Here come the brides

Meh and my whirlwind weekend (or in Meh's case, roughly 26 hours) in New York has wrapped up and we're on the flight home as we speak (ah, the joys of in-flight internet). While of course personalized to the grooms and brides involved, both weddings were fabulous, beautiful, and really enjoyable. J and J had a lovely outdoor wedding ceremony (the rain threatened, but thankfully never came) featuring, in addition to a now somewhat more familiar and very smartly dressed wedding party, a married couple of incredible Broadway singers (she's apparently the only woman to play all three lead roles in Les Mis) performing an amazing song for the married couple. The reception was tons of fun as well, starting off in the museum's giant dinosaur/mastodon exhibit (a setting even Zachary would enjoy) before moving upstairs to a fabulous reception and dancing with all sort of great music (I realized that the pop tunes of my youth are indeed now "oldies"). The after party was back at the hotel, where another wedding party and bride/groom were celebrating as well - a hopping night in Rochester!

The next morning, I was back on a plane to meet Meh in New York City. My brother and sister-in-law had graciously invited her over for breakfast and a post-redeye nap, and we all met up to check in and then grab lunch near our ridiculously posh hotel (I often stay at their sister hotel in London, so they sent us a comp! A $2 hotel bill [couldn't escape the city's hotel tax apparently] in Manhattan: priceless).
Then Meh scored a lovely updo while the three of us perused Soho and Little Italy. Then a quick trip back to the hotel, hopping into our finest before grabbing a cab (only slightly delayed by the hectic but festive Pride Parade) then a train followed by another cab, landing at a Long Island synagogue. The ceremony was lovely and traditional, and there was much separate dancing afterwards with a fun band performing nearly exclusively in Hebrew and Yiddish. And of course the incredible kosher smorg beforehand (I could eat anything in the room, hooray!) was impressive, though I was particularly blown away when they opened some sliding wall panels to reveal a 100+ foot long dessert table (all pareve) at the end of the meal. Oy, such options! C was the happiest of all, dancing, smiling, and laughing all night long - a lovely and energetic bride!

Somebodies getting married

It has arrived, our hectic weekend of back-to-back cross-state New York weddings! I flew out yesterday to Rochester, New York (passing over at least three other Rochesters in the air), and arrived in time to crash my college friend J's rehearsal dinner -- I'd been planning to just meet up with folks afterwards, but she insisted I come on by. Not knowing a soul at the wedding, J introduced me to her fabulous wedding party friends, and it was great to get to know and hang out with such fun folks; now I'll actually know a few people at the wedding tomorrow!
Today I played tourist in the morning, visiting the George Eastman House, which is both a crazy large mansion and an acre of photography-focused museum and lovely manicured gardens. While I was sad to not share it with Meh (she's still at home, on the redeye out tonight to meet up with me in Manhattan for tomorrow's wedding), it was definitely a fun way to spend a few hours. They had a really interesting Normal Rockwell exhibit (showing how he basically acted like a human Photoshop before image processing software, taking a host of separately photographed elements and piecing them together into his illustrations), and the mansion itself was quite impressive, featuring among other things an exhibit on his attempts to create a 13-month year and a fun bunch of player piano rolls for the
giant organ in his safari solarium (I know). The weather actually held for the most part as I wandered over to one of J and J's favorite Rochester lunch spots. Now I'm back at the hotel, getting ready for the wedding tonight. Congrats in advance to J and J, and congrats a day in advance to C and B!

Self-named

Owen's language explosion continues - he can point at many things and say something roughly equivalent to a one-to-two-syllable version of it. And as of a few days ago, he can say his name as well! We have a cycle of pictures that we play through on the TV for the boys, and Owen saw himself, pointed, and said "oo-wah!" Here's one performance:


Here he was talking about the slide ("lah-dih") when we visited the park earlier that day:

And he thinks certain random words or word noises are hilarious:

Closing Ceremonies

Zachary's been really enjoying his weekly gym class (he goes on the one day per week when he doesn't have school), where he's learned to tumble, walk the balance beam, hold himself up on the uneven bars, and generally had a great time running and dancing around to the music. Yesterday was the last class before summer break, so they had a graduation ceremony of sorts. First the kids were supposed to be announced and run through an arch to much parental applause. The girl before him didn't want to do it, but Z enjoyed the welcome (in his own inimitable way):

Owen had a great time at gym, wanting to crawl and toddle around, and insisting that every foam wedge must be a slide. Here he is trying to scoot down one while saying "go!":

The kids did a series of other demonstrative activities for the parents(which Z actually wasn't so into), but he did a fabulous job on the balance beam (even with a nice vault off) when nobody was watching:

Movin' on up

Owen loves his pushcart (though he only really gets to successfully play with it while Zachary is at school), and has particularly enjoyed making it into a bit of a pram.

And on the topic of school, Zachary's morning classes wrapped up on Friday, and his afternoon ones are all done at the end of this week -- what will he do with all of the extra hours and no yellow bus to look forward to?

When we put Zachary to bed at night, sometimes he's up for some time -- we'll hear him reading books, singing songs to himself, occasionally opening his blinds and looking outside, commenting on how he's snuggling with or hugging his blankie, and so on. I try to check in on him a little while after we don't hear anything from him to make sure he's actually asleep (sometimes he's still just quietly reading). Last night, I peeked into his room -- and found that he wasn't in his bed. Nor was he on the ground (thankfully I've only seen him conk out on the ground once or twice). But before I could contemplate him sleeping in the closet or one of his drawers, I spotted him -- sleeping in the top bunk of his bunk bed. The ladder for the bunk faces the wall, so the best I can figure he climbed up there via his bookcase. Not exactly the most safe, so we'll likely have to rearrange the room, but I'll likely take the opportunity to turn the bed around so he can access the top bunk the correct way. Tonight, I specifically asked him if he wanted to sleep on the top or bottom bunk, and he requested the top - so I hoisted him up there and he happily snuggled and fell asleep pretty quickly. We'll just have to keep a close ear out in the morning to fetch him when he wakes up - little monkey man!

Jurassic Park

Today was Zachary's class field trip to the zoo! All four of us went along, and Meh and I got to wear bright orange "Chaperone" stickers. Not sure if it's the time of year or just the specific day, but there were a serious number of kids' classes descending on the zoo at opening time - we counted seven buses arriving before even entering the zoo proper. The weather was cool and overcast, which some of the zoo docents indicated would be a plus for getting the animals out and about; thankfully the rain held until our drive home.

Our first stop was the gorillas, and it was very special to be the only people approaching their enclosure at the time; two of them were eating, and Zachary and Owen both enjoyed watching them for a bit. When we continued to another viewing area (where several more were still cozily snoozing in curled up balls), another of the gorillas actually turned toward us and started interacting with Zachary. I think (hope?) it was a friendly human-imitative gesture:

We also saw tapirs, elephants, penguins, a peacock, and a variety of other animals - more pictures here. But of course Z's favorite part of the park was the dinosaur exhibit they've got going on all summer. Animatronics with noises (and some even "spit" water) and a good sense of scale (some 1:1, most 1:2) had Zachary looping through the exhibit a good three times before we exited. Of course it ends in a gift shop, and both boys were checking out little toy dinosaurs, though thankfully when we said it was time to go, they just "cleaned up" by putting the toy dinosaurs back in the bucket intact.

Song Catchers

Both boys' love of music continues to be on display - the first thing we often hear from Zachary's room when he wakes up in the morning is him either whispering or belting a series of his favorite songs. Meanwhile, Owen is becoming more and more aware of music in the world around him; when Zachary sings Popcorn, Owen joins in for a final "paka!" (popcorn). And yesterday in the car while running errands, he started saying "bah!" (bus) for the Yellow Bus song, and "bvn!" (balloon) for Where Do They Make Balloons.

Both boys continue to do great at their swimming lessons. Zachary's teacher got him to start wearing his goggles (at first hesitatingly, but yesterday he specifically asked me to put them on him before he even got in the water!) and he's doing even better with diving for toys, floating face down while holding his breath, and paying attention to the teacher. I was very proud yesterday when at one point the goggles came off and he specifically and politely asked the teacher for help in getting them back on - go Mr. Z!

We heard about a "Touch a Truck" event today and decided to check it out before Meh had to work. Apparently these actually happen pretty frequently, and when we got there, we could see why: it's a pretty low impact event involving a variety of large vehicles parked in a parking lot, where kids get to walk around them or go sit inside of them (often getting to honk the horn). Bonus points to Molly Moon's for bringing their attractively brown and blue pastel colored ice cream truck (no climbing on it, just buying ice cream at 10 in the morning). Zachary and Owen were both very excited, with Owen pointing at most every big rig, crane, ambulance, cement mixer, or garbage truck, and saying "buh!" (bus). The only vehicles he identified differently were the backhoe and front loader, which were both "dada" (digger).

Unfortunately the lines to actually hop aboard were pretty long (and I wasn't sure Z would ever want to get out once he got in!), so we mostly walked around. Z scored a giant poster of trucks that accompanied/distracted from dinner time this evening, along with a few colorful rubber bracelets. Big win for the boys! Afterwards, we had a little time before Meh had to work and grabbed some sushi-go-round; Owen ate the cucumber bits out of some kappa maki and sunomono, and Zachary talked about (but declined to try) the noodle and fish plates that paraded by. A very full day before noon!

Cooking by the book

One of Zachary's (and now Owen's) favorite book series is the Frances the Badger series. Meh even scored points with the boys by discovering the audio book rendition of a few stories from the series, delivered fabulously by the actress who played the suffragette mother Mrs. Banks in the Mary Poppins film. Now almost every time we get in the car, Zachary happily asks for "Frances stories!"

So clearly the book and CD gets a lot of mileage, and we've always thought the description of the "chompo bar" Frances gets her sister for her birthday sounded pretty darn yummy. Earlier this week, Meh decided to actually make it - and the results were indeed extra tasty. For those keeping score at home, it's nougat (I'm a particular fan of the UK pronunciation "noo-gah") covered in caramel covered in chocolate covered in nuts - like some kind of nutty Milky Way. And of course Meh made it all from scratch. Zachary still hasn't ventured a bite, though Owen is a huge fan. Hooray for the amazing concoctions of Meh, and thanks to author Russell Hoban for inventing the concept!

You should see the other guy

Zachary was so happy to be back at school yesterday (after a week absence with teacher in-services and Memorial Day) that he was almost out the door before I could even get my shoes on to walk him out. My favorite is still when he runs on board and picks his seat. While it used to almost always be the same third row driver's side window seat, lately he's been mixing it up, including passenger side seats and even the occasional aisle. Craziness.
Mystery of mysteries: yesterday afternoon Z came off the bus with a few knicks and scratches on his face. Meh called his teachers, who reported no incidents or injuries at school, so best we can tell he either got himself or got clawed by another bus passenger -- the bus driver didn't hear him get upset, and for his part, he himself seemed like he could care less, smiling when mommy got him off the bus, and ticklishly giggling when she cleaned the scrapes.