Saturday, December 8, 2012

"Stuff" LittleNortherner Says

Yup - the title is a total rip-off of "Sh*t My Dad Says", but sometimes the little genius says some really off-the-wall stuff. During the first thirty minutes of a two-hour car ride, there were three statements that were so unexpected that NorthernDaddy spent the rest of the ride trying to unscramble things.

First up, breakfast was at Dunkin Donuts. Don't judge: you eat junk, too. The order was complicated enough (coffee.no cream, no sugar.) that it got messed up. The bag of donuts was found to be light one apple fritter and LittleNortherner decided that he did not like the Red Velvet donut that he had chosen, so the one (beautiful, tasty-looking, heavenly) apple fritter that should have been NorthernDaddy's was shared by LNorth and NorthernMommy while Daddy got the Red Velvet donut with a kid-sized bite mark. (Donut tasted like lighter fluid. Ate it anyway.)
After demolishing his breakfast, LittleNortherner started to refer to his pastry as an "Apple Critter". Despite numerous attempts to correct the name to "fritter", LilNorth insisted that they were called Apple Critters, which just set Daddy off on a tangent. There must really be such an animal as an Apple Critter. They live in apple orchards and eat from the trees. We don't see them because they only scurry around the orchards in the summer - they hate the cold, which is why they're all gone by the time the Northerns go apple picking in late Fall.  They're really quick, too - which is why they have to be caught by luring them into traps with donut pieces. Apple Critters love donuts, and that's why they're mainly sold at Dunkins - donut shops have lots of donuts to use as bait, so it's easier for the shopkeepers to be the ones who catch those pesky apple critters.
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It was all fun and games, until LittleNortherner decided that the family was going Apple Critter hunting at the orchard next summer. Who's laughing now, Daddy?.....
Photo from brokencookiesdontcount.com


As the LittleNorthernerAdventureMobile wound its way across the state, the Northerns saw quite a few flocks of turkeys. NorthernMommy and Daddy talked back and forth a little bit about turkeys (did y'all know that a wild turkey once tried to knock NorthernMommy off of her bicycle?), and tried to engage LittleNortherner into the conversation by having him do a quick count of how many turkeys were in that one flock. He refused, and NMommy and Daddy continued with their conversation. Several minutes later, out of the blue, comes a stern pronouncement from the backseat:
"I'll will count them after I put them in the oven."  Dude? Where did that come from? Are you going to need counseling for this turkey hatred?
Photo from wildlifelandmanagement.com

NorthernMommy gets the third totally oddball statement of the ride as the Northerns pass a perfectly normal North Country yard with a line of six or seven Wranglers and CJs out by the shed. Mommy wonders aloud, "That guy's got six different Jeeps, isn't that just too many Jeeps?"
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Too many Jeeps? NorthernDaddy doesn't understand. What does that mean?

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Catching Up

There haven't been any new blog posts for a few days - it's been busy, and NorthernMommy discovered a new milestone for the blog: the 1GB limit for free photo hosting has been reached. How's that for a milestone? Not the 100th post, not a blogging award, not anything fun like that; just an invisible wall, preventing new posts. NorthernDaddy took the path of least resistance and started paying for the extra storage needed.
 
Here's just a few photos to catch y'all up:
Snowball Fight!

Driving the reindeer that are pulling his sleigh.

Hockey. Always hockey.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Hoarder

What does a photograph of empty toilet paper rolls have to do with this blog? Well, considering how life with LittleNortherner goes, that picture could go just about any direction.
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The problem for NorthernDaddy is that Lil'North won't let him throw out any empty toilet paper cores. If LittleNortherner sees a core sitting in the recycling bin, he'll screech, grab it, and run off at top speed. If LittleNortherner suspects that the roll is running low and could run out soon, he stalks whoever might be using the facilities. When the faint tearing sound indicates that the roll is empty, there is the sudden appearance of a cardboard core ninja - whoosh, and it's gone. It's gotten a little ridiculous.
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Sometimes, if one shouts a question (such as: "Why are you taking all of those things?") at the back of the disappearing blur, an answer will come floating back. "Because Mommy and I are going to make something with them!"
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Finally, after some severe interrogation, LittleNortherner explained the future project: he and Mommy are going to build a telescope. ......... Daddy's thinking that's going to be quite the telescope -  the boy has to have about a hundred of those tubes hidden away.
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That's the other problem to solve: LittleNortherner has all of these empty toilet paper rolls hidden somewhere, but NorthernDaddy hasn't found the stash spot yet. Where is he hiding those things?