Everyday Lunasea

So that's as good as it gets with trying to take photos of the two of them. (papers and elements by Nikki Meador at www.scrapwithnikki.com )

Before I had kids, I used to go all out on St. Pat's Day. I tried starting an annual Irish dinner, but Irish food sucks, so I changed it to all green food. NO food coloring, either, if I can help it! We've had salad, green vegetables with herb sauce, pesto pasta, cream of various green vegetables soup (the best was roasted asparagus and leeks), and fish with dill sauce. Lime jello, too - although I concede that probably has food coloring in it.

One year I made Irish Flags - a layered drink with brandy, irish creme and creme de menthe. Yeah, yuck, but after you drink the first couple practice ones, they get better. Now that we have kids, I made do with shimp and pesto spaghetti and beer in green bottles. That's as festive as we get around here.

A. is very into holidays, so I told him that St. Patrick's Day was a day when we all wear green and eat green food. I don't want to get into the "our ancestors came from Ireland" talk because it's hard enough for him to understand that much of our family lives in another state, let alone another country. We did mention at dinner that a long time ago, St. Patrick went to Ireland and told all the people there about God and so we have a special day for him. That's it. He watches only PBS which didn't mention St. Pat's Day as far as I could tell.

So he turned to me and said, "I love being Irish." I've never told him that he's Irish. I don't think I've ever used that word around him. I asked G. if he'd been saying it, and he said No, and besides, if he'd said anything it would be that A. was Irish and Italian.

What freaks me out is that there are times I swear he's channeling my mother. When he was a baby, he'd reach up and mindlessly finger his hair, exactly the way my mother did when she was watching TV. So I said, "Wow, who told you you were Irish?" and he answered, "I don't know. I just knowed it." He's the only grandchild (on our side) with her treasured red hair, and I know she would've thought he was hilarious.

So after claiming pride in his heritage, he told me, "When you were a baby, I used to teach you stuff." OK, this was getting weird.

"Like what stuff?" I asked.

"Like how to dance while you were standing up."

Phew. My mother never taught me to dance while I was standing up. Couldn't be her.