Hibachi!

Last night we found ourselves out and about at dinner time, so we decided to take Tai to his first-ever Hibachi dinner. Here's your re-cap:

• The balloon animals were a big hit with both kids.
• Quynh was a huge hit with the wait staff.
• Tai was mesmerized/frightened the entire time.
• I was the only one who successfully caught a piece of zucchini in my mouth.
• Minh successfully caught sake in his.
• Tai refused to open his mouth, got squirted in the face with water, and was not pleased.
• Quynh was fidgety and fussy and not very engaged in the spectacle at all.
• Tai ate a *ton* of shrimp and scallops, deftly avoiding all vegetables on his plate.
• Quynh filled up on orange juice and soup, and then hardly ate any dinner.
• We topped it all off with Herrell's Ice Cream.

When it was all over, we asked Tai "What was your favorite part?" and he replied, without hesitation, "I didn't like the fire because it almost burned my head."

Poo Haiku

Diapers handed down
to sister. Two poops in the
potty. Minh cleaned both.

Three Book Clubs

Last night was the second meeting of my book club. Despite my original ambivalence, I think I am actually enjoying this new endeavor. I am reading more, which is nice, and I get out of the house every 6 weeks. The interesting thing about this club is that the two Founding Mothers have very different personalities and, accordingly, taste in books. As a result, the first two books we read were radically different and these two women tend to butt heads a little bit during the meetings, which keeps things spicy.

Although I finished the first book mere hours before the first meeting, this month I finished weeks ahead of time and made it half-way through another book, lent to me by a friend and neighbor. It is excellent and I've already recommended it to two different friends. My neighbor and I plan to get together for a glass of wine once I finish this book and have our own little unofficial "book club". And she's already recommended another book for me to read after this one. Suddenly I feel like I'm in two book clubs--how did that happen?

Last night at dinner I explained to Tai that I was going out for a book club meeting and that Daddy would stay home and put him to bed. Of course, Tai wanted details about what a book club meeting is like, so I elaborated. Apparently, after I left Minh and Tai had their own book club meeting during which they discussed the Frog & Toad series as well as How The Grinch Stole Christmas. From what Minh tells me, Tai's participation in the discussion included, "I like Toad because he says 'blah'." and "I like the part [in The Grinch] where he takes all the gifts but then brings them back."

Minh and Tai's book club meeting quickly ended when it morphed into a tickle session. At my meeting we occasionally got temporarily off-topic, but there was no tickling.