We have been surprised that in his love of all things Pixar, Isaac hasn't until recently, been a devotee of Cars. About three months ago all that changed. He is now positively obsessed with the auto based tale of Americana. As it turns out, even the worst Pixar movie (Cars 2) is still outstanding. Cars is great and Cars 2 is merely very good. Isaac walks around giving us the Lightning McQueen, Ca-CHOW! He repeats all sorts of Mater lines, including: SHOOOOOT I am the world's best backwards driver. Finally, he asks at random times, "What Lightning McQueen doing?" as if he a personal friend.

We are, officially, in the midst of a Cars obsession.

Ca-CHOW!

Every week we go to the grocery store as a family.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  Mom trolleys around grabbing delicious ingredients while Dad and Isaac venture ahead on missions where we help track down things or pick our cereal, which for some unexplained reason, takes Isaac eons every week. 

As part of the ritual we get the one and only "down low car cart." The DLCC is part of the grocery story experience.  It is a grocery cart with a little plastic car, not unlike the Fisher Price pedal car that everyone seems to have, attached to the front.  Issac loves it.  When it is not in the stall at the front of the store we have to go look for it in the parking lot.  And if it is not there, a few tears are shed before we move on, to the less beloved "up high car cart".  The UHCC has a cockpit around the child seat and two steering wheels but is nowhere near as cool as the DLCC. 

Last week we walked in and there was the one and only DLCC, but another little guy was about to get in.  There were no UHCCs though, despite their being something like a fleet of them.  Isaac was sad, but just as we were about to leave I heard the other little guy lament the fact that he was note getting the UHCC.  Being the schemer that I am, I quickly spotted a UHCC in one of the cart corrals out in the parking lot.  With Isaac on my shoulders I sprinted outside, grabbed the cart and rushed back inside. 

We found the other little guy, slightly miserable, in the DLCC around the cabbages.  After a few minutes of him eye our cart, I asked his Mom for a trade.  She was hesitant until he begged and then, like that, we had our cherished DLCC AND Isaac learned a lesson about the value of bargaining and how to strike a deal. 

He also learned that is father is crazy.  How else do you explain the fact that I was arbitraging grocery carts?

For men, the liberating feeling of urinating outside is hard to explain to the other sex.  It is part wolf-marking-his territory and part free wheeling all natural water gun.  Either way, even well into adulthood men of all kinds enjoy peeing outside.

Kids, like Isaac, that have always peed inside are fascinated by the experience the first time they get a chance.  Isaac likes it so much it is his preferred way of going.  In fact, this Sunday morning he woke up and asked to go pee outside.  It was a nice morning, so I threw on my slipper and put his socks and Crocs on and we went out back to his peeing tree.

Here he is taking a whiz:

He loves, loves, loves it.  He also likes to make sure you see all his pee bubbles.  It is all great fun, and really, aren't those the cutest buns on the planet?