game weekend #2

This week we played Kent State in football. The tailgate was large again, but not overwhelming. We all brought appetizers to eat, which is great for the palate, but terrible for pregnant heartburn. Lauren Clay had a great time making Pigs in a Blanket, although she kept trying to sneak tastes of the "tiny baby hotdogs." Every once in a while I'd slip her a little sliver of the dough to taste, and she'd always say, "Oh! Tane-tu, mommy!" (Tane-tu= Thank you.)

It's fun watching the kids interact at the tailgate. Lauren Clay wanted Jessica right next to her all the time, and Jessica's at the wonderful age where she enjoys having a little admirer glued to her side. When she wasn't with Jessica, she was hanging out with Nalaney, and at the game she stuck close by Katelyn because Katelyn kept edging her way into John's lap (Lauren Clay was not too keen with another girl in her dad's lap!) Incidentally, Katelyn (who's 3) almost got the wave started during the game. She'd turn to the crowd behind us and yell, "START THE WAVE!", then she'd demonstrate the move. After a few dozen demonstrations, people around us started humoring her... and before we knew it, the whole section was participating! She was never successful at getting stadium-wide participation, but I bet she'll have the whole crowd involved before season's end.



This morning we walked to Winchell's for a tasty breakfast. Lauren Clay was an angel during the whole meal (albeit a messy angel.) She ate a full plate of food, sat happily in her chair, played quietly while John skimmed the paper, and got back into her stroller without a fuss when it was time to go. It probably helped that Lauren Clay slept from 7:30 to 7:30 last night with a minor wake-up at around 10 when I took advantage of the opportunity to pull her into the shower to rinse off the football game (she fell asleep en route to the house, and I didn't dare wake her up to go through the bedtime routine.) I'm not sure she's ever slept 12 hours at night... we'd love to see more nights like that! Anyway, here she is at the restaurant after devouring her "dessert" (a packet of jelly.)

I've managed to misplace the camera battery charger, so the picture postings lately are products of John's phone. Hopefully I will locate the charger this evening so I can display more consistent (and higher-quality) pictures.

Here's a challenge for the blog-readers: next week's football game is against Louisville, and the tailgate theme is BLUE... we're all in charge of bringing blue foods to the tailgate. Unfortunately, outside of blueberries, blue corn chips and blue potatoes (which are tough to find), there aren't many healthy-ish foods that are blue (I'm guessing we'll have lots of derivations of blue jello desserts!) If you have any creative ideas or recipes for blue foods, please comment by Friday!