This past Saturday, we braved heavy crowds and insane parking to attend the Hannaford Kidz Expo in the Empire State Plaza.  There were many interesting booths with various fun options for the kids.  I couldn’t possibly blog about them all, so I wanted to focus on one of them today: Reptile Adventure.

B wrote about them previously when they stopped by a local library.  That time, NHL went with B to see the various creatures that Reptile Adventure had to show.  This time, however, NHL was a bit overwhelmed.  Perhaps it was the crowds or the anticipation of seeing the Radio Disney booth.  In any event, he didn’t want to be anywhere near snakes or lizards.

Thankfully, JSL didn’t seem to mind much.  So while B took NHL out of the room to calm down, JSL and I marveled at the various creatures they had.  I’ll admit that I didn’t get as good a look as I would have liked.  There were a lot of people walking through and I wanted to make sure that JSL stuck by me.  Still, JSL and I each got to touch a snake and we each loved seeing the turtles, lizards, snakes and even the hissing cockroaches.

Yeah, about those cockroaches.  When we first walked in, we saw a Reptile Adventure employee sitting down with a big snake around her neck and a hissing cockroach walking up one arm.  This was easily the biggest bug I’ve ever seen.  It was at least four inches long.  To be perfectly honest, I just looked them up on Wikipedia for that length.  My eyeball estimate was going to be 8 inches but Wikipedia says they grow to 2 to 4 inches.  Perhaps my estimating skills can be forgiven seeing as they are HUGE!

Moving on from the cockroaches, we saw this turtle and a buddy of his relaxing near the entrance.  It looks like someone got him some reading material.  I’m not sure if it’s ironic or not for a turtle to be reading the "Race Day" section.

This fella (or ma’am… I really couldn’t tell) was on top of his cage.  I had to lift JSL up so he could see him.  I couldn’t tell if we were more fascinated by this spiky lizard or if he was more fascinated by us.

Then, there were the snakes.  They had small snakes and large snakes.  Each of these, at some point, was able to be touched by kids (and grown ups) to see how they feel.  By the way, I assumed that snakes would feel slimy, though in hindsight I’m not sure why.  They don’t.  Smooth, yes, but not slimy.

JSL was hesitant at first, but finally decided to try petting the small one in the photo to the left.  I didn’t get a good photo of that, but, luckily, JSL decided to pet this larger snake as well.  He did a great job on both.  (And, yes, Reptile Adventure provided a station for you to clean your hands afterwards.)

All in all, my only gripe about the Reptile Adventure room is that I couldn’t spend more time there taking photos of every creature they have.  The nature photographer in me can get frustrated by the lack of wildlife in my day-to-day life.  (Though the boys can be wild enough.)  We left wanting more (and JSL left wanting a stuffed snake).  Hopefully, we can see more of Reptile Adventure soon.

More about the Kidz Expo in general and the Radio Disney book specifically in the coming days.

As the boys get bigger, one of the fun observations I make is their maturing sense of humor.  And by "maturing", I mean totally immature.  We are talking about boys, after all.

I’ve written before about my boys’ poultry-based curse.  To recap, they were watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and heard Goofy ask Mickey "Guess What?  Chicken Butt!"  Since that day, they took this up as their profanity of choice.  They even shortened it to "Chicken!" in an effort to avoid getting in trouble.

They’ve also become quite taken with scatological humor.  Anything relating to the passing of gas or "going number two" are the height of hilarity.  If you can manage to actually let one fly, well then you’re just a comedy genius!  JSL still quotes Fozzie’s "fart shoes" line from The Muppets.  Complete with whoopee cushion sounds.

At this point, I’m not sure if their humor will get more refined as they grow up or if they’ll discover new depths of potty humor.  Who am I kidding?  They’re boys.  I’d better brace for the latter.  Anyone know where you can buy a gas mask?

Disclaimer: The "gas mask" image is from OpenClipArt.org.

JSL’s favorite food is macaroni and cheese.  He would eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we allowed it.  He will devour any macaroni and cheese put before him.  Well, almost any.  There’s one little caveat with his mac and cheese obsession: He refuses to eat macaroni and cheese I make him if it doesn’t come from a box.

If I crack open a box of Wacky Mac (about the only kosher macaroni and cheese we’ve found) and prepare that, he’ll tear into it.  If a chef prepares macaroni and cheese for him at a restaurant, he’ll eat and enjoy it.  But if I whip up a cheese sauce to go over pasta, he turns his nose up at the plate.

I’ve tried finding different macaroni and cheese recipes to prepare for him.  I figure that if he’s going to eat this dish, the least I can do is make sure quality ingredients go into it.  (Though I have tried sneaking some healthy food into it from time to time.)  Unfortunately, most of the macaroni and cheese recipes seem divided into two camps: The ones that use Velveeta and the ones that use Cheddar.

The Velveeta recipes promise to taste just like the boxed macaroni and cheese.  I would try these except for one small detail: We keep a kosher kitchen and Velveeta’s not kosher.  In fact, even if it were, I don’t think I’d want to cook with it. It seems to go against the idea of making a macaroni and cheese dish from quality ingredients.

The cheddar recipes come out tasting nice and cheesy, but they don’t look or taste like the boxed kind and that’s a stopping point for JSL.  Not for me, mind you.  I prefer a good cheddar to powder cheese.  JSL, however, rejects anything different and this certainly qualifies as different when compared to boxed.

I’m going to continue my quest, though.  I can’t give up.  One of these days, I *will* find a from-scratch recipe that steers JSL away from boxed macaroni and cheese.  Just to tide us over, though, I’d better restock the boxes.

Back when B was pregnant with JSL, we wanted NHL to get ready for being a big brother.  We decided to get him a small baby boy doll to help him practice.  It wasn’t easy, but we finally tracked one down in a local Toys ‘R Us.  NHL named him Howie Harry.  Howie after Howie Mandell, host of Deal or No Deal, and Harry from Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs, a favorite TV show of his at the time.  (It’s standard practice in Judaism not to name after the living, but seeing as Howie Harry’s not a real baby, I don’t think there’s a problem.)  Anyway, Howie Harry became a loved member of our family and gave NHL lots of practice.

Fast forward to the present day.  JSL now wants a "Howie Harry" of his own.  No, B’s not pregnant again.  He’s just obsessed with having a little baby of his own.  We decided that he has some Chanukah gift cards (not to mention some unused ones from his birthday last year).  We’ll let him use them to buy a little boy doll.

That is, if we can find a little boy doll.  On Saturday night, we checked two stores for a doll to no avail.  On Sunday, I called four more stores and checked in four other stores.  All I found were baby girl dolls.  We did find one baby boy doll in one store, but was quite pricy.  It’s one of the ones that coos and wets its diaper.  All we want is a basic baby boy doll.  Is that too much to ask for?

Apparently, toy manufacturers and toy store owners think that: 1) Only girls play with dolls (note that the doll aisle is all pink whereas the other aisles are more "gender-neutral" colors) and 2) girls only want to play with little girl dolls.  Why can’t little boys play with dolls?  And why can’t boys and girls play with baby boy dolls?

Have you ever seen a baby boy doll in the doll aisle?

JSL has been sick the last few days.  He had a fever, was lethargic, and didn’t want to eat.  What little he did eat… well, let’s just say that it didn’t always stay in him long.  At one point, B called me at work after he woke up from a nap.  He was crying asking for his mommy.  He recognized that B was his mother, but kept asking for his "real mommy."

Later on, after dinner, I got NHL to bed.  JSL, previously, had fallen asleep on the couch.  Suddenly, he sat up and began crying for his daddy.  I picked him up and he said "Daddy?  I want my daddy!"  I asked him who I was and he answered that I was his dad.  I asked him what room we were in and he said the living room.  I asked him my first name was and he knew that.  I even asked him how many fingers I was holding up and he answered correctly.  But after all that, he kept repeating "Daddy?  I want my daddy!"  This went on for about 10 minutes while we decided whether we were going to need to go to the hospital (and, if so, what to do about the sleeping NHL in the other room).

Slowly, JSL came out of it.  He began to realize just was going on and calmed down.  He even had some fun with what just happened by saying he wanted his daddy one more time and then smiling before hugging me.  I asked him if he was having a nightmare.  He told me that he was and that he was scared of losing us.  (As he’s never lost anyone he knows to death, I think he meant "losing us" in the sense of not knowing where we are.)

In the end, we think this was the combination of some sort of waking dream and low blood sugar.  After we got him to eat some crackers, he perked up a lot.  The next day, he stayed home and went to the doctor.  The doctor didn’t find anything wrong.  No ear infection, strep, etc.  His temperature was staying down without medicine and he was eating (and acting) better.

He’s not alone in these nighttime behaviors.  NHL has had night terrors and has even been known to sleepwalk from time to time.  My parents told me about some times when I’ve walked in my sleep, talked with them, turned around, headed back to bed with no memory of the events.  One time growing up, I got out of bed, thought I was in a different room, and couldn’t exit the room.  My mother finally heard my cries and turned on the light.  In that instance, I snapped out of the waking-dream and realized just what was happening.  (I had ended up in the closet instead of the room’s door.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever experienced an incident like this yourself or that your kids did?

Don’t forget to enter my $25 EdenFantasys giveaway!

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #124

Disclaimer: The "Emoticons: Sleeping face" clipart above is from OpenClipArt.org.

Take one box of building toys.

Add in one imaginative JSL.

Result?  A boat.

Note the handy cell phone holder.

Time to go sailing.

Reminder: Don’t forget to enter my $25 EdenFantasys giveaway!

This weekend was quite busy.  We started out shopping for bunk beds.  You see, JSL is still in his toddler bed.  However, despite our insisting, he’s growing up.  He’s going to need a regular bed.  Unfortunately, the boys’ room is too small for two twin-sized beds.  So we’re going to have to go vertical.

We think we’ve made our decision, so now we just need to purchase it.  Then, the fun part will be preparing the boys’ room for the bunk bed arrival and setup.  I’ll need to dismantle NHL’s current bed, JSL’s current bed, move a ton of stuffed animals, move toys out of the way, remove some Cars wall clings (that the bunk will likely just cover up), etc.  Of course, I can’t do all this too early or the boys will have nowhere to sleep.

In addition, to looking at bunk beds, we needed to pick up NHL’s painted Angry Bird.  I knew that the colors would be more vibrant once it was finished, but I was still quite impressed.

The boys begged to do some more projects right then and there, but the store was closing in a few hours and we had to get home (refrigerator/freezer groceries in the trunk).

The next day, however, was a lazy day in.  It was Christmas Day and, while we don’t celebrate, we decided to make it a family day.  Ok, the fact that most stores are closed might have factored into it.  Plus, the laziness thing.  Having a lazy day in every once in a while is good.

We mainly spent the day playing computer games and watching TV, including the Disney Parks Christmas Parade.  The boys love parades, though they repeatedly expressed frustration over this one.  Too much singing and not enough characters.  Oh, and when NHL saw Justin Bieber, he let out a loud "Yuck!"  I was so proud. *wipes away a tear*

We ended Christmas Day with our traditional Jewish Christmas Day Dinner: Chinese food.  I lobbied to go out to eat.  Either to a nice, sit-down restaurant or to a buffet.  I even tried inviting B’s parents to come with us, figuring that would help push us to get ready.  Still, though the boys were dressed, B and I were still in our PJs.  (Like I said: Lazy day!)  So we ordered takeout.  I tossed on some clothes and picked it up.

Pretty soon, JSL was munching on rice with sweet and sour chicken sans sauce. (We call it "Chinese Chicken Nuggets" to get JSL to eat it.)  NHL had the sweet and sour chicken and some chicken and broccoli.  B and I shared some steamed vegetable dumplings, vegetable egg rolls, and General Tso’s Bean Curd.  (Bean curd is tofu and tastes better than it sounds!)  Behold, my Christmas Dinner:

Yes, I know what you’re thinking.  Jews eating Chinese food for Christmas dinner.  How stereotypical!  Well, it’s our tradition and I’m a sucker for tradition (and Chinese food).

Hope your Christmas weekend was wonderful no matter how you celebrated it!