Blueberry - Banana Pancakes

I didn't title this as a Mattie May's Merry Musing because it is something she did rather than said, but to us it was cute all the same!

Sunday after church, Mattie May and Katie came over before we went to see Granny. We decided instead of lunch we would fix us a nice breakfast. Well of course Mattie May wanted pancakes. She always wants Blueberry pancakes because that is what is pictured on the front of the box. So I cheat and keep blueberries in the freezer. Frank and I had gone to the grocery store on Saturday so I had some fresh bananas.

Katie started the sausage, Frank was getting the drinks and dishes, Mattie May and I were mixing up the pancakes. We had already measured all the ingredients and she was mixing it all up. I went to the freezer to get the blueberries and Mattie May told me she was going to do the banana. Without any of us looking at her, I explained that she could peel it but that I would have to cut it up because she knows she can't use a knife yet. About the time I finished my sentence and was turning around to go back to help her, Katie gasped and I saw Mattie May laying the banana peel to the side at the same time saying "Oh?! OK Lolo".

We all got tickled when we realized she had put the whole banana in the batter! She was upset because she thought we were all mad at her, but we all started laughing and she was OK. We sliced up the battered banana, poured out some pancakes on the griddle and she got to add the blueberries and banana.

All was well with the world.

Mattie May's Merry Musings - Batteries

Back in December 2006, I came across the cutest Nativity set. It is Fisher Price's Little People. It was so cute I knew my Mattie May just had to have it. She was almost a year old and I knew she would be wanting to get into the Christmas decorations and this was something that she could play with without getting into trouble. She enjoyed it so much, we decided it needed to be left out of the other decorations so she could play with it year round.

She loves that little set. She plays with it more than any other toy she has. And she loves to tell the story of the birth of "Baby Jesus".

The manger has a place on the top to put the angel and if you press down on the angel, the star lights up and it plays "Away in a Manger". In Mattie May's case, it doesn't have to be the angel. It can be Mary, the donkey, anything. I think baby Jesus himself has made it up there on more than one occasion. That's OK. She knows the story and I believe in leaving her imagination alone, letting her be creative.Last week, she was sitting below Frank's recliner playing away with this set. She pushed the button on top and the song started playing. It was OK at first, but as it continued it slowed, making that funny dragging sound that songs tend to make as the batteries are running out. Those big blue eyes looked up at Grumpy and she said "Gumpy, I think sometings wrong." He explained that it needed new batteries. I told them I thought I had some that would fit.

She followed me to the kitchen with her manger. I asked her to hold the batteries while I unscrewed the cover. I reached down and asked her for the batteries. She pulled them back and said "I want to do it!" By this time Frank and Katie were standing there with us and one of us explained that we needed to put them in right or it wouldn't work. Again she looked at us all with those big ol' eyes and said..."Lolo, I can do it! I match the plus with the plus and the minus with the minus!"

Well! OK then! And she did! Then as she handed it back to me to put the cover back on she says "See! I told you I could do it!"

How did she even know?! She's three!

Not All Superheros Wear Capes

Yesterday, Katie and I made a quick trip to Ft. Worth. Not for shopping, not for visiting, not for going to the zoo. No, this trip had one goal - The Apple Store.
Remember this post, my peaceful Monday turned manic, and when Katie's iPhone shattered? Well, here is a picture of said phone...

Not pretty, I know. I called the iPhone people to see what procedures I was to follow and did so to perfection and waited patiently for that little email that told me what was to be done about her phone. That email never came. Instead we got her phone back in the same packaging I had sent it to them in, only with an additional note that said they had determined that the shattered screen was because the phone had been dropped. If it had been dropped, I promised it hit the ground no where as hard as my jaw did when I read this. My heart just sank. So Katie and I decided to take it to our local AT&T store to see if there was anything they could do.

Several people in the store looked at her phone and all asked the same question - "How did this happen? You can see the phone has not been dropped." Ugh! We know that! Unfortunately, even though no one believed the phone had been dropped there was nothing they could do. It has to be handled through Apple. The closest store is in Ft. Worth. They also told us to make an appointment before we go because they usually don't have any openings for walk in customers. (Excuse me? Why do you even have a store in the strip mall then?)

So Katie takes all the information they have given her and goes online to make the appointment. The earliest appointment is on 12:20PM, Thursday August 6, two weeks later! Oh My! I take off work so she doesn't have to make the trip by herself and to help her plead her case.

Thursday morning, we get Mattie May to day care, stop at Sonic for some breakfast and LARGE sodas and head east. Before we leave the house, I plug the address of the Apple store into A.B. (our GPS) not because I can't head east on I-20 and find Ft. Worth, but so we don't have to try and follow the map to the Apple store.

We arrive at 11:00 AM, an hour and a half early. They won't even let us put her name on the list and we have to go next door to try to find a public restroom (remember the LARGE sodas from Sonic! LOL) Next door is William Sonoma and Pottery Barn, two stores I have only read about but have never entered, but they have a wonderfully clean restroom and I have fallen in love! And now I know they are only two hours and twenty four minutes from my house! Because we were having so much fun looking at everything, I set the alarm on my phone for 11:50 AM to get us back to Apple in plenty of time and hopefully back on the road a bit sooner.

Katie checks in at about 11:55 AM and her name immediately shows up on the wait screen as #10, not to bad. We start looking around to see what wonderful things we can only dream about owning and Katie looks up and her name has already moved to #7. I continue my text to Traci about all the wonders of this store that she needs to avoid at all cost (LOL) and some one behind us asked "Katie, what do you need help with?" It's Patrick!

This is Patrick...

He is the person that will be helping us. Katie begins telling him the whole story about how the phone shattered as she starts pulling it out of the box. He takes the phone from her and immediately says "I can tell this phone hasn't been dropped. Stay right here and I will be right back." He takes her phone and disappears behind a blue door. The next time we see him he is standing behind one of the computers at the back of the store and waves us over.

There on the counter in front of him is ....



HER PHONE!

He has replaced the screen and because she had the phone for such a short time when this happened, there is no charge! That's it, done repaired, no tears needed (this sort of disappointed Katie), all smiles and we are ready to go!

PATRICK! OUR HERO!
(If you can't read his shirt, it is the same as the title of this post! And as far as we're concerned, he is a superhero!)

My biggest question is, why couldn't the place I had to send the broken phone into have done this same thing before they sent the phone back? It took him all of five minutes to do this. We did enjoy the trip though. We rarely get to just go anywhere just the two of us any more. And we did find two favorite new stores (Frank won't be so happy about this come Christmas), but for such a simple procedure, why? Oh well. Katie has her phone and the world is at piece now! LOL