MS Surprise

The boys made their unique recipe again this morning. They have renamed it "MS Surprise." I tasted it. It was not delicious. The boys claim that they put too much water in and have asked me to sample it again the next time they make it (next time?). They have also revised the recipe so that at the very end it reads "Eat at your own risk." Although an appropriate comment, it is likely unnecessary for anyone who just finished reading the list of ingredients.

Animals

Last year, the Christmas of 2007 Spencer said that what he wanted most was "something with eyes." This meant that he wanted a stuffed animal, or a hard plastic animal, or a soft rubber animal, or maybe some kind of guy. He did not want clothes or board games or puzzles. His taste in gifts has changed since then though. He loves getting books. He says he loves getting clothes and prefers birthday cards to the gifts (but I think that is not true, but said because Spencer is trying to distinguish himself from the crowd of unoriginal six year olds who do not like getting clothes and do not really understand the point of birthday cards). I digress though. Spencer likes animals. He likes dogs and cats and birds and bugs. And he likes playing with little animal figurines. And sleeping with stuffed animals. His bed strongly resembles a nest. He arranges his blankets (I have recently limited him to three, though tonight he managed to get a fourth in there. When left unchecked, he has had as many as six blankets) around him and then he places his stuffed animals into whatever arrangement currently has meaning for him. There is usually some sort of overarching theme or storyline to the placement. He does not have a favorite animal that he sleeps with every night. The animals are rotated frequently. Recently, Jon's parents, Sue and Randy, gave the boys a book titled "Agate," in which every birthstone is paired with a zoo animal. Spencer loves the book. He read it two times the first night and then so many times the second day that he memorized it. That night he scooped up the five animals in his bed and replaced them with just two. An elephant and a lion. He did this because in the book February/Amethyst is an elephant and May/Emerald is a lion. He called down to me later from his bed to tell me that what he really wants for Christmas or his birthday this year is an emerald lion. A few nights later, the elephant and lion were replaced with a mouse, a cat, a dog, and a wolf. These animals represents Wormtail, Professor McGonagall, Sirious Black and Lupin. Obviously we are currently reading from the Harry Potter series.

Green Eggs and Ham

Oven the past week the boys and I having been making gluten-free treats for the holidays. Tonight we made mint merengue cookies with chocolates. Although we needed only the egg whites for the cookies, Spencer did not want me to waste the yolks. I put the yolks into a separate bowl for Spencer. He got busy. He was in and out of the pantry adding things to the bowl. Eventually Spencer's focused attention drew in Michael as well. They continued the food project together, crushing things in plastic bags, adding a pinch of this, a handful of that. After I finished the cookies (by myself) and put them into the oven, I agreed to fry up the eggs. Spencer sampled the finished product and declared it good (even when I questioned him repeatedly on how that was possible). The boys were (are) very cute. They started talking about making the recipe again - first asking if we could do it in the morning. No. Well certainly before Christmas? Maybe. They want to make it without gluten next time (next time?) so that Michael and I can try it. They recorded the recipe on paper (so they will not forget it). They came up with a name for the recipe, the "MS Concoction." They decided that we should make the MS Concoction on halloween and feed it to the kids (or "customers" as they called them) who came to our door (at least to the kids who do not have a nut allergy). Here is the list of ingredients:
egg yolk
water
graham crackers (optional)
cheesy rice quakes, crumbled
peanuts, crushed
sunflower seeds
brown sugar
cheese powder
cinnamon
basil
oregano
rosemary
salt
vanilla extract
peppermint extract
green food coloring*

* In future they would like to try different colors