Toothy Tuesday

As I picked up Tucker this afternoon from after school care, he met me with this big partially toothy grin. He pulled his front top tooth out this afternoon after school! We went to his dentist a couple of weeks ago, so I knew that his front teeth were getting loose, but I still didn't expect it to happen this soon. So far, Tucker has lost three teeth and they have all been remove during school. I am actually very happy about that because for some reason the thought of pulling teeth just really seems yucky and gross to me. So, I was just a little bit excited that this big event happened away from my eyes.

I was concerned about how Tucker would take not having a front tooth, but he is doing great. (He does seem to care about the way he looks these days.) He said that it is hard to say "s" sounds, but he also told me that he would manage. He goes around smiling just hoping that someone will notice that he is missing a tooth, almost like a trophy or something. That's my child, never one to shy away from attention or being able to tell a story! Now, we just have to wait for front tooth #2 to come out which I think is probably just a few days away. I have caught him trying to wiggle it, so Tucker is pretty determined to get it out too. Let's cross our fingers that his teacher gets lucky enough to deal with this one too.

First Day of First Grade

Today was the first day of first grade for Tucker. He seemed a little bit excited and a little bit nervous. We had our backpack ready and clothes laid out anticipating the first day.

This year seems to be a bit easier for us all since it is our second year to be at this school. Tucker is familiar with the layout of the campus and even seems to know most of the faculty. (Not sure if this is a good thing, though.) The principal and assistant principal knows him by name and both gave him a big hug on Meet the Teacher night. I guess they are ready for the munchkins to be back, too.

After meet the teacher night on Friday, he was able to see that he already knew a lot of kids from last year, so he was excited about having friends in his classroom. I was excited to see his new teacher and learn that she has about 10 years of teaching experience and a son entering kindergarten. I think that we can relate!

Tucker has had a fabulous summer, but I think that he was ready to return to school. Throughout the morning while getting dressed, he kept repeating, "I can't believe that I am a first grader!" I don't think that I could get him to school fast enough! He was ready to go and get on with the day.

His only disappointment was learning that I was going to walk him into the classroom on the first day of school. You would have thought that I was making him walk around in public without any clothes on! He tried every tactic he could think of to keep me from walking in the building, but I was just as determined to see him to his desk! I really don't know where he gets his stubbornness from. So, we made it to the classroom along with every other classmate AND THEIR PARENTS. Once Tucker was safely in his little desk. I gave a little wave goodbye (I promised not to kiss and hug him at school) and headed out the only to glance back and see him already talking to the other kids at his desk, laughing away.

Real or Fake?

Tucker seems to have time on his brain constantly. Everyday all day long he is asking, "how many minutes will that take?" I usually give him an estimate of time, but sometimes I will say that "whatever" will happen 'in just a minute'. I tell him that I am cooking supper and he wants to know how long it will take. If we watch a movie, he asks again, how many minutes long is the movie? I am not even sure that he understands the concept of a minute or not, but he loves to ask about it!

On Saturday, he wanted to play a game and I was in the middle of folding laundry. Not that it takes much for me to give up folding the laundry, but I did tell him that I would play "in a minute." I watched him walk away, but then he paused and turned to me and said "Are you talking about a REAL minute or a FAKE one"? I guess his concept of time is a little better than I thought.

We are Jammin'

After a morning of eating picking strawberries, we went back home with Oma and Peepaw to start making our favorite (and requested) fresh strawberry jam. Oma had all of the ingredients ready and waiting for us.

We started by washing the strawberries and then Oma and I cut off the tops of the strawberries while Tucker had the job of smashing the strawberries with the potatoe masher. I must say that Tucker's job looked like a lot of fun to me! I don't really know how many strawberries were smashed in the process of jam making, but Tucker grew kind of tired of smashing after a while. There is only so much fun that can be had right?

Moving on to the next phase, we then added A LOT of sugar to the smashed stuff. We were able to rest for 10 minutes while the sugar and strawberries did their thing, then we added the Certo gel and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Tucker then had to stir the mixture for 3 more minutes. Then it was time to put the jam in the jars. This was my job since it can get kind of messy, but Tucker continued to watch and make sure that he knew which jars "his jam" was put in. We continued this process the rest of the afternoon unitl we had about 25 jars ready and finished. Now, I just have to figure out how to get this stuff back to Texas to share with some of you. Heide keeps laughing as we buy more and talk about bringing all kinds of things with us. There really is a limit to what the Cherolla can hold you know. :0)

Poutine - Yumm-o

With all of the hard work strawberry picking, we had to stop by John and Tucker's favorite place to eat. It is called Bernard's Canteen (you say it with a French accent, right?) It is basically a burger and fry kind of place but they have some local favorite foods. I usually get a burger, but their fries are why we go there. They are freshly cut and of course fried. But, the goodness according to John and Tucker doesn't stop there. You have to trick up the fries to make them into a yummy, messy goodness called POUTINE.It is basically brown gravy and cheese curds on hot French fries. The brown gravy is similar to a roast beef gravy and the cheese tastes a lot like the pull cheese that you buy in the store. I think that it is an acquired taste. I sort of think of it as the French version of our Chili-Cheese fries. Tucker likes it because John likes it. I can usually eat poutine one time while we visited John's parents but I think that my guys could eat this for lunch everyday if it wouldn't clog their arteries (and if it was available in Texas). So, there is a little bit of Montreal cultural food info for you. Enjoy!

Strawberry Fields Forever

It has been raining a lot in Montreal, but we did get a break in the rain enough to go pick fresh strawberries! Tucker and I were very excited about that. We love to come to Montreal during strawberry season because there is nothing like picking and eating fresh strawberries. The only bad thing is that I can hardly eat a strawberry at home because they do not taste as yummy as they are here!

Tucker's motto was to pick one eat two. I think that he followed that very well. The poor farmer would have probably kicked us off the farm if he had seen how many strawberries Tucker ate. John and I eventually had to fill the rest of Tucker's basket while he filled his belly! Each of us had a basket to fill so we had 5 huge baskets of strawberries when we were finished. Heide and I started trying to figure out the different things that we could make with all of the strawberries. We knew that we would make several batches of jam (per Peaches request)! So mom, you do have several jars have jam coming your way. :0)

While we were picking, we also had a contest to see who could find the biggest strawberry. Tucker somehow won with a berry almost as big as his hand. Life is berry, berry good here in Montreal right now.

Peaches, you will be happy to know that we have made lots and lots of fresh strawberry jam, so you should have enough to last you a long time as long as we can get it all in the car.

Music to My Ears

With the Stanley Cup finals going on....all we do is watch hockey. This is just a little more than this Texas girl can handle! While watching the game, not only are we pausing and rewinding to watch special moves, plays, and fights (Thank God for Tivo!), but John and Tucker also have to play their own hockey game between periods. The area between the front door and back door is the "hockey rink". Once again, a little too much for this mama to handle.

When John or Tucker scores, they each have a theme song that they sing out. Tucker's song is Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas" song chorus, and even more specifically..."shut up and put your $ where your mouth is, that's that what you get for waking up in Vegas". When John scores, he starts singing "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie.

I found myself in the kitchen playing around on the laptop and trying to ignore the two boys, when I hear Tucker just singing at the top of his lungs his "theme" song. Rather annoyed, I go into the entryway to see what provoked such a loud, eardrum busting outburst with his song rendition. He just looked at me and smiled and sort of shrugged his shoulders, "I was singing in surround sound." All I could do was laugh out loud. I am betting that he kinder teacher will really miss him over the summer. :0)