My sweet Miles, on his very first day of preschool and his very last (today).  Oh, how he’s grown, in so many ways.

Denny was leaning over, helping Tobin with something.  Tobin pointed up at the chest area of his shirt, which was poofed out due to gravity.

T:  You have milky in there!

I was trying to change Tobin’s diaper, and he was being very uncooperative, wiggling and squirming, rolling around, and generally making it impossible for me.  Finally I spoke sternly to him.

A:  Tobin, you must lie still so I can change your diaper.

T:  You frustrated.

It’s Miles’s last week of preschool, and I was getting sentimental.  I put on a kind of silly, falsetto, half-Southern voice.

A:  Mah bay-beh!  I can’t believe you’re almost done with preschool!  Mah bay-beh!

M:  You’re talking like Russian people.

Miles, Tobin and I are planning a trip to the doughnut shop.

A:  Tobin wants a doughnut with yellow sprinkles.  What kind do you want, Miles?

M:  Speaking of yellow, when I went to the bathroom, there was so much pee I had to flush!

Both the boys were crying for no good reason at the same time, which is my Kryptonite.  I was feeling very stressed out by the situation.

A:  At least one of you is going to have to stop crying.

M:  Tobin can.  I did yesterday.

My friend Mandy inspired the BLT salads we had for dinner last night.

It was a nice, (relatively) light main dish salad that will be even better when we have garden tomatoes.  It was made of salad greens, halved grape tomatoes (independently seasoned with s&p), thinly-sliced red onion, roughly-chopped hot bacon, boiled eggs, homemade croutons, and sunflower seeds.

I think I’m going to make more entree salads this summer.  These croutons have been a revelation.  They’re so easy and an order of magnitude better than boxed croutons.

This morning, Tobin and I had been playing “Hungry, Hungry Hippos,” and of course we left a mess of marbles on the floor.  A while later, I was in the bathroom getting ready. Tobin came in and proudly showed me a zip-lock bag full of the marbles.

T:  All by myself!

We’re working on Miles doing his own bathroom clean-up.  Today, after a bathroom visit, I got him started and then handed him a wipe to finish up the job.  He wedged it in, let go, then looked back over his shoulder.

M:  It’s a butt-cape!

I’ve been trying some new things this week.

Monday:  Fajita quesadillas, a rip-off of something I like at a local restaurant.  I sauteed up some shrimp (for me) and chicken (for DC) in some latin rub seasoning, as well as a red bell pepper and an enormous onion, also with some of the latin seasoning.  I stuck the aforementioned into big tortillas with Mexican blend cheese (I think it was Monterrey Jack, asadero, and queso quesadilla), folded, and toasted them up.  I served them with salsa and sour cream.  Denny probably wanted guacamole, but his dream came false.

Tuesday:  Chicken Caesar salads, the chicken seasoned with cajun seasoning.  The salad was pretty pedestrian except for the croutons.  I  cubed up some “Italian peasant batard” (so Hy-Vee calls it) with butter, garlic powder, and salt, and crisped them up in the oven.  I thought I made way too much, yet somehow they all disappeared.

Wednesday:  Ribeye steaks with an exciting new broccoli treatment.  I was thinking about my old-favorite oven-roasted broccoli, but it’s warm today and I didn’t want to heat the oven up to 425F.  I found this pan-roasted broccoli, and it was really good, maybe even better.  I did change it a little–I couldn’t deal with that much butter, so I used about half the recommended amount plus a little glug of olive oil

The rest of the week is TBD.  I imagine there will be a scrounge night and a going-out night in there somewhere.