Farm boys

Several friends organized an excellent group trip to the local farm (which apparently doubles as its own self-proclaimed county fairground). We even snagged an online coupon last week that cut the prices in half; hooray for family activities that are both fun and affordable! Meh was at work, but mima and I took the boys to meet up with friends K, J (and their girls N and A), and R and M (with their son J). The weather was looking a bit dodgy, but cleared in time for our arrival. Of course, there was certainly plenty of mud left from the rain, which wasn't lost on the boys or the other kids in attendance. We started at the U-Pick strawberry patch.O mastered the picking part, but was living mostly hand-to-mouth; not much ended up in our cardboard box from his efforts. In the meantime, Z was happy mostly talking about the other people picking fruit around us. So it was mostly up to mima and myself to fill our box with yummy strawberries that we got to share with mommy for dinner this evening. After paying for our berries, we piled back into the car to head over to the amusement section of the farm.

Z had last ridden a pony here with mima and papa on his day out with them last year, and he seemed to both remember and be eager to repeat the experience. O on the other hand was at first very interested in the ponies but then very shy when it came time to actually ride on one. Poor Pumpkin (yes, all of the ponies had cute names) was first declined by A and then by O, though he did at least briefly sit on her. Later he asked to ride "the green one" (which we figured out meant the one Zachary had ridden, who had a green blanket), but again shied away when it came time to board. Still, he liked petting the ponies and talked about them "drinking lots of water" (he saw the giant troughs in each of their stalls). But clearly the sandbox diggers were more his speed.

We then rode the train on a loop around the farm (both boys again were quite pleased, check out Z's fabulous smile), which was fun even if occasionally interrupted by semi-creepy old mannequins staged along the side of the track, I think trying to imitate Disneyland animatronics. Anyway, then it was clearly time for lunch (as in, 10:30 am. Hey, when you're up before dawn...). We found some picnic tables in a large yard surrounded by climbable and only moderately hazardous old cars and buses. Before he took a bite, Zachary boarded the yellow bus and sat down as if waiting for it to take him to school for a few minutes before deciding he better drive it himself, and eventually giving up entirely and heading over to the classic fire engine.

The boys took frequent breaks from having their lunch to run around and on tractors, buses, and trucks, before Z jumped into the farm's a bouncy house and O visited some of the animals with mima. Then the rain came back and the boys were wiped, so we piled back into the car and headed back. All in all, a fabulous weekend activity! More pictures here.

Stuff Owen says

Our precocious and fiercely independent two year old continues to astound with the quantity and quality of what he can say. Whether it's drawing comparisons to things he's seen in the past and read in books, imitating his older brother, or just trying to communicate his own opinions and desires ("I want daddy to sit over there."), I'm pretty sure Owen talks more than I do! My favorite is still when he has to "wind himself up" to build up enough momentum to get through a particularly long sentence, restarting it from the top each time he runs out of breath before completing it.

We've been trying to jot down some of our favorites over the past few weeks; this is certainly an incomplete list, but here are a few of those darndest things he says:

"Do it yourself![myself]" (...a minute later) "I want daddy to help do it yourself."

"It's not chocolate!" (said when pointing at anything brown, including the pumpernickel bagel I think he only picked up because he thought it was. He ate it anyway.)

"It fell a-piece. [apart]"

"I don't want daddy, just mommy."

"I got a little bit scared."

"We haven't [seen / done / sung / read] this in a long time!" (Where 'a long time' often just means 'since yesterday'.)

"First mommy sit on the floor one more minute, and then e-mail."

Happy camper

In three short days, Z has seemingly gotten totally into his summer camp routine! There are many differences from school: he arrives in the car rather than the yellow bus (though they have weekly field trips, so he got some good school bus time today, apparently even taking a short snooze on the way back to camp), wears a ginormous red backpack (his school one wouldn't fit the sunscreen, juice, lunch, snack, towel, and swim trunks -- yes, daily swimming!), and rather than studies, it's fun all day long. He's come home talking about 'jewels' and 'surfaces' ('services'? can't tell), but also with art (car carriers are his current subject matter of choice), nearly empty lunch boxes, and a big smile.

On the first few days, he seemed very concerned when being dropped off; on the very first day, he was actually one of the first few kids there and wasn't sure what was going on, then accidentally sat down in the circle of another camp group and wasn't sure what to do when I helped him move to his own group (the 'pirates'). And on the second day, he kind of fell apart a bit as I left (the counselors report that literlaly within a minute of my exit he was totally fine again). But he's been starting to figure out the routine, and when I saw him today at pickup time, he was enormously happy, running around and munching happily on an apple the size of his head. When he saw me, he gave a big smile, ran over and said hi to me, then grabbed his own bag and jacket. As we climbed the stairs to head out of the building, he turned around, waved in the general vicinity of downstairs, and said "bye camp!" before we headed out. Yay camp!

Drive In

The best laid plans often fall apart just to create an opportunity for even better plans - that's my new aphorism, and I'm sticking with it. Today the boys and I (and friend D) were supposed to go watch some period World War II aircraft flying at Paine Field's Flying Heritage Collection. The boys were very excited, talking about it for the past few days, and even as we got ready this morning. Alas, the weather didn't cooperate, the flights were scrubbed, and I was racking my brain for other activities, even going so far as to try to find the closest parks to the runways at SeaTac airport.

Then Meh headed to work, and from the road called us to report that she'd just passed a sign indicating there was a car show featuring a life-sized Tow Mater from the Cars movies. I checked it out online, and knew we had our alternate activity lined up. D drove to our house and we all headed out, still with no real idea what to expect. When we arrived, we were asked if we were there for the show or to spectate. While our Highlander is a fabulously functional vehicle, I'm not sure it was particularly car show worthy - but anyway, we parked as spectators. As I struggled to get the boys to hold hands walking through the parking lot, an electric golf cart pulled up and the driver asked if we wanted a ride. The boys didn't even wait for me to answer, piling onto the "big white car!" for the drive up to the show.

The show (and the church whose lot it was hosted in) turned out to be enormous, with perhaps five or six angle-park rows of classic and contemporary cars. There was even a giant blue truck cab (O made a beeline for it and tried to climb aboard, but the first step up was taller than his head), and a classic '50s car with both a fake drive-in tray (with a fake burger, fries, and chocolate ice cream cone that drew O's attention) and a wacky engine-mounted rotating tray featuring roller skater figurines and a model of the car itself. But the headline for the trip was definitely Mater himself. The boys did a great job waiting for our turn (thankfully there was only one family ahead of us), then climbed all over Mater's hood; we got a fabulous photo of the three of us, then got out of the way for others to get their pictures taken. But the front of the truck nicely screens the rest of the car, so first the boys climbed into the cab and steered/shifted gears (I quickly checked to make sure that, yes, the car's wheels were firmly secured) and then into the back with the winch and pulley. They had a fabulous time, which we then capped off with a trip to their favorite sushi-go-round for lunch.

Farewell Performance

Talk about time flying -- today was already Z's last day of preschool. In the fall he'll be an honest-to-goodness kindergartener. He got to ride the bus for the last time this year. O brought the bus driver flowers; I think he likes the bus almost as much as his big brother with the attention and stickers he gets nearly every morning -- today there was an extra surprise with bus driver C giving two matchbox cars to O! Notice the concerned look on Z's face as the bus drove away with his brother getting to play with vehicles. Indeed, when we got back from Z's class performance, the boys proceeded to fight and meltdown over the new coveted car and truck; I had to, once more, send the vehicles on holiday after a few failed mediations.

Back to Z's performance! For the past week or more, Z has been singing songs during the day that I'd either never heard him sing before, or which he hadn't shown interest in in quite some time. We correctly surmised that these would be part of the performance, which involved the kids marching in from recess (Z at first looked concerned, but then saw Meh, O, mima, and myself, and pointed at each of us, saying "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!"), alternating between sitting and standing in a semi-circle, and cutely singing and hand-gesturing through a playlist of six or so songs. Then there was a slideshow of pictures from the schoolyear, accompanied with mildly cheesy goodbye tunes that of course had Meh's eyes watering. They then said goodbye to each child in turn, handing out portfolios of their work to give to their parents. Then snack, hugs and smiles for each of his teachers, and an end to the shortened day of school. Hypothetically there are two more days next week, but with Z starting camp, we wanted to make sure he was there for orientation and getting into the new routine with the other kids.

Meh and I reviewed the portfolio tonight, and in addition to some fun time-lapse progress (they had Z write his name every month of school, and the transition from traced to self-written is pretty remarkable!), he had made a very cute father's day card/poster for me. More pictures of Z's last school day here.

Lyricists

The boys of course love music; Z has been singing a wide range of songs lately that we suspect may be part of tomorrow's preschool graduation "performance". But we've been seeing more and more creativity in the past few weeks with music. O started by adding new verses to "Row Your Boat" ("...and if you see a car, don't forget to vroom!"). Now both of them are tagging new verses onto many of their favorites. Tonight was one of the best -- they love "How Much is That Doggie in the Window" (which they follow with an energetic "woof! woof!"), and Z has been extending it to cat, pig, cow, and a variety of other animals with corresponding noises (though still always a waggley tail). Tonight, O contributed his own new lyric: "How much is that mommy in the window, hug hug!"

Roadie

It's been a well-travelled 48 hours for Meh and myself as we had a (very) brief road trip down to the Beaver State for a pair of concerts by Meh's choir. It was fabulous to get to see them perform (I'd miss their Folklife triumphs), and both Eugene and Portland are great towns to spend some time in. So, at 7 am on Saturday morning, Mima arrived (thank you again so so much mima - and right in the midst of Owen deciding that he wanted to be potty trained) to watch the boys, and we were off in the green car.

It was our first time in that other Emerald City, and we stayed at a very cozy inn at the north end of town. After meeting up with the other singers for lunch and a rehearsal with the band, Meh and I successfully stopped at the one site I had wanted to see in town -- a few years ago (at Folklife no less), I'd found an amazing vegetarian food cart serving up vegan cheesesteaks. I know, I know - what's the point. But they were so good that, when I discovered they were based down in Eugene and wouldn't be back in Seattle anytime soon, I'd even gone as far as to e-mail asking them for the recipe. They gave some hints but declined in general, so it was great to be able to visit their, um, home cart (semi-permanently established in a parking lot) and share the yum with Meh.

There was some actual yum (or more specifically Yumm) for dinner with the singers before heading to the concert venue, with a quick detour to a local bakery of repute to select post-concert treats. While in line to pay, I spotted cookies shaped like a monkey and a dinosaur, and knew that I'd found Z and O's gifts from our trip. O has already gobbled up most of the dinosaur today ("Where'd the dinosaur's head go, daddy?"), though Z preferred to just hold and look at "George cookie".

The concert itself was fabulous; I continue to be amazed by these women picking up and mastering such a multitude of songs in multi-point harmony, complex rhythms, in a number of wholly foreign languages, and putting on concerts of fully memorized music to boot! The audience was receptive and supportive, and Dunava's set was followed immediately with a round of Balkan dancing -- even I managed to get my feet untangled enough for a circle dance or two, though I also helped capture the audio recordings (and of course pictures).

For day 2, we had a little while to explore before heading up to Portland, and visited the (unfortunately closed, but grounds-accessible) Shelton McMurphey Johnson House before walking along a nice Willamette River park. Then we were off to PDX, where there was a nice casual afternoon performance for the director's grandfather, followed by a few hours to explore. Of course we had to make a return visit to everyone's favorite 68,000 square feet of independent bookstore. My favorite stop this time was the rare books section, which had everything from a $15,000 archaic book to a giant $500 book of Star Wars blueprints.

After a tasty pizza dinner, it was time for concert the second! This one was in an excellent but slightly more intimate coffee house-like space at a local church. Again, the girls did amazing work (with their third concert in twenty four hours) and the audience was very supportive. Pictures here. Afterwards, we were back in the car and on our way home to relieve mima -- huge thanks to her and papa once again for watching the boys during our 40 hours away!

The driver's seat?

We all know about the boys' cars (and more specifically Cars) obsession. The other day at the store, Meh noticed Cars underpants and decided to pick some up for O for when he indicated he might want to try starting potty training. Today the Cars incentive was proven out in amazing form - Meh picked up some Cars underpants for O a few days ago, telling him he'd get to wear them once he started going in the potty. I'll let Meh tell the rest of the story, as she did to me in a mid-day e-mail:

"This morning, O asked to wear his new undies. I told him he had to pee on the potty, so we sat on the new potty seat and he peed and peed! We read some books, he peed some more, so I let him wear the undies. We did dry checks every 10 minutes, then we sat again before we left (he tinkle-tinkle-tooted some more, as he calls it) and I put a pull up on him over the undies. When we go tot group, he didn't want to sit again, so of course the next check was wet, but then he sat and peed there and we got fresh undies/pullup. He peed one other time there on the potty, then he made it home dry and we peed again at home. I let him eat lunch on the potty. A few minutes later I put him on again, we read books and then he POOPED ON THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!! Then back into undies with a pull up and nap."

Go Mister O! Alas, he wouldn't sit on the potty for me before bathtime and then intentionally went in the bath. But still, a very good first day with the toilet. Congrats to O on the beginning of the end of diapers!

Trouble that stands for pool

I've been attempting to get increasingly brave (or is that dumb?) in trying to do activities with both boys that don't involve either or both being confined (to a car, shopping cart, etc.). I walked the boys to the park on Friday - the event went pretty well all things considered; I joked to Meh that I was more or less able to keep the boys within a football field of each other at the somewhat sprawling park near our house (which thankfully at least has decent sightlines).

On Saturday, we returned to the park soon after watching a Curious George episode that prominently featured baseball. (They've actually liked/requested this episode so much that they now sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as part of their regular rotation.) The boys made the connection and wanted to check out an unused baseball diamond. There happened to be a baseball sitting near home plate, which O promptly picked up and talked about. Then we ran the bases: One last example of trying to handle both boys without the benefit of a stroller/shopping cart: Sundays, Z has swimming lessons. I was solo with the boys this Sunday - which made for interesting challenges getting both boys to the pool on the tail edge of O's nap time, Z changed into his swimsuit, and keeping O entertained poolside during the lesson without him heading into the water. Thankfully O did pretty well, and the only real challenge was afterwards, when both boys wanted to sit in the hot tub and I had trouble getting both to agree to actually come out at the same time. There was a nearly comical round of taking one boy out, trying to get the other one out, and the first stepping right back in. Nonetheless, we did survive, then had bonus fun time at the park across the street before heading home.

The boys find very random turns of phrase to crack up about - and then proceed to echo the words back to each other for hours on end. Here was dinner the night before last:

A very merry unbirthday

Zachary came home from school yesterday afternoon wearing what looked like a green crown with some pipe cleaners sticking up from it. Meh wasn't quite sure what it was about, as he was the only kid on the bus wearing a crown, and she was trying to guess whether it was supposed to be the very hungry caterpillar or just some random school craft that Z had decided looked better on his head. But his backpack held the answer: "Today we celebrated summer birthdays - that is why Zachary has a birthday crown. -S" Sure enough, there were 5 pipe cleaners in it. Z was a big fan, and O renewed his interest in headwear after seeing Z's crown, posing for a while in front of the mirror while wearing the red fireman's hat.

Last night was also Z's summer camp orientation meeting. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but he and I set out (at *gasp* nearly his bedtime) for the community center, with the aforementioned crown still firmly in place. He did remove it when we got to the venue, where we parked like some kind of Swingers choreographed car caravan alongside not one or two but three blue Priuses (one of the drivers had to snap a picture). We ran into friends R, M, and their son J before heading into the meeting itself. Z did really well with the introductory speeches, though he was a bit too shy to join the other kids when they headed to the gym for counselor-camper playtime while the parent orientation continued. I was finally able to walk him down towards the end of the info session, and he actually had a great time running around with the other kids, and even ran over and sat with another group doing songs with hand movements in a circle. I didn't quite catch that on this video, just him happily coming back to check in with me and my corner of the gymnasium.

After orientation, there was even a bonfire with marshmallows on (very long, kid friendly) sticks. Z was at first concerned with the idea of putting a stick in the fire, but before long he was flaming up marshmallows with the best of them. He didn't actually eat any (mostly just burned them to a crisp), though he did grab a few chocolate bar components of what were supposed to be smores. All in all, a very successful orientation - hope he has this much fun at camp proper in a few weeks!