You don't bring me flowers.

Mark never buys me flowers. Instead, he gives me stuff that I really like.

Like Bigelow Vanilla Almond Tea. I just love the stuff. I actually look forward to going to work in the morning because I know that when I get there, I'm going to have a cup. It's that good.

But like many food products that I enjoy, Giant Eagle has stopped carrying it. Oh yes, they carry 20 something other flavors of Bigelow, including their numerous vanilla flavors, but not THE Vanilla Almond. And I've tried other flavors, but there just not the same. We searched others stores too, but to no avail.

So Mark ordered me a case from Amazon. Just because. And now, I'm good for about six months.

The video game may have been more for Lauren than for me. She's obsessed with Mario right now and playing Mario has become a daily request.

But in spite of her parent's attempts to sabotage her cognitive development with mindless entertainment, Lauren seems to be coming up the learning curve just fine. She knows all of her colors and is starting to form 2 word sentences.

One example is "Fix Lita!" Her doll has a blanket attached to her head that wraps around her. I'm always asking Lauren if she wants me to fix Lita by wrapping the blanket around her, so it makes sense that she picked up on this.

Another example is "Eat yogurt!" which sounds like EET GERT! Yogurt is the one thing Lauren will eat without protest, so this doesn't come as a surprise either.

But tonight, she threw me for a loop. We were playing with our new Mario game when we took a break for a diaper change. As I laid her on the floor she kept chanting MAR-EE-O-SEE-PEN! MAR-EE-O-SEE-PEN! For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what she way trying to say. After I finished with her diaper, I turned towards the television and had a revelation.

When you stop playing the game, after awhile, Mario takes a nap.

MAR-EE-O-SEE-PEN! = Mario sleeping.

Who says that you can't learn something from video games?