Heard around our house

It has been one full year since we first took Alex off of wheat and milk products. Our idea was to try it for a year, and then see what happened. Well, he has done amazingly well and I was afraid to take him off of his new diet. However, the nutritionist said his intestines may have had a chance to heal and may work correctly now that we have given them a break. So we went ahead and allowed him to have something with wheat in it, a small amount to start. After about ten minutes he started shaking his head from side to side and banging his spoon into the table and screaming. Both Dan and I tried to calm him down, but we were trying so hard not to laugh we weren't much use. Finally Dan said, "Alex, if you want to eat normal food, you'd better start acting normal!". I gave up pretending not to laugh, and had to excuse myself from the table. I don't know if it really was the wheat (how could it have happened that fast?) or if he was just having a moment, but I am not in a hurry to try wheat again. I have become the Wheat Nazi.

The kids were finishing lunch and Sam was safely ensconced in his high chair when I looked at the clock and realized we were late for an appointment (to get Alex's staples out of his head, actually). I grabbed a washcloth and started washing Sam's face vigorously and exclaimed "Shoot!", all at the same time. Sam looked up at me with his freshly scrubbed face, thought a moment, and then said, "Bolshoi shoot!" (which roughly translated means, "big-time 'shoot'!")

The kids were all in the van, Elena, Alex, and Sam in the back seat and Inga and Andrei in the middle seats. Elena asked Andrei to pass her something that was lying on the floor in front of him just out of reach. Andrei carefully reached down with his feet and picked it up, attempting to retrieve it with his hands, but having difficulty. "Don't use your feet, Andrei," Elena exclaimed, "you're not a girl!"