Little Professor: Octagon Pancakes

Dearest Sisee -
I can't decide how I feel about your recent interaction with too-supportive-over-share park mommy. What a disappointment to meet a potential mommy friend (or was she? Three kids?... I'm guessing not.) only to discover she is the type to ramble almost nonsensically about the awesomness of her offspring. Bo-o-o-o-o-oring. Now before I totally judge her, I have to admit I'm a little torn. On one hand: Seriously?! She yelled "MY DAUGHTER'S A HEALER!" from across the playground? Did you yell back "DON'T CARE! JUST GLAD SHE'S KEEPING MY DAUGHTER AMUSED SO I CAN TEXT!" Can you imagine?! Maybe follow up with a "MY DAUGHTER LOOKS AMAZING IN NAVY & WHITE STRIPED-TOPS!" Now, on the other hand: I'm afraid I've caught myself extolling the virtues of my own children to perfect strangers once or twice - most recently at Munchkin Playland, where I targeted the mom of a much more... "brave" shall we say... boy, who was kind of rough-playing NEAR Evan. "Evan's REALLY smart and VERY gentle," I self-importantly shared. "He's starting to READ. Words. Yeah, he's not even three and he's an authentic SCHOLAR." The last part because I have to attribute some ridiculous, inappropriate adjective that in no way applies to a person under 12 (aka: PURE and HEALER) in order to really drive my point home. I didn't really say "scholar" but probably could've kept the whole sentence to myself. I'm sure she was thinking Yeah, my kid can beat up your kid. (And I was thinking, And if he tries, I'll beat YOU up. And you know I can.) Anyway, the whole thing was very "Alpha Mom" but that's a topic for another letter. So now that I've reflected, I think maybe it's better to assume that other moms, 9 outta 10, do. not. care. and keep your over-share to yourself. Of course, Sofi is VERY APPARENTLY and undeniably sweet, funny, loving, beautiful, stylish and dare I say a "pure healer" so you wouldn't even need to wax poetic on something so obvious. No bias. God I love that little girl so much.
Now on to my latest issue: getting Evan to eat something - ANYTHING! - by catering to his love of all things nerdy. Aka: Pancake shapes. Yes, the child has to be coerced into eating pancakes. PANCAKES! As in, that delicious carby food that one coats heavily in butter and syrup. My latest semi-successful ploy, asking Evan if he'd like some pancake "shapes" has sorta backfired, as the traditional square, circle, triangle that are easy to cut out, have now evolved into... get this: TRAPEZOID. OCTAGON. PENTAGON. CRESCENT. Seriously?! I have to painstakingly cut an octagon out of a pancake to lure my son into eating it?! Yes. Yes, I do. Sometimes Sis, I think he's just messing with me, and maybe I'm not smart enough to figure it out. Tomorrow, I'm sure he'll ask me to build him a model mid-century modern house out of tortillas and string cheese. And I'll straight-up do it, cuz Ava don't back down from design challenges... what! Well, better go... Alec is holding on to his toy shelf, grunting, so I think something may be up...
Miss you Sisero - kisses galore to my niecy-kins.
Ava