Lucy has added two new words to her vocabulary this week: Spongebob and banana. At least Mama and Dada were her first two words.

Drake is potty-training. One day it just seemed to click for him. He's not totally there yet, but he is exclusively in pull-ups and not diapers. I made him sticker chart so he can make a big deal out of No. 1 and No. 2.

Drake's hermit crab, Mr. Krabs, is dead (I think). I'm not sure how to tell if they're moulting. When I was little, I think I accidentally buried my hermit crab alive while it was moulting because I thought it was dead. I feel really bad for Drake, who does not know there is anything wrong with his crab - yet. When he got Mr. Krabs, he was holding him and he said, "I love you, Mr. Krabs." He named him all by himself. I don't know if it was something we did, or if the crab was just sickly when we bought him. I have no idea! I think we need a pet who can let us know when something is wrong.

Mom came down on Wednesday so I could go to court in the morning to have my ticket dismissed. She brought Drake a stuffed animal, a blue-footed booby. Yes, I'm being serious. It's really cute and Drake loves it. He brings it everywhere, including to the dinner table where "Bird" has to have a plate and napkin, too. "Bird" almost took a bath with me the other day, and "Bird" has to be buckled into the car, too. "Bird" also goes by an alias - "Seagull". You never know which name Drake will use. He sucks on Bird's beak, which is kind of weird. Yesterday he took Bird outside and put him on the handlebars of his bike while he rode around the driveway. It was pretty cute. Then he and Skylar made Bird a nest out of pinestraw on the front porch. Drake held Bird in his arms and told him, "I will love you forevers."

Bart is the kindest little boy (or the biggest flirt). We went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast while George was in Germany and Bart offered the lady behind the counter a piece of his new watermelon gum. She was so touched by his gallantry that she gave him a free munchkin donut and then gave us his donut on the house. When Bart realized he'd scored free food just by being nice, he was amazed. The other day when we were in the furniture section of Target, he tried to give a lady working there a piece of gum. She thought he was sweet and stopped to talk with us. I'm not sure what freebie Bart was trying to score out of that one.

George and the kids watched the Sandlot Friday night while I was at work. George told me that after the scene where Squints kisses Wendy Peffercorn (sp?) the lifeguard, Bart told him that he really wants to kiss a girl. I told him he could kiss Lucy, but he said, "No, mom, I mean a woman."

And we thought Skylar was going to be the one we had to worry about! What are we going to do when that boy's hormones really kick in?

P.S. This is the really weird sausage George had in Germany. It freaks me out.