Neverending Story

O is fairly obsessed with stories, both hearing and telling them. For naps, he frequently wants one of us to lie down with him and tell him a story beforehand. Then when that one is finished, he wants another. A few months ago, we had the idea to ask him to tell us a story instead, and that's been the beginning of Owen's storytelling career. A few weeks ago he started telling stories about when he was born -- examples included "When I was born, I drove that bus" (while pointing to a passing city bus). Today's was a bit more elaborate: "Once upon a time, there were two boys named O and Z, and their two grownups were named mommy and daddy. They all went to have sushi, and then they went to the park. And then they went home and went to sleep." Solid three act structure right there.

Video games unleavened

Straight from one trip to another! Meh and I returned from an excellent London holiday on Sunday afternoon, and first thing Monday I was on a plane down to San Francisco for a conference. Due to scheduling restrictions with Moscone, the Game Developers Conference was booked to coincide with both Passover and Good Friday this year. On the first night, friends A and E invited me to their lovely family seder; it was great to be able to be with friends and observe a meaningful start to the holiday. The next day was the full-day tutorial I've run for now twelve straight years (yes, I still coordinated it the year I couldn't attend due to some kind of family thing :), but after it completed, I was off to an unofficial Game Developers Passover Seder, held at the open art space of YetiZen (ironically while YetiZen themselves were co-hosting an IGDA party elsewhere that received some negative publicity). It was again a nice drawing together of the fairly disparate community of video game developers who observe (or in some cases were just curious about) Passover. There's a nice blog post on the seder here.

Huge thanks to both the overall event planners and my company's own awesome event planner, both of whom secured kosher-for-Passover meals for breakfasts and lunches during the week.

Ditching the date

London-town! It seems like I was just here last month. Oh, because I was. But this time I was accompanied by a lovely lady -- yes, it was Meh's long-awaited return to her favorite (favourite) city! Grandma and J had graciously offered to fly in for the week and watch the boys back at home while we jetset across to the UK. I had work meetings and such, but Meh of course found fabulous ways to spend the days in my absence, and we had some great experiences together as well. We arrived on St. Patrick's Day which, while surprisingly not nearly as big of a thing as it is in the states, still features a giant crazy parade that ends right down the street from our hotel (thank goodness we took the Tube rather than a taxi!). We tried to explore, but the pedestrian density (and the rain/umbrellas) kept us away; we ended up just walking through Covent Garden, then caught up with friends N and S and their boys J and R, followed by a grownups only dinner at an excellent kosher curry establishment.

The next day, we had a lovely breakfast in St. James Park at the aptly named Inn the Park, before setting off to play tourist at a fabulous museum I've walked past multiple times without even noticing, the Churchill War Rooms -- bunkers used during World War II that are now a surprisingly large museum. Then we set off for what I think Meh managed to acquire nearly every day of our visit, some excellent civilised afternoon tea, at our favorite royal establishment. Alas, while we knew the forecast was for rain and had brought our umbrellas, our choice to walk across the four parks needed to get to our favorite spot was met with first a drizzle, then rain, then a downpour, followed by thunder, lightning, hail, and sleet. We were pretty much soaked to the bone by the time we arrived at the Orangery, but warmed up nicely with some earl grey.

To the title of this post -- we'd really hoped to catch The Book of Mormon in London, and were disappointed to learn beforehand that it was totally sold out (it had just opened). However, I saw that they do a pre-show raffle of returned tickets, and as it was just about the time that we'd gotten back from our tea, we wandered over to the theater. It was really a fun event, with people clustered on the sidewalk while two humorous entertainers from the theater (I never did find out if they were involved in the production) encouraged/harassed people to complete their raffle entries and drop them into the metal cage raffle box. Finally, they started drawing names, and everyone celebrated the winners, who marched inside to purchase their tickets. On the raffle request form, you got to indicate whether you wanted 1 or 2 tickets, and of course everyone had been selecting two, so it wasn't a huge surprise when they indicated there were an odd number left, and finally they were down to what they termed a "ditch the date" situation, with a single ticket left. Meh and I had agreed early on that if only one of us won, she would go and I'd meet up with her after the show. The single ticket winner they drew... was not us. The winner came up and gallantly indicated that he could not ditch the date; he received a lovely parting prize of a Book of Mormon frog. The next name they drew... was me! Before I could even make my way up to the front, Meh gleefully belted out "I'm ditching him!!" to much laughter and applause from the audience. I too got a frog for being ditched, and queued to get the ticket. The raffle-holders closed the doors and were still chuckling about Meh's comment as I paid. Then the ticket seller told me that there had actually been one additional late return ticket - not near where Meh was sitting, but would I still like it? But of course! So I got a frog and both of us got to see the show, catching up at the break with each other. Score! And great fun; I actually ended up sitting next to two other Americans (coincidentally one of their children is a student at my alma matter on a London semester exchange) who were having a great time - I started telling them how I got my tickets, and they commented "Oh, your wife was the one who yelled, 'I'm ditching him!' when your name was called." -- they hadn't won the raffle, but had managed to buy some returned tickets.

No need to go blow-by-blow through the whole trip (I know, too late), but a few more highlights included touring and a lovely tea at the impressive Wallace Collection, a second excellent show ("Once", where the stage is a bar -- no really, they serve drinks before the show and at intermission), tasty morsels from the Borough Market, visiting with friends T and B (and their Z-aged son T, who we've known since the boys were both infants) near Reading, and Meh even got to experience one of friend N's excellent student programs, an in-person tour that tied British Museum Egyptian artifacts to the Passover/Exodus story.

Along the way, we were of course thinking about the boys frequently and checking in with grandma and J to learn that they were having an excellent time (there might be pictures, though I suspect they'll be locked on grandma's camera for some time :) We of course stocked up on both chocolates (O's permanent expectation for returning from any trip) and transport-themed materials from the London Transport Museum, but also took a number of pictures of British vehicles for the boys to look at when we get back -- I expect this is the one they will be most excited about, the 747 jumbo jet that will shortly be taking us back home! It's been an amazing and wonderful trip (full album here), but it will be good to get back to them (alas for me, for all too short a time; I'm back on a plane tomorrow for the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco -- and for the start of and most of Passover no less, ugh!). Huge thanks once more to grandma and J for spending a full and likely exhausting week with the boys and their hectic schedules!

Down the stunky roo-a-bah

It makes no sense, but "Down the stunky roo-a-bah" is the new song that Zachary and Owen will ask each other sing frequently, generally to the tune of 'London Bridge', occasionally adding a bit of swing/syncopation to the end of the phrase, and then punctuating each verse with "my... fair... [something they think is silly -- an animal, a vehicle type, a name, etc.]". In trying to decode the title's origin, I tried asking them a few pronunciation variants to see if I was just misunderstanding, but O insisted, "No, daddy, it's 'down the *stunky* woo-a-bah!'" I then asked what it meant, to which O replied, "Well, 'down a stunky' is the first name. And 'woo-a-bah' is the last name." So never mind, it all makes perfect sense now.

Fire Works

O's birthday proper was Friday, but we had a nice weekend celebration this morning with a few of O's friends. Of course, Meh outdid herself once more -- O had this year requested a fire truck, and an awesome one was created. He'd been talking all week about how he'd eat the ladder (not even bothering to find out what it was going to be made of), and assigning other parts for consumption - papa would get a wheel, Z would get the front, etc. Alas, O has grown to expect so much of mommy's creations that when she unveiled the completed cake (but prior to adding the final attachments, including the ladder), O looked at it and simply said: "where is the ladder"? All the while Z was smiling and jumping around, excitedly talking about how it was a fabulous fire truck cake.

Nevertheless, with ladder (and a fondant hose - dude!) properly attached, both boys and all of the guests were gushing over the cake. If you're wondering, O ended up abandoning his plan and, soon after happy birthday, proceeded to pluck off all of the flashing lights (Dots candies), and also ate a fire truck wheel (fondant). Meh had an awesome full theme going as well, with kids getting to make their own food art fire trucks, with big rectangular cracker frames, cucumber wheels, red cream cheese "paint", corn chex windows, pretzel ladder segments, and more. O made the excellent version pictured above. Did I mention even the other snacks were all fire truck themed, with burning logs (pretzels dipped in white chocolate with colored sugar), fire truck wheels (oreo cookies on sticks dipped in dark chocolate), and more? Awesomeness. Best. Mommy. Evar.

Great fun was had by all, and I don't even think there were any meltdown moments among the attendees. Happy extended third birthday once more to Mister O -- the celebration continues for one more day tomorrow with a special mima and papa trip to Tacoma's rumored-to-be-excellent zoo/aquarium!

Bunk Mates

As a special birthday present, we finally transferred the top mattress in Z's bunk bed back to the top bunk so O could sleep "up high". (As you may recall, it's been sitting on the floor where O has been having slumber parties nearly every night.) Alas, he bailed on it the first night and ended up sleeping back in his own room (a very rare event for Mister O). But last night O talked all the way home about sleeping in the top bunk, and after bathtime and a few stories, he eagerly climbed up the ladder all by himself. He got snuggly with another of his birthday presents, the ladybug equivalent to Zachary's turtle night light. A short bit of chatting later, both boys were conked out in actual beds, Z's floor once again accessible to all.

I forgot to mention, Meh also had our amazing organizer friend S come over while I was out of town, and the boys' playroom and other converted areas are now complete. We have a newly smaller but cozy bathroom, a separate laundry room (soon to be supplemented with fancy organized wall shelving), a bunch more space freed up in the furnace room (which is now a more proper pantry), a cozy understairs 'office' space for Meh, and of course the boys' aforementioned new playroom and hidey hole. Everyone is very pleased with the changes and updates, and we all feel like we've gotten some fun new spaces to explore and use.

Today I am fhree!

Happy third birthday to Mister O! He's been talking about it for the past few weeks with anyone who asks. A sample commentary: "Well, right now I am two. Actually, I am going to be fhree. I will be fhree on March 8!" This morning, mommy made him sprinkle pancakes and we all sang happy birthday. Strategically waiting until after Z went to school, we gave him one of his presents, which (shock of shocks) was a car. Then at his nanny L's house, all of the girls and he had cupcakes (courtesy of mommy), which L then added three little candles to. The dad of one of the girls who can't attend his party this weekend stopped by my office to drop off her gifts, two more cars (we haven't quite been brave enough to give him these vehicles yet). And when I went to pick him up from L's after work, she had given him gifts as well: 5 more cars (well, two were monster trucks). Hey, at least everyone knows what he likes! We then had Shabbat dinner at friends M and A's house, where O once again got to hear a rendition of happy birthday with a piece of chocolate pie featuring "3" and "O" candles. A very exciting third birthday celebration that will stretch throughout the weekend, and even into Monday as mima and papa plan to take him out for a full day of fun with them!