything with texture--strawberries? nope, they have little seeds. Bananas? too mushy.  Vegetables? Heck, no.  

He pretty much survives on various forms of processed carbohydrates and cheese. Grilled cheese, quesadillas, cheese pizza, mac and cheese, etc.  So, when I came across an Alton Brown recipe for stovetop mac and cheese, I knew it was a sure bet that he'd eat it. 

The first time I tried it, I used whole wheat pasta.  That was a no-go. He HATED it. Wouldn't even try it. The next time, I used regular pasta, but I halved the recipe. However, the sharp cheddar and the dry mustard combo was just a bit too powerful, even for me.  So, tonight, I made it a third time with regular pasta, medium cheddar, and no dry mustard. I knew they would love it. 

They did not. 

Braden cried. He refused. He did NOT want to eat this, nor did he want me to take pictures of him crying. 

Kyle, however, had had enough. Braden was GOING to eat it.

It was a battle of the wills, Stutts style.

Kyle portioned off about half of the mac and cheese, and Braden was not getting up until he ate it.

It took an hour or more, but eventually Braden cracked. He ate it. And guess what? He survived.

A few minutes later, I found him on the floor writing this:

I guess he showed me!

Strawberries for Daddy

The day after Valentine's Day, Garrett made chocolate covered strawberries for Daddy.  He (and I) ate most of them, but we did manage to save about five for Daddy.

Who me? Chocolate around my mouth?

See that big fat one in the middle of the wax paper? That's the first one Garrett  ate. 

Happy Valentine's Day, Daddy. We love you!!

Pinewood Derby Winner!

Braden just experienced the first pivotal moment in every Cub Scout's life: the Pinewood Derby.  And--best part--he was the overall winner! 

Unfortunately, I was out of town on the day of the big event, so I couldn't watch it go down, but thanks to some pictures taken by Braden's Den Leader, Erin Casey, and an interview with Braden, I think I got the full story. 

“Braden, tell me about your pinewood derby car.”

It was fun designing the car. The car looks like an arrow. It is black with a red spider. It has metal to make more weight in the back. 

“Anything else I need to know about it?”

You can just look at it. (Daddy's note: I'm not putting our secrets on the internet!)

“Tell me what you thought when you first saw the pinewood derby track.”

I thought it looked cool. It was metal and about 13 or 14 feet long. It had 8 lanes. (note: Dad says it was 35 feet and almost stretched across the entire cafeteria. It was aluminum.).

“Did it have an electronic timer?”

No, there is no timer. There was an electronic thingy that told you the places. (Daddy’s note: There is a timer on the scoreboard down at end under the places. It didn’t show total time, it showed splits of how far each car was behind the winner).

One of the five heats of Braden's den. Braden's car crossed in the "1" position. 

“Tell me about your den’s race.”

I won every race. We raced five times because there were five cars and how many cars there are equals how many times you have to race. I won every single one and Daniel got second. His car had a Storm Trooper on it, and it fell off every single race.  Jacob had a dinosaur. His wasn’t fast. He got fourth place, but his looked cool. The other Braden got fourth all the time. I forgot what the other car looked like. (Daddy’s note: Everybody ran in a different lane every time because there were some advantages in different lanes).

“What did you do while the race was taking place?”

I watched it from the sides. I cheered.

“What did you do when you won?”

I cheered for myself. The other boys cheered for me, too.

A celebratory dance, of course. 

Braden and his buddy Daniel. 

Another celebratory dance, this time with the addition of blue tape on his cheek (?)

“Tell me about the finals.”

At one point I thought there was another yellow and red car that was going to beat me, but I was wrong. There were fifteen races because there were fifteen final cars. I think 7 people couldn’t race because there are only 8 tracks. I raced against Nate. His car was Lightning McQueen, and it was cool. I got a trophy and a pin for my uniform with a blue pinewood derby car for first. (Daddy’s note: We did enough runs so that each car ran in each of the 8 lanes. There were Wolves, Webelos Den 1 and 2, Bears, Tiger Cubs, Arrow of Light, and they kept the top 2 out of each group, and 3 out of a big group.)

One heat in the finals. Braden's car is in first. 

Den winners. 

“What does it feel like to win?”

Really good.  (big smiles!)

“You did better than mommy did when she entered a pinewood derby car when she was about your age. What do you think of that?”

I think I smoked you. (Laughs).

“How thankful are you to daddy?”

A lot. Really thankful.

“Could you have done it without him?”

Nosirree. Daddy helped with cutting out the car and gluing the metal piece to the car and painting and putting the wheels on. I told Daddy what I wanted the spider to look like, and the shape of the car. Daddy was really nice to me and was happy when I won. He was like “yeahhhhh” when I won.

The top three places in Braden's den. 

“Did Daddy pick you up or hug you or high five you when you won?”

No, he just made weird sounds. (Daddy’s comment: Weird sounds? I wasn’t even around you when you won. I didn’t really say much on the race track because I was standing up there helping run it.)

Proud winner! (and still wearing the silly blue tape on his cheeks!)

“Anything else we should tell people about your pinewood derby race?”

No that’s about it. Oh, I did help put up the track, and that was a big job because the pieces were heavy. I got to put up the special pieces. That’s pretty much it!

“You want to do it next year?”

Yessssss!

Aggie Game Day!

Yesterday we took the boys to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas featuring our favorite Texas Aggies. This is the first game the entire family has been to in two years. Tickets to home games have gotten incredibly expensive, and well, we're cheap. Occasionally Kyle will break down and buy two tickets, thinking he'll take me. But, I don't really care about football. I try. Really, I do. I try to pay attention to the game. It's just that 99% of the time is is so. damn. boring. Therefore, I find that I spend most of my time at games mentally making fun other women's game day attire, or dreaming about snack-bar nachos that I'm too cheap to buy, or watching the seconds on the clock s l o w l y tick by. I'd rather spend 4+ hours on a Saturday doing something fun. 

Like sewing. 

or running. 

The tickets to the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas were affordable, and we knew the climate-controlled Reliant Stadium would be good for the kids, so we got four tickets, plus tickets for Gerri and Tom. The night before the game we drove down to GrandTom's house. After dropping us off at the house, Kyle went to Kroger to stock up on tailgating supplies. You know, because tailgating in preparation for an 11:00 game is serious business. I, meanwhile, went to sleep because I knew that my 7 am wake-up call would come tooooo early. 

Aside from being snarky about attire, envious of other's nachos, and waiting for time to pass, my other favorite way to spend a football game is by playing with my camera.  Yesterday, I started early, before we even left the house:

Why do boys CONSTANTLY have to wrestle? Why can't they just leave each other alone? The little weirdos!

Like this. MUCH better. 

Have I mentioned before that Braden LOVES posing for pictures? 

It was a foggy morning, like many mornings on the Gulf Coast in December. (or January. or June. Or August...). But did the fog stop us? Heck no.

See? Tailgating is serious business. Shiner Bock in a can at 9:30 in the morning. 

The boys repeatedly declared it the "best tailgate EVER." This made me really sad because our little tailgate was a kinda pathetic (even if it did have beer).  Kyle had bought them Fruit Roll-Ups and Pringles, two things they really love but don't ever get to have. The boys did the natural thing with the Pringles and made faces:

Meanwhile, my fun-loving husband did lots of this: 

At one point, Garrett said, "We're all tailgating and Daddy's just talking on the phone."  It turns out that he was talking to his old college roommate and BFF, Michael, who was on the other side of the stadium with a few other friends. I wish we'd figured that out earlier so that we all could have met up.

I took about thirty pictures of this cute toothless guy, to the point that he wouldn't look at me anymore when I called his name.

Once those front teeth come in, I know he's going to look awkward until he's about 17. For now, he's just sooooo darn cute! 

Then, we walked up to the stadium. How cute are their little behinds?

Whose kids are these?

...because these cute ones are surely mine.

When we got to our seats, Gerri and Tom were already there. Gerri is Tom's special friend, and we really, really like her. She's great for Tom and great for us and a REALLY big Aggie fan. She's a widow, and her late husband was an Aggie, as are both of her daughters.

I should have changed the aperture before I took this pic. Sorry you are blurry, Kyle and Braden! Tom, you sure look good!

A friendly mom near us offered to take a pic of the entire group. I wish I had turned the flash on first! It's hard to take a backlit picture without one.

We had time to kill (and no tacky outfits or nachos to ogle over), so I took even more pictures. 

Finally, the Aggies take the field!

I  L O V E  T H I S  P I C T U R E!!

Braden really likes watching the game.

Halftime! Yay! My favorite part of the game!!

Another pic of Gerri and Tom.

Another picture of my toothless boy.

Garrett, pretending for half a second to watch the game (he's kinda like his momma).

Oh wait! ANOTHER picture of my toothless boy!

In the fourth quarter, I was hungry, so I wandered to check out the prices at the snack bar. $9 for the nachos and $7 for a beer. That is robbery.  Thankfully, we had bean/queso dip and chips and beer in the car, and the Aggies were SURELY going to win, so the boys and I left.

But first, they ran around the little park between Reliant and the Astrodome.  I tried to tell them about the Astrodome and how it was the 8th wonder of the world and how awesome it was and Nolan Ryan and they just looked at me like I was crazy.

Then, we did even more tailgating. And picture taking.

Kyle finally showed up, and we made the great decision to just wait for the traffic to clear.

And there you go. A day full of family, football, fotos, food, and fun (and a beer or two).