When Will I Be THAT Cool?

olive and cream cheese penguins (with a cheese ball igloo, of course)

OK, if you thought I was bad, may I just point out that I've never had any desire to make the above concoction for a party.  Can you imagine how long I would be in the kitchen, obsessively cutting olives in half and stuffing them with cream cheese, in order to have enough penguins for 50 people to have a bite?  No thank you!

But, in case you want the recipe, I found one here.




Know what else is adorable, and that I'd never in a million years be able to pull off?  These:

The website claims the dome is made from the bottom of a soda bottle.  I don't get it, but I wish I could.  People are just so darn inventive.

Wanna see another inventive thing?  This present Mr. C received from an aunt (and uncle [but you know it was mostly the aunt]):

 See that?  Blocks of black felt with yellow paint down the middle, cut into straight lines, curves, or circles, which can then be pieced together as you wish to create a variety of roads.  His aunt then printed out signs and pasted them to posterboard, made him a police officer's pin out of a wooden star, and even included a mini clipboard and ticket forms.  And everything fits neatly into a nicely-decorated box.

 How inspiring is that?  Thank God I didn't go through my idea of sewing a huge play mat for Mr. C, complete with the logos from the stores we most frequent, which I would have printed onto iron-on transfer paper and then sewn to the mat, which I would have somehow filled with a road, which I would have also populated with buildings and trees, which I would have spent months on, and which Mr. C would have grown tired of within a few days. 

Instead, he has this road that he's been rearranging every day, bringing the ticket forms to us to write up accident reports.  His latest report: "The Crane said, 'Watch out, Fire Truck!' and the Fire Truck didn't move, and the Crane ran into him."  And the fine was, "$5-2-3-2-1-5-17-18-19-again."

Just so you know.

Ahh, the young provide hours of entertainment.  Here he is, showing off his good Christmas Day table manners at the ex-parent-in-laws':

Here is one of the beautiful pieces of crap he created that I complained wrote about the other week:

Here is the toy (from the awesome Lego Advent calendar his grandparents sent him) that he insisted was "coffee":

 And here he is, working hard on the couch:

Why are those antics funny when done by a four-year-old?

Why can't I get away way them?