Layin' Low

We haven't had much excitement the last couple days, which is probably a good thing, because it also means not much drama. We've pretty much just been hanging out, trying not to roast to death. This week hasn't been as hot as last week, so we're doing pretty well.

Yesterday, in an attempt to beat the heat, we went to the "beach," a.k.a. the American Falls Reservoir. It was not very pleasant. The water was absolutely filthy. I expected a little yuck; fish poop and water plants floating around, but it was beyond that. There was some murky mystery-froth along the shore, and little granules of something (maybe fish eggs? or dirt that floats?) floating around, and we had to wade really far out to get away from it, but my sandals kept getting stuck in the mud, and there was no way I was going to walk around without them.

Of course, Fearless Owen had no problems. As soon as we got his life jacket on him, he was running and splashing and dunking his face in the water.

Drew, on the other hand, cried the majority of the time because the sand was hot (it wasn't, really) and the water was cold (again, not really the case) and Owen splashed it in his eye (this, Owen actually did, a few times). Drew was a pretty miserable little boy.

So Drew and I sat on a towel on the sand, brushing off hundreds of tiny spiders and huge flies, while David and Owen made a sand castle. David found a plastic cup on the beach, which Owen filled with water and dumped on the sand, and David made a moat surrounding a lump of sand (Owen kept grabbing handfuls of the "castle" and throwing them in the water, reducing it to just a lump). It was fun watching Owen run back and forth with his water cup, like he was really helping. After a while, even Drew got interested, and he grabbed a stick and helped dig out the moat. But I think the whole castle building only lasted about 20 minutes before we all decided we'd had enough sun and dirt (except for Owen, who would've loved to stay all day).

We headed in to town to David's grandma's house to clean off with her garden hose. That was my favorite part of the afternoon; the water from the hose was clean (or clear, at least), and cool, and Grandma gave us Popsicles. I say next time we just skip the beach and head straight to Grandma's.

Owen's Four-Letter Word

I'm actually surprised that my boys haven't learned this word sooner. Some background: Westley has a little fire truck that the boys love to play with. It plays some annoying little jingles, and they can sit on it and ride, or they can push it around. But for some reason, they can't seem to share it. Owen was monopolizing the fire truck, and Drew was waiting so patiently (which was pretty good of him to do; he usually screams and cries), so I decided that Owen's turn was over for a while and I pulled him off to give Drew a turn. Owen was pretty upset. I hugged him and told him that he'd had a long enough turn and now it was Drew's turn. Owen hugged me back, put his little hands on my cheeks and said, "Mine. Mine!" It was so funny. He just had this look on his face like, "It's okay, Mom. We don't need to share."

I read in the nursery manual for church that kids this age aren't expected to share; it's not a concept that they understand. And I agree. They don't know what the word "share" even means. Whenever I tell them to share, Drew starts singing the clean-up song. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share! But his version sounds like this: "Clea-up, clea-up, share!"

[New subject]

I read Parent's Magazine from time to time. Sometimes, I read an article and think, is this person really a parent? Or are my kids just different; 'cause what they're suggesting sounds a little impractical. Over all, though, the magazine has a lot of good articles, and fun ideas for games and things. One article I read mentioned giving praise where deserved, rather than just saying "don't do this, don't do that" all the time. I decided to try it out, and I've been watching for ways to tell Owen and Drew that I appreciate what they're doing. The other day, Drew was sitting on the kitchen floor petting Merle. He was being very gentle, so I told him, "Good job, Drew. Thank you for petting Merle so nicely!" Drew really appreciated the praise. For the next fifteen minutes, he followed Merle around the house (Merle was actually trying to get away from Drew), petting him and saying, "Nice! Nice!" And now, when he sees Merle, he yells, "Nice!" and wants to pet him. Silly, silly.

It's [Still] a Girl!

I had a follow-up ultrasound today. My last ultrasound, at 17 weeks, showed something called a choroid plexus cyst (go here for more info). So the main purpose of today's visit was to see if the cyst is still there. I guess the radiologist who does the ultrasound isn't really supposed to diagnose things; it has to be reviewed, and my doctor has to tell me about it... In any case, I have to wait three more weeks to know what's going on. That's fine; I'm not incredibly worried, because my doctor isn't worried--the cyst is an isolated thing, so it most likely won't cause any other problems.

The tech did go over all the other stuff with me: growth is normal, my baby is still a girl (I was glad to know, because I've always thought it would be weird if the tech was mistaken and the baby came out a different gender than expected), and she has hair! I'm excited about that, because Owen was bald when he was born, and I worry that he inherited my thin-hair gene. Drew's hair showed up in his ultrasounds, and he has a ton, just like his dad. So hopefully this girl will have thick, luscious locks, too.

As much as I enjoyed the ultrasound (they're uncomfortable, but fun to see), the baby didn't enjoy it at all. Every time the tech pushed on my belly with the little wand thingy (I have no idea what it's called), the baby pushed back from the inside. She moved around a lot, and really made the tech earn today's wages. The tech did some leg measurements, at which point Baby's hand was holding her toes. When the tech went to do the arm measurements, she had to look all over for Baby's arm, which by then was up by her face (the baby does have two arms; I forget where the other one was). This is going to be one spunky girl. I'm glad, because she's got two spunky older brothers and she'll probably have to stand up for herself.

Today I feel like I want to name her Ginger. That will probably change, but it's one of the names that's been floating around in the top five on my list. So of course it's one of the names David doesn't like... At least we have some time to continue discussing. I saw a bright yellow post-it on my folder at the doctor's office. It said my delivery is scheduled for September 17 at 8:30 a.m. It's a Monday, which is good. I was born on an odd-number Monday at 8:28 a.m. Would it be silly to ask the doc to start two minutes early? David is glad that the delivery is scheduled for early in the day, so I'll be coherent enough later to watch the season opening of Monday Night Football (or it might be the 2nd or 3rd game; I'm not sure--but it's sort of a family tradition to watch football every Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday).

I feel like this is a spacey and sort of rambling post today, and it reflects what is going on in my spacey and rambling brain. I guess I'd better sign off then...

I Falsely Accuse Fish

I got some new fish. I had gotten some for my birthday, but two of them died, leaving me with just one. I named him D.C. It's short for Destiny's Child, which isn't my favorite band, but my little fish is a Survivor. Drew calls him C.C.C.

We have some friends who are moving to California for med school, and they gave us their plecostomus (a big scary looking algae eater), who is named Dave. Since we already have a Dave, I call him Carl to alleviate any confusion. So I guess his initials are also D.C.
I wasn't sure how little D.C. would react to being in an aquarium with such a big scary fish, so I got him some buddies to back him up. I got a guppy who has a really flashy pink and black tail. I named him Siegfried. I got a little fluorescent red-orange fish, too(I forget what kind he is). I named him Roy, because one can't have a Siegfried without a Roy. I also purchased an African Dwarf frog, who is about an inch long and an inch wide.

I was so proud of my happy aquarium. Then, two days after I got everything set up, I realized I hadn't seen the frog for a while. I had heard a story about Carl allegedly eating a goldfish, so I was almost certain that he'd eaten my frog, but hoped maybe the frog was just hiding really well. I stuck my hand in the tank and moved some stuff around. No frog. I shook my fist at that big ol' Carl. "How dare you eat my frog?! You'd better not eat any of my other fish, or it'll be an earthy grave for you!" (I felt weird threatening a fish with a watery grave, since they live in the water already. Now that I think about it, it's probably weird that I talk to my fish like that in general...)

Today the boys and I went to get a new screen for our front door. Certain cat and toddlers in our house have ripped the bottom corner, making it possible for said cat and toddlers as well as the dog to escape quietly without being noticed. Our neighbor Bob brought Drew and Owen home the other day--said he found them playing across the street (they had nothing on but diapers). I didn't even know they were gone; I was cleaning the kitchen, and thought they were downstairs breaking the computer, which is their usual favorite activity.

So anyway, we got home from Lowes with our screen-fixing supplies, only to find the front door open, the screen flapping suspiciously in the breeze, and our dog missing. I was floored. This was the third time the dog has snuck through the screen, and I was so mad that he'd had the gall to do it again. So I was Miss Grumpy Pants all evening. I could hardly enjoy my Whopper-with-cheese, and when Owen threw his cheeseburger on the floor and asked for a bite of mine, I told him he'd be going to bed hungry.

I thought maybe watching fish would cheer me up, so I sat down in front of the aquarium and flicked on the light. And who should dart back into hiding, but that little African Dwarf frog! He'd been hiding the whole time and had come out while we were gone! Of course I had to apologize to Carl; he seemed to accept the apology. At that moment, Vito came slinking up and sat on the doorstep wanting to be let in. I let him in with a small scolding, but soon enough Miss Grumpy Pants disappeared, and I felt like everything had resolved itself. I gave Owen a little snack and got him and Drew off to bed, then went downstairs to "check my schedule."*

I saw some cute pictures of my new nephew on our family website, and that totally made my day. So on that good note, I'm going to wrap this up, go watch some TV, give myself a pedicure (it'll probably be the last one for a while; I'm getting to the point of not being able to reach my toes), and go to bed.

I hope my brother doesn't mind that I post these pictures. They're just too cute:

,
Baby James, Proud Dad and Big Sisters

*This is my term for "piddle around on the computer." I call it this because David has to check his work schedule on the computer; he goes to the railroad website and looks at the train lineup so he has a general idea of when he'll be working. But he doesn't just check the railroad website. He has to check his email, the news, the sporting news, the stock market news, and a bunch of other stuff, and also play a few games of Free Cell. So now, whenever I check my email and do my blogging and read all my friends' blogs and read the gossip column to see what the celebs are up to, I call it "checking the schedule."

Adventures in Shipping

(A spin-off from the Adventures in Shopping series)

We bought a Nintendo Wii to sell on Ebay. It sold rather quickly, and we made a small profit. So my job yesterday was to get it shipped. No problem, right? Well, that all depends on how the boys decide to behave. And yesterday, they decided not to behave.

It all happened like this: We walk into the UPS store, and I tell the boys to stick close to me and not touch anything. Apparently, what they actually hear is something along the lines of "Run amok and pull everything you can off the shelves." So I'm trying to give the guy all the shipping information, and the boys are chasing each other around the store with cardboard mailing tubes. Not too big a deal, but then as we're about to leave, the UPS guy says, "Your kid pulled a bunch of cards off the shelf." So I apologize and start picking them up. I try to get them in some kind of order, but meanwhile Owen is on the next aisle pulling those cards off the shelf, and Drew is by the Xerox machine pushing buttons. So I grab Drew with one hand and put cards back as fast as I can with the other. When I finish, I grab Owen's hand and make for the exit. But Owen isn't finished and makes a grab toward the last row of cards. He succeeds in pulling them all down, at which point the UPS man actually says to me, "Just leave. I'll clean it up."

I have never been so embarrassed in my life (at least that I can recall; I probably have, but this embarrassment is currently crowding out any previous embarrassments). I can never go back to the UPS store again. Not that I go there all that often, but David's plan is to get a couple more Wiis and try to sell those, too.

The first thing I did when I got home was go online and order little backpack harnesses for the boys. They are really cute and come with a leash so the boys will have to stay fairly close to me, hopefully making it easier for me to do damage control or, better yet, damage prevention. But I may just have to resign as Designated Wii Shipper.

Hey-O-Bah

...I don't know what hey-o-bah means, but Owen says it a lot, and I think it's very cute. Drew and Owen have been talking a lot lately, most of it not really in English, but still fun.

Last night, Owen snatched Andy's cordless mouse from the computer desk and was using it as a telephone. It was so funny. He was sitting in a little kid-size rocking chair saying all these "words" that only he can understand, and laughing like a maniac. I guess this is a favorite activity of his, because he's been doing it lots lately.

I have fun trying to get the boys to pronounce different words. My favorite to watch them say is "juice" because they pucker up their little lips just so, and it cracks me up. The other day, I was going through all the girl names I like, trying to see if Drew and Owen can pronounce them. I want them to be able to at least kind of be able to say their little sister's name, so we don't end up with any horrible nicknames. Here is what they came up with:

Name: Torah

D. says: Ta-tas

O. says: Tee-ta

Name: Sophie

D. says: Buffy

O. says: Bubba

Name: Keira

D. says: Feefa

O. says: Eesheesh

Name: Meira

D. says: Nananee

O. says: Oh-my

Name: Mikelle

Both say: Moooo!

(I guess they thought I asked them to say "moo cow")

So I really want to name the baby Torah Mikelle, but David still needs a lot of convincing. He likes the name Mikelle, but for some reason I want to keep it as a middle name; the reason being, I suppose, that I really, really like the name Torah.

The First Anniversary of My 25th Birthday

Friday was my birthday. I had a really good day; I don't know what all this superstitious Friday the 13th stuff is about--every time the 13th falls on a Friday, it's a good day for me no matter what month it is. But especially in July.

My brother and his wife surprised me with a cake and some presents. They gave me three little fish (unfortunately one died that night), and some books.

David was on a camping trip with the church youth, but he snuck away early and met me in Idaho Falls to go to a Chukars game, and we ate at Garcia's, which is probably my favorite Mexican restaurant, because they have a scrumptious spinach cheese sauce that they put on their chimichangas (you can also buy just the sauce, as an appetizer, and dip chips and stuff in it).

Saturday, unfortunately, wasn't my birthday anymore, but we had a lot of fun anyway. We went to Wake on the Snake, which is a wakeboarding competition held in Burley, Idaho, every year. We didn't compete, but our little friends Zach (age 5) and his sister Ashley (age 8) competed in the Beginners class, and they did really well. Zach told his mom the night before the competition, "Mom, I'm not going to throw any flips tomorrow." His mom said, "Well, that's good, because you don't know how." To which Zach replied, "I just wanted you to know; don't expect any flips."

We went with a couple friends from church and their two kids. I didn't know either of them very well, so it was nice to get to know them better. Basically, we just sat on the river bank all day (seriously, for like, six-and-a-half hours) under the shade of a tree and chatted, and watched the wakeboarders throw their stunts. At least, that's all I did. David and the boys played in the water quite a bit, and our friends and their kids played a little. I think everyone had a lot of fun. It was nice to be out of the house. Our friends hadn't really planned on going, but decided to go at the last minute. In the end, they were really glad they did, because their alternate plans for the day were to do housework and install a garbage disposal.

Some pictures of the weekend:

My birthday cake. It heated up
the house when we lit all the candles.



My two surviving goldfish.

Drew and me at the baseball game, David and Owen at the ball game

Owen and Drew trying on my sunglasses; it's the cool thing to do.

Owen and David jumping into the water. Owen cried the first time David jumped in with him, but when we pulled him back onto the dock he said, "Again?"

A wakeboarder doing a flip.

'Bye-bye, Play!

I took the boys to the play place at the mall again today. They didn't have as much fun as they usually do. There were some "big kids" there (those rowdy three- and four-year-olds), and Drew got a little nervous and clingy. It didn't help that one little girl kept following Drew around and bumping him with her belly. I suppose I should have said something, but she wasn't hurting him, and I kind of wanted to see how he would handle it. He handled it by giving her a very dirty look and walking away. But she kept following. Finally, she did it when her mom was looking, so her mom gave her a good scolding.

At last, all the big kids left, and Drew and Owen had the place to themselves. They had a little more fun then, but they still didn't get into romping like they usually do. I guessed it was about lunch time, so we geared up to head over to the food court. The boys seemed very glad to leave. Drew even waved and said, "'Bye-bye, play! See ya!"

We had corn dogs and fries from Orange Julius. We also had a strawberry banana Julius. The boys each got one, but they had to share with me (that way, I could drink most of it, sparing them the sugar high; I'm so thoughtful). Drew had his first experience with throat-freeze. He put his little hand on his throat and said, "Ow" and gave me that same dirty look he'd given the girl at the play place.

Lunch ended about the time Owen started throwing his fries on the floor and Drew started flicking his straw, thus getting Julius all over everyone. On the way back to the car, I stopped to rinse out one of the cups and fill it with water from the drinking fountain. Suddenly, I heard this strange voice, like someone had a very hoarse throat. The voice came closer, and started talking to the boys. I turned around, and there was this nice older lady, a mall maintenence lady, doing her very best Donald Duck impersonation. The boys didn't know what to think. The lady said goodbye (in her Donald Duck voice) so I told the boys to respond, which they did, but they both had this look on their face like, "What in the world?!" It was so funny.

The mall is a great place to spend our mid-morning: nice and air conditioned. And by the time we got home, the boys were ready to nap and sleep away the hottest part of the day! If only I could do the same, but it's too hot in my room for me to sleep, and I've got to get stuff done while there aren't four little hands around undoing everything.

My Purple Brain*

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense.Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color is Your Brain?

*I never knew my brain was purple. I actually don't think this fits me very well any more (it fits my pre-mom self, though); I do have a pretty good imagination, but in my current state, most of my thoughts involve more practical problem solving like, "Where did I put the keys?" or "Where did I put my kids?" and "Do I even still have a brain?"

I do like to think, however, that my aura is fluorescent pink.

Rocks and Robins Eggs

We went boating at Massacre Rock on the Snake River today. It was lots of fun. Even Drew liked it. He was hesitant at first, and hated his life jacket, but pretty soon he settled into the groove and had a good time.

It was a gorgeous day for boating, but too windy for wakeboarding (which was ok for me, since I can't wakeboard this summer, anyway). We saw a lot of pelicans on the water today, and think I even saw a great blue heron (or it might have been some kind of crane; I didn't get a very good look at it). We also saw an area of the shore that had been burned by a lightning strike last night; it was still smoldering.

We stopped for lunch at the Shelter, which is a little area on the shore that a friend of ours rents from a local farmer. It's secluded from the main boat dock, so we never have to worry about finding an open table. There's just one picnic table under a little structure with a roof and two walls, the other sides being left open. There is also a rope swing, and last year I enjoyed swinging off of it into the water. This year I had to settle for watching, but next year I think I'll try a flip.

The kids love to stop at the Shelter and play; I guess they get sick of being on the boat all the time. Our friends' kids were looking for crawdads, of which they found dead ones in abundance. We saw a little frog that didn't seem terribly afraid of us, until we tried to catch it. Drew and Owen thought it was hilarious to watch it jump and swim. They've never seen a real frog before, and I don't think they made the connection from the cartoonish frogs in their story books to the real thing. But they loved it nonetheless.

We were at the Shelter for a couple hours, and Owen spent most of that time in the water, throwing rocks and splashing and laughing. Drew spent a surprising amount of time in the water, too; he's not as brave as Owen, but he also doesn't like to be the only one not doing something that looks fun. Owen slipped in the water a couple times. He was trying to pick up rocks off the riverbed, but because the water was waist-deep on him and his arms are short, his face ended up in the water, causing him to sputter and lose his balance. But it didn't deter him much. He continued to harvest rocks, and when he got tired of throwing them, he decided to eat them. Unfortunately, some of them were covered with algae. Yuck!

Drew got tired of the water, and went exploring on the shore. Our friend's kid, Ashley, followed him around to make sure he didn't get hurt. Every now-and-then, she would dash back and report: "Drew found some flowers!" or, "Drew found some berries!" I asked her to make sure he didn't put anything in his mouth, so she ran back to him and made sure. Then she came dashing back, saying, "Drew found a blue egg!" I said, "Oh! It must be a robin's egg!" Ashley turned to Drew and asked him if she could see the egg shell. He wouldn't relinquish it, but put it right into his mouth. I grabbed him and scooped the shell out of his mouth. Sure enough, robin's egg blue. It was pretty, until Drew chomped it to smithereens.

Finally, our afternoon came to an end and we headed home. The boys were quite tired, since they woke up earlier than usual and didn't get any afternoon nap. Drew fell asleep within two minutes of being buckled into his car seat. Owen fell asleep about half-way home. These are the kind of summer days that get me through the cold Pocatello winters. I'm just looking forward to next summer, when I can take more part in the action.

'Oppies and Fiewors

Happy [late] 4th of July! I hope everyone had a fun, safe time. We had ourselves a fun little celebration. We had a barbecue and invited some friends over to eat and to light fireworks with us. It turned out to be a really nice evening. I ate too much, as usual, but at least I didn't get sick this time.*

I made some cheesecakes, and I got a little enthusiastic and turned them into the following:

Drew and Owen had a grand old time. I have never seen Owen so excited about anything in his entire life. All 20.5 months of it. When we started lighting the fireworks (or "fiewors" as he calls them) he started yelling and jumping around and pumping his little fists in the air. He had an ear-to-ear grin on his face the entire time. He was so fun to watch. Owen didn't care for the city fireworks, which we watched from our back yard (they light the fireworks at the fairgrounds, which is about three blocks from our house), he just enjoyed the chance to be running wild in the back yard, having all the fun toys to himself.

Drew liked the all fireworks, but got a little scared at the ones that boomed and crackled. He loved the screamers, though. He kept saying, "Woo. Wooooo!" over and over. And he really enjoyed the city firework display. Everything was "pippie" (pretty). Drew's favorite though, were the little Snappers that don't need to be lit; you just throw 'em and they pop when they hit the ground. The boys can never throw them hard enough to pop, so they have to stomp on them. Owen likes that part a lot. We opened up a pack and would go outside and throw a few every day this week. I would say, "Do you guys want to go throw some poppers?" And Drew would yell, "Oppies!" and run for the door.

Here are some pictures from our fireworks:

The biggest smile Owen's ever worn...

And some of my favorites from the city's display:

*We went to our friend Little Mary's birthday party on Tuesday. She turned five, and got a Cadillac Escalade for her birthday. They had a barbecue there, and I ate four hot dogs, some potato salad, a bunch of potato chips, a piece of cake, some ice cream and a can of soda. I think I might have also had a few chocolate covered pretzels and some honey-roasted peanuts. I'm pretty sure I went far beyond "eating for two." I woke up at 4:00 the following morning absolutely sick. I kept everything down, but I don't remember having a worse stomach ache in my life.

I Have a Bobbum!

The boys and I had Family Home Evening tonight for the very first time. I'd been at kind of a loss as far as lessons and activities go; what do you do with kids that can't sit still for more than about 45 seconds? I decided I'd practice my nursery lesson on them. The lesson is called "I Have a Body." It delves into body parts: arms, legs, hands, feet, et cetera. It also talks about keeping our bodies healthy. We didn't get to that part. Maybe we'll do that next week. For today, we just pointed to our noses, eyes, bellies, and, Drew's favorite, our "bobbums." He knows so much about that particular body part, because I'm often reminding him to sit on his bottom rather than trying to stand on his chair at the table or stand up in the bathtub.

The lesson went well; it lasted about two minutes, then we played ring-around-the-rosies for about 4 minutes, which is actually much longer than my attention span usually lasts for that game. It's getting too hard to "fall down" and stand back up again. But the boys love it. When they fall down, they really go all out. They plunk themselves down onto their bobbums, then they proceed to throw their whole selves onto the ground so they're just laying there laughing hysterically. And when they get back up to play again, they always giggle as they hold hands and walk in the circle. It makes it worth it to tire myself out a little, because they're having so much fun.

It's Yucky! I'm Sick! I'm Gonna Puke!

I made Thai food tonight. This is the first time I've attempted a real Thai recipe. I think it turned out really well. I didn't have any Thai basil, which is actually a main part of the recipe, but I discovered that cilantro has a quite similar flavor. There's just a little pizazz that sweet basil doesn't have. I felt a little bad that Lura couldn't eat it. She said it was good, but that it was too spicy. I had no idea how spicy it would turn out, but I guessed that the recipe would be pretty authentic based on the website I got it from. So I actually put less peppers in than were called for and it was still quite spicy. Andy and Westley liked it, though. Westley kept wiping his tongue with his hand as though to wipe the spice off, but he kept saying, "I need more!"

Westley wasn't a huge fan of the dessert I made, though. I made sweet sticky rice with mango. I had neglected to buy an extra mango, so there wasn't quite enough to go around. Westley didn't want to try the mango (even though yesterday when he saw it he said, "I need to eat it. I need to eat the red and yellow apple"), so he and I had our rice with nectarines. I suppose I should say I had my rice with a nectarine. Westley just ate a nectarine. Lura got him to taste the rice, but he quickly spit it out and looked like he was really gagging. He kept threatening to puke but, thankfully, never did. Drew and Owen liked the rice, but not so much the nectarine. Maybe the nectarine was too tart after the sweet rice. Like drinking a glass of orange juice after eating a bowl of Froot Loops.

Over all, I was quite pleased with my meal tonight. It reminded me of Thailand, minus the MSG. My baby really liked it, too. She got pretty hyper and did a few jumping jacks while I was eating the dessert. So I guess she'll come out liking Thai food (or she'll come out a sugar-holic).

Here are links for the recipes I made tonight (they really are tasty, regardless of what a two-year-old says about sweet rice):

Sweet Sticky Rice and Mango:

http://importfood.com/recipes/khaoneeomamuang.html

Thai Pork with Fresh Basil:

http://importfood.com/recipes/padkrapaow.html