London Calling

It's been a hectic week of travel and meetings here in the UK. I did get a brief chance to catch up on some shopping, and even hopefully will help equip O's upcoming London/double-decker themed birthday party with authentic accoutrements. It was also nice just to walk around Central London and catch up with my locally based coworkers. I got to briefly chat with O and Z online; Z apparently keeps taking about daddy "going to work on an airplane to London". Meh remains the most amazing, creative activity planning, and patient mommy, and a huge preemptive thanks to mima and papa for all of the assistance and support they're providing during my absence!

Did I mention the posh and pretentious-looking bar I walked past in Covent Garden called "Detroit"? Awesome. Anyway, tonight, a coworker and I had a lovely catchup dinner with friends N and S after delivering a Costco-sized portion of the one surprising food they most crave from the US (trust me, O certainly agrees on its value), and getting to hang out with their fabulous kids for a bit. But tomorrow I head back after perhaps one more attempt to grab some gifts/birthday party decorations.

Very much looking forward to getting home tomorrow afternoon, though unfortunately I have to turn right back around and head to San Francisco on Monday for my annual Game Developers Conference pilgrimage. On the plus side, the aforementioned O birthday party promises to be fun (if hectic), and grandma and J are flying in on Friday to join us for the big number two, before heading back to the airport with me on Monday.

The Darndest Things

O has come up with some classic quotes over the past few months; the other day rather than asking for me to turn off the light, he wanted me to turn on the dark. Why not? But I think I've got a new favorite: Mima was watching O today, and when I got home, she reported that he had been scrunching his eyes closed, then opening them and looking around. Eventually he turned to her and commented, "It's dark in there!"

Z continues to get used to his new boot. He actually really likes wearing it, but isn't tremendously sure about navigating around while it's on. His school has thankfully retained the wheelchair so he can keep up with his classmates when transitioning between rooms, though in the classroom he's been crawling, pivoting on furniture, and starting to try out standing on it. Based on how he was handling the cast towards the end, I suspect he'll be getting around at high speed on it in no time!

Cast Away

The day has finally come! Z had been talking about it for quite some time, but today was "pictures of cast, then bye bye cast". There of course was one more hitch; the doctor he was supposed to see had to cancel, but Seattle Children's managed to score us an appointment with another doctor back at their main hospital where the adventure had first started just over a month ago. Things ended up being in reverse order than I'd expected/prompted -- cast off, x-rays, then exam.

But Z did an awesome job, waiting in the lobby, then giggling as the ticklish saw cut off the cast, then listening and holding still for the x-rays. He even commented and watched as another little boy at the station next to us had a very similar (though shorter) green cast removed -- that boy unfortunately was getting set up with another cast, a bright purple one that had Z reconsidering whether he really wanted to be done with his leg immobilization.

The x-rays looked good, and there's just the slightest remaining visible remnant of the fracture. He now transitions to a little boot for the next four weeks, which we can thankfully remove for bath and bedtime. No jumping or sliding, but in all other ways, he's encouraged to walk on it as much as possible to build back up the bone.

The technician didn't ask if we wanted the cast saved, but when the doctor inquired at the exam, I said sure; she said kids like to save them and fill them up with candy, making for an odd-shaped candy dispenser. (I'm sure Meh would do something more creative, but anyway...) So she fished it out of the back room -- only when we got home, we realized it was not Z's cast but actually that other little boy's. Whoops. Ah well, no physical souvenier from this particular adventure is fine by us!

I Heart Pancakes

Meh continues to astound with her amazing and creative food presentation skills, from a hot dog octopus to ongoing bento box portions of Z's favorites for school lunches. This morning she took it to the next level, making the boys and me tasty heart-shaped pancakes for Valentine's Day, and serving them along with strawberries and boxes of heart-shaped chocolates. And on heart-shaped plates of course. Somehow getting this all done despite the boys being up at 6 am. Amazing!

Z actually commented on them for quite a while (and tried the chocolate) before requesting his classic Cheerios. In the meantime, O ate/smushed his way through at least one heart (and a few of his chocolates) and was still talking about them at dinner tonight. Mommy is the very best!

Car Wrecks

Our boys do love their cars. Occasionally their playtime looks like this:

Sometimes there's even a live action version:


Early on, the inevitable "everyone wants the same car" conflicts seemed like good opportunities to learn sharing and turn-taking. However, more frequently of late things seem to completely break down to Z wanting to hoarde or put away all of the cars (even in the above video, notice the cluster on the brown couch), O wanting to continue to play with one or two of them, and dual crying / screaming / throwing / tantrums ensuing. It's gotten to the point where the cars have to take a break; we've first hidden them in near-plain-sight in the laundry room (at which point O still wanted to go "visit" them fairly frequently, pointing them out and talking about them), and have finally decided the boys need to focus on some other toys for a while; the cars are now on "holiday" up in our closet. (It's particularly cute when O first asks where the cars are, then rhetorically answers "Cars on holiday!") Thankfully playing with trains or the slightly larger sized vehicles doesn't seem to fall apart in this way, so only the cars are in exile for the moment.

False hope

We'd been happily looking forward all week to Z getting his cast off today, even starting to prompt him about going to get a "picture" of it (an x-ray) -- but when I went to check the appointment time in my calendar this morning, I couldn't find it at all. And then I did find it -- but for next week. Meh's calendar said this week, but alas, the hospital confirmed that we're on for next Wednesday, so we've got a few more days to watch Z basically walking on the cast. All things considered he's really been doing amazing getting used to it and dealing with the awkwardness of baths (we got him a cast cover, but he's such a skinny little man that the hole in it doesn't make a skin-tight seal -- so instead, we have to cover it with a few garbage bags and still keep his leg elevated during the whole bath), but I think all of us are just about ready to move on to the next step, even if that ends up just being a boot. Seven more days!