Bowman West

The Trouble with Trains...

Santa must really like visiting Andy's parents' house because he leaves Charlie (and the rest of us!) much nicer presents than at our house. Charlie's new favorite toy is his Thomas the Train set, and he plays with it several times a day.

Although he needs help setting up the track, he usually plays pretty well with it on his own. Sometimes he makes the train too long to handle the curves though, and a dysfunctional train is very upsetting! It's so bad that the only person who could possibly help is Daddy...

Speaking of dysfunctional, Charlie is convinced that having a ponytail is the same as having a pony's tail, meaning that he can better pretend that he's a pony if he has one. So here's Charlie as a pony. This is yet one more photo to use for blackmail later. I guess it's my fault that his hair is even long enough to do this. Why wait for later -- we might as well get it over with and let him start blaming his mother for all his problems now.

While at my parents' house over the holidays we had to make the obligatory pilgrimage to Prause's (Prow-zeez) Meat Market for some awesome brisket and baked potato potato salad. I think I ate here for lunch every other day in high school. Of course that was when I could do that without worry!

This is how to eat at Prause's. Two slices of brisket, one sausage link, a scoop of baked potato potato salad and a few slices of bread. They have sauce but I never use it. I'm a dry BBQ sort of girl. I think the flavor should be good enough to stand on its own. The only thing I add is hot pepper vinegar -- that's what's in the small plastic cup above my plate. They currently have this stuff stored in the corner in an old Crown Royal bottle. When I was in high school there were bottles of the stuff on every table. The guys used to dare each other to chug it. I wouldn't recommend doing that. I don't think they would either.

Even my niece Riley had a big plate of food!

In other news, this is my new favorite toy. It's the Sansa Fuze, similar to but much cheaper than the iPod Nano. I plan to use it when I work out, which I haven't started doing yet. I have been doing great eating right for the last two weeks though and have already lost five pounds. Pretty sweet. That big plate of BBQ is a thing of the past!

In Charlie news, he pooped on the toilet for the first time today, which earned him five M&Ms. As he approaches his third birthday I find myself not getting sad for the loss of Baby Charlie, but seriously longing for the time when he'll be back to having one personality -- hopefully the sweet, obedient one. At times I can hardly believe that the defiant, quick-tempered boy that I spend much of my time with these days is the same as my agreeable, perfect kid that emerges when it suits him. Phew. I'm ready for him to grow out of this!