In the 9 1/2 years that we have been married, I have never made homemade pizza. Ever. Unless you count the little "pizzas" that can be made by spreading pizza sauce and sprinkling cheese on an English muffin or bagel.

Doesn't count, you say?

Yeah...I didnt think so.

Until tonight. I broke my record and actually made real homemade pizza. Okay, so that's only a 3/4-truth. The crust was made out of a mix from a bag. Now... Before you throw rocks at me, let me say, in my defense, I HAVE the things to make a real-from-scratch crust. But c'mon, it was Friday night...I had worked all day, and the last thing I wanted to do was try something I've not done before and risk it not coming out right.

And it turned out just fine. In fact, it was pretty good, if I must say so, myself!

I wish I'd thought to take a picture, but I didn't.

So I just had to share my coolness - or not-coolness, however you choose to look at it - with you!
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Now, I've had a couple people ask about the reference to the parrot in my last post. I had said that I would write more later...but honestly, I can't describe it well enough to really paint a picture of what we are going through with Iliya right now. Naturally, my video camera has yet to capture this phenomenon.

But suffice it to say that we are not only having to watch what we say, but also how we say it. Because the minute it comes out of our mouth, it comes out of his.

And he picks up tone-of-voice quite accurately.

See? That's all I can really tell you - because the only way you'd get this is if you heard - for instance - how we fuss on the dogs. And it's pretty eye opening when your child says something that you've just said, exactly how you've said it.

And the great thing is that it's only going to get better & more clear. Because right now, he immediately repeats what we say (in his own Iliya-pronunciation). Not long from now, he will be away from us & talking to his stuffed animals and friends in whatever way he hears us talk.

So we'd just better watch it and really make a point to speak the way we want him to speak.

Because we have a little spongey parrot on our hands!