NYC Pizza

Sterling and I have this favorite area of downtown Coral Gables. You drive my favorite road to get there-Old Cutler Bay-and it is just the right energy there for us. Sterling said it is because it reminds us of downtown Ogden. True. (Although, truth be told, I've never seen homeless people sleeping on the streets in downtown Ogden, so Miami is still very different.) But at large, this tends to be a really nice area with a very neighborly feel, and we really enjoy it. Every single time we drive past this pizza place we promise ourselves we're going to stop there sometime, but we never have--until today!

Sterling came home from studying today for the first time in a week. I mean, he's slept here, but he hasn't eaten a meal here or seen the kids awake (ever) so it's not like he's really been home. So even though he had planned to just eat dinner and head back out, we decided we'd hijack our Friday night. And oh, what a blessed relief it was! 

This pizza, it was amazing. Well, to be honest, I can't speak for the pizza. Ruthie and Sterling said it was amazing. I ate the Meat Loaf--and it was AMAZING! Right up my alley--no sauce, lots of cheese, and absolutely perfect bread! Sterling said I'd like the pizza as well (the barbecue chicken looked SO good, I'm already craving it) because I'm a little-sauce-lover and I also usually lean toward liking thin crusts. This is only good if they make the pizza really, really well. Which is why I tend to not love pizza so much, as a whole. But this, I would recommend to EVERYONE. Pizza is Ruth's favorite food and one of Sterling's top, and I think everyone gave it an A+ tonight.

photos courtesy Sterling's new iPhone

Will, who has never even liked soda, took over this Sprite can and would not give it back. 

This photo was after we cut into her piece and gave some of it to Will. One piece can feed three--honestly! Ruth was so excited for the ham and pepperoni, oh that girl loves her meat, haha!

This was the Meat Loaf. It was filled with cheese and ham and sausage and pepperoni. The photo makes it look burned and crusty, but trust me, it was not. Perfectly perfect. This was also after being cut in half--good thing Sterling and I shared because it was massive!

Molly liked her crust.

Those eyes!

Then, we just wandered the streets, because it is SO MUCH FUN! On every street corner there was a band or musician playing. The first one we ran into was a saxophone player and he was awesome. We stood and watched him for quite some time. The kids were entranced. The next corner had two guys playing a guitar and drums. It seemed to be mariachi music, but they were playing Strangers In the Night when we walked up and it made me homesick for my mom to sing it to me. Love the oldies. Ruth loved watching the guy with the guitar--she has wanted a PINK guitar for ages now. The nice old man actually let her hold it and play it! Unfortunately, Sterling's phone was out of space, but you can bet it was the most adorable thing in my life! 

Further into a shopping plaza an entire band was set up. There was a huge balcony staircase going up and down, with a little platform at the top, so both kids ran up the stairs and danced their little hearts out on the platform. I wish I had photos of those, but then again, it was kind of nice to just completely soak in that moment. Ruth wants to be a ballerina so bad--and she has all the moves! The spinning, the dipping, the lifting her legs. And Will just had us both cracking up because he would try to mimic Ruth, but he can't balance on one foot, so he'd be holding the ground and barely lifting a leg and it was so hilarious and so adorable! They danced for a good long while, and it was really cute.

Then, because the pizza was such a great steal (all of us sharing and whatnot) we splurged a little bit and got Italian ice cream for dessert. We could pick three flavors for one cup so we got fresh strawberry (because Ruthie insisted on pink, of course), fresh coconut (this was the best thing in my life), and this nutty chocolate one, very strongly reminiscent of Nutella, that the lady recommended to me and I taste-tested first. TO DIE FOR DELICIOUS! We also splurged and got Sterling a macaroon, because he has never had one. They were also incredibly delicious. Ended our night on just the right note. Well, that and Molly screaming the whole ride home. But, you win some you lose some, right?

Also on the ride home, Ruth and Will had this entire conversation with Will calling Ruth "dah-di" and  jabbering away all sorts of things, and Ruth responded like it was completely intelligible and did not miss a beat. For a good ten minutes they jabbered back and forth. Such a long conversation for such unclear words! I just melted listening to them. Once upon a time my mom told me that my little brother, Ethan, had his own language and no one understood him but me and I would be his translator for the rest of the world. It's really sweet to see that connection in my own kids. I hope they keep it forever.

Two more weeks. Two more weeks and I have forty whole hours with Sterling, in the van, all to us. Two more weeks. I love ya, babe!
(I just realized I had old drafts sitting on here, so keep scrolling because there are a few more new ones! And it keeps skipping over my Mother's Day post, so you might have to specifically click on that on the sidebar.)

Kid-isms

Ruthie was dressing herself for the swimming pool.

"Take my shorts off, mom?" 

"Yup, take your shorts off."

"And my panties off?"

"Yup, and your panties."

"And my bum off?" (said with a giant twinkle in her eye)

"No, silly, not your bum."

"I can't take my bum off, it's tight on me."

"It is tight on you, it's supposed to stay on."

"Yeah, all my body is supposed to stay tight."

I laughed forever at this little conversation. Ruth is so hilarious in her thinking sometimes.

Will is growing like a weed. Luckily, last time I purchased sandals, there was an adorable light-up alligator pair in the next size up that I couldn't pass on. I pulled them out of the closet when his old ones got too small, and he has been obsessed. He wears them ALL DAY LONG and when he takes a nap he lays them beside his bed on his nightstand, so he can look at them. The best though, is his jumping. That kid has this hilarious, off-balance, unsteady jump that always brings a smile to my face. He does it CONSTANTLY so that the shoes will light up. He will proudly show it off to anyone, and then bashfully sink behind my leg afterwards. It is the cutest.

Molly is EVERYWHERE. She is fearless. Much, much more so than my other two children. She thinks she can walk and play and touch and reach everything that all the other kids can. She is so pleased with herself that she can stand on tiptoes and reach just high enough to press a key down on the piano. She LOVES to clap right now and clapped after each student played a piano piece today as well as every time Ruthie jumped in the pool. What an adorable little cheerleader we have!

Ruth's persuasive powers "Come on mosquito! Come into mommy's hand! Nothing is going to happen to you! We'll just squish you dead and then you will be just fine!"

Will's excitement over "pop!" when we make popcorn with the air popper. When it starts popping and the popcorn reaches a high enough point that you can see it, he takes this HUGE intake of breath in such a dismayed way, I just LOVE it! He actually loves to cook in general. Whenever I walk into the kitchen he runs into the dining room, pushes over a 5 gallon bucket, and stands next to me saying "cook! cook!" in such gleeful excitement that it brightens my mood even when I know how much harder it will be to cook with him there. 

Today we were eating oreo's and Will would pull his cookie apart, do that same big, intake of breath and then hold the cookie half with frosting up in the air and yell "YAAAAY! LOOOOOTS!" Haha. "Lots" is one of his favorite words lately. He has had a little growth spurt in his words recently and has quite a few new ones: lots, baby (he could say that before but he says it differently now, like bai-bai), Ruthie (dah-di)...okay thats all that I can think of. So maybe not so many words, but definitely much more able to communicate. He will sit there and enunciate sounds and make actions and run around explaining himself, until you know what he means. Ruth gets it perfectly. I usually get it, and Sterling just laughs that we understand him at all.

Molly can walk across the room pushing her walker, or a stool, whichever is handier. It makes her look so big! While I am sadder than sad for her to get big, sleeping through the night sometime soon would not, in any way, be regrettable.

Today I went in to the bathroom to help Ruthie finish up, and when I went to wipe my hands she said "Hey! Devaney's in the mirror! Say hi to Devaney, mom!" and then refused to leave the bathroom and sat in there for another twenty minutes chatting away with Devaney in the mirror. HAAHAAHAA! (Anyone else think of Anne and her window-friend?) Which reminds me of her and Will playing with dominoes this afternoon and Ruthie told a long, made-up story that was quite lengthy and at the end said "K, Will, now you say something back to me." He kind of jabbered something and she said "No-o Will, it's got to be LONG and LONG." Poor girl needs him to get up to speed on his communication skills, haha. I have a feeling her and the REAL Devaney are going to have a BLAST together this sumer.