Day 130 - 06/30/2007

Well, my stomach is feeling a little better, although it was still a little iffy when I woke up this morning.

We were busy all day with various errands that needed to get done. M, N and I hit the post office, the bank (where they deposited part of their allowance as what I'm hoping was a learning exercise), the pet store (for claw clippers for Smokey), the fire station (for a pamphlet on what the various placards mean on trucks -- but no one was home), Anita's (for lunch), the airport (to checkout the airplanes and the people), Fran's Cake and Candy shop (for M to cash in her gift certificate and finally to Sears (for a new dishwasher, but they didn't have the model we wanted, so we left empty-handed).

Lunch at Anita's was a spur of the moment thing. They may be closing the one in Chantilly if the zoning board approves a bank's application. If so, they'll move to a different location. Anyway, I thought it'd be a good place to eat. N doesn't do well outside his comfort zone (chicken nuggets/strips, peanut butter bagels, pizza, lean pockets or grilled cheese), so I was worried he wouldn't eat the quesadilla I ordered for him (sans lettuce and tomatoes, I didn't want to make it any more difficult than it had to be). He balked (as I suspected), so I took away the chips. That did it. He had a bite, but stopped there. I then told him we wouldn't go to the airport if he didn't eat his lunch. That was good for another bite or two.

The reason this worked is that since we live so close to Dulles, we head out there on "field trips" to see the planes land or takeoff. Sometimes we'll stop by the Udvar-Hazy Center and watch from there, but not always. N loves doing this, especially when we swing by the general aviation terminal so we can get closer to the corporate jets.

Anyway, getting back to the quesadilla, it was after the second bite that he then realized it actually wasn't too bad and that he liked it. Of course, this stopped after eating half the quesadilla. Oh well, at least the battle was won and he might now be amenable to trying it again. Maybe I'll make some at home for him to eat and add to his repertoire. I mean, it's not like he doesn't eat the ingredients on their own.

We finally got home at 3p or so and I relaxed until it was time to head over to Springfield for a cookout at my mom's house. My cousin and his wife came up for the day to look for rental units, so after they were done, we all met at my mom's house for burgers and brats (as well as conversation). It was good to see Neil and Donna, it's too bad we don't see more of each other. Hopefully once Neil starts school and gets settled into his apartment, we'll be able to, but until then...

After we got home and got the kids to bed (including Sarah, who spent the night), I headed out to Lowe's to see if they had the model we wanted. They didn't. (Although I did get the rest of the supplies needed to outfit my homegrown sprinkler system.)