Dinosaurs are big in the city of Pittsburgh.  Andrew Carnegie funded a huge excavation to bring a dinosaur skeleton here to his museum.  That skeleton is now replicated all over the world.  Consequently, when the city wants to say something cool, it usually says it with dinos.

The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts has a T-Rex out in front that the students outfit as appropriate for weather, current events, etc.  I've seen it in a Santa Hat, in gay pride gear, in Harry Potter glasses and a cape for the opening of the last movie.  It's cool to drive by and see what they've got going on.

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As you may or may not know, they have been shooting the latest Batman film in Pittsburgh.  They destroyed traffic with rolling street closures in downtown, made it snow in the middle of August, and even convinced thousands of Pittsburghers to show up to the Steelers' stadium in winter parkas to serve as extras for the shoot of a football game.  A lot of the filming has been within a few block radius of Dave's work, sometimes right outside his door, so he has kept us updated and inundated with pictures.  Nate has deduced, from dinnertime conversations, that "Daddy works with Batman."

We took a Ducky tour with Papa ken and Grandma Nancy that passed Batman filming and then Dave's building, and I think this really cemented the two ideas together.  Now every morning when Dave leaves for work, Nate announces that he is going to work with Batman.  

I am convinced he doesn't actually know who Batman is, couldn't pick him out of a lineup, wouldn't recognize him if he swung in on one of his cool toys and had his way with Catwoman right in front of us.

So this morning I asked. "Nate, do you know who Batman is?

Nate: "Uh huh.  Batman is a dinosaur."

Me: "A dinosaur?"

Nate: "Uh huh.  With a black hat."

Taken by Papa Ken on our Ducky Boat Ride (while we all pointed and chorused, "look at the Batman Dinosaur!").  

So nothing gets by our boy.

Duly noted.

Quote of the Week

Nate: "Don't squeeze me.  I'm not Play-Doh."

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In the course of a 10 minute car drive, Dave taught Nate some meteorological facts.  Low pressure brings rain clouds and high pressure brings sun.
When Nate got home he proudly explained this to me - complete with squeaky voice and tiptoes for "high pressure" and assumed bass and squat for "low pressure."
Two days later he woke up in the midst of a truly impressive thunderstorm.  He looked around and said "We have thunder and lightning and rain.  We have low pressure."
If only the weathermen were so reliable.

Not exactly a car wash

Nate helped me unload the dishwasher before work this morning.  He very carefully took out the small plastic valves for his zippy cup and put them first into a later plastic container and then put the whole hint into a cabinet.
He got a special sticker for helping me out and he was VERY pleased with himself.
He then went on to entertain himself with his shoes and sunglasses while I loaded the dirty dishes and started the dishwasher.  It came to be time to leave and I could not find my car key.  It is a little brick of a key with a metal key that comes out like a switchblade and a couple buttons for remote entry.  I have had it for ten years and it has been dropped a lot.  It is held together by scotch tape.  At one point I asked the dealer for a new key.  "Sure," they said.  "for a mere $300."  I declined.
So, back to this morning and the missing key.
After hunting for a few minutes I said, "Hey, does anyone know where my car key is?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Nate, sprinting toward the kitchen.  He stopped next to the dishwasher.  "It's in there."
And it was, nestled into the silverware holder between two spoons.
Squeaky clean and thankfully still functional.

Branching Out

I was overjoyed when I discovered, through a chance encounter, that it would be possible to make my carnivorous vegan son a tasty chocolate cake.  He has eaten many of these depression-era chocolate cupcakes and had a dinosaur birthday cake made from the batter as well.  The frosting, made by necessity with Blue Bonnet light margarine was a little soft with an unfortunate tendency to separate, but all in all the cake was a success.
Given my recent discovery of vegan buttermilk, I felt ready to branch out and Grandma Nancy's birthday gave me the perfect occasion.
I was inspired by a friend from residency and her food/fashion/family blog but ultimately ended up settling on a slightly more time consuming but beautiful plan.
I used a vegan vanilla cupcake recipe I found on line (Note: do not consider the addition of the almond extract optional.  It was amazing.) and ended up using a triple recipe, but I made one batch at a time to keep it from going flat while waiting for the layers to be colored and baked.

 (I learned, actually, that our oven is not level, not that anything in our 70+ year old house is.  The resultant fat-on-one-side-skinny-on-another layers required some engineering skill to layer into a level cake.)
The finished product was supposed to be a rainbow but I got distracted in my ROYGBIV and it was just a colorful hodge-podge instead.

The addition of shortening to the buttercream improved the situation significantly though I lacked the diabetic determination necessary to put enough between the layers to really separate the colors.

A thin layer of chocolate on the outside because I firmly believe a birthday cake without chocolate is heresy, some rainbow candles, and voila, birthday magic.

More Nate

Things Nate has said in the last few days.

When we were at the Butler Fair a few weeks ago we saw a white chicken that was throwing up.  It was super gross but Nate was fascinated and has talked about "that throwing up white hen" ever since.  When we were talking about what we might see at the Ohio State Fair, he announced that he wanted to see the "throwing up white hen".  Trying to prepare for the inevitable I said "Well, they may not have a throwing up white hen at this fair."
"No, just a brown one," he shot right back.
He then talked ceaselessly about when we would see the "throwing up brown hen, not a white one at this fair, Mommy Dactyl".

Getting out of the bathtub:
"Don't dry me.  I want to be wet and naked.  And cold."
Um, Ok.  I guess.

Yesterday and today when I dropped something in the kitchen:
"What happened, Hon?"
Me: "Did you just call me hon?"
All I got back was a sneaky look.

Putting on PJ's, the top, like many things, was a tight fit over his brainiac melon.
"I have a big head.  I don't like that big head."

After being tickled by his pediatrician:
"Mommy, that man was using his hand spider."

Dave remarked the other night that Nate was "scary smart".
"I'm not scary," Nate piped up.  "I'm nice."

We got a lollipop at his pediatrician.  Nate chose a purple one.  Driving home in the car, he had a revelation.
"This purple popsicle tastes like grape!"
"Well, Nate, purple popsicles usually taste like grape."
"Uh huh! And those red popsicles taste like cherry, and those pink popsicles taste like watermelon and those green popsicles taste like grass!"
"Grass? Really?"
"Yes, they do.  And those yellow popsicles taste like Mr. Sun."

When he repeated this observation about the rainbow birthday cake, Grandma Nancy asked if green might taste like lime.  "No," he insisted, "just grass."
Pause.
"Actually those limes taste like grass."
Touche.

So Big!

Nate has been telling us for a while now that when he is "so big" he will ride in a boat. Well, this weekend we went to the Ohio State Fair and he rode in an alligator boat. It was a kiddie ride with no parents allowed and after some initial reticence, he finally agreed to get on alone.

And he had a BALL!!!!!!!

Then, confidence boosted, he also went on "the bug ride" by himself.  Also a big hit.

I kept looking at him this weekend and thinking that I didn't know where this very big boy had come from.