Happy New Year!

Well, 2007 is just about over and I'm the only one still awake so I get to make the big year-end blog entry. We rang in the new year early by going out for late afternoon s'mores at Cosi. They give you a little Sterno-powered iron stove to roast your marshmallows, which Jake loved. Sadie was busy slowly dissolving graham crackers, while Jake held marshmallows over the sterno until they were wildly on fire, and then blew them out. He had no interest in eating any of the marshmallows, and we ended up with a pile of black, charred lumps on the plate. In fact, he hardly had anything to eat, so we were really surprised when he threw up. Which leads me to my first dilemma: what's the appropriate tip when your child throws up at a restaurant? We did our best with a stack of napkins, but someone has to finish the job. I left the largest bill I had and told the 16 year old kid that he might need a mop.

By the time we got home, Jake seemed fine and was back to his goofy self. We asked if his tummy hurt and he said "no", but that's about as reliable as the weather. Just ask him if he had monkey sandwiches for lunch. But he seemed fine so we went out to the Saigon Cafe for dinner. I know what you're thinking: is it wise to take a queasy toddler to an authentic Vietnamese place for dinner? We're no dummies, we just gave him a bowl of rice and two Hot Wheels cars to play with and he was happy as a clam. Sadie tried the rice cake patties and bits of the pork sausage too.

On the way home, we stopped at the Falls Church First Night festival and Jake got to high-five a fireman, which we tried to convince him was how firefighters say goodnight. He didn't buy it, so when we got home we told him we'd bang pots and pans in the cul-de-sac and then go to bed. We gathered up our kitchen equipment and then went outside and marched around the cul-de-sac banging spoons on pots and yelling "Happy New Year". Jake was laughing and smiling and said "What we doing Mommy Daddy?".

And that got us talking about how Jake's such a good sport. He had no idea what we were doing, but he was having fun. He was just happy to be in his PJs, marching outside with a pot in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Happy New Year, and I hope 2008 is a great year for everyone.