Show time

Last month we heard from friends R and M that there was a live-action Disney "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" show coming to a local stadium. So after consulting with O for approximately 5 seconds and receiving the emphatic yes, we went in with them and got tickets. This was in advance of our recent Disney live show experience at the mothership, so I really had no idea what to expect. After the Disneyland show, I thought it might be something like that, though I was unclear on how they'd be scaling things up for a sports arena and hundreds (thousands?) of kids.

The show was today, preceded by an energetic lunch at a restaurant "in a rocket?!" Not quite, but the boys were both very excited. J had even graciously brought an extra whirling flashlight toy, as wise parents R and M had indicated the souvenir selling was alarmingly prevalent. After queuing up in the rain, and then explaining to O what precisely hockey is (seeing the signage for the Thunderbirds along the side of the building - ugh, I'm a failure as a sports-love-imbuing dad) we were into the venue -- which was indeed an arena decked out with thousands of seats while vendors hawked a number of Disney-themed wares (along with snacks). The show itself was not quite of the caliber of the one at Disneyland, with the puppets replaced by live actors (most of whom were accompanying their entirely lip-synced lines with highly exaggerated body movements -- designed to engage the preschoolers I suppose?) But the boys had a fabulous time and, as at the Magic Kingdom, the show ended with an explosion of "gold doubloons" (yellow tissue paper circles) showering down from the ceiling, which O of course once more collected, hoarded, and stuffed into his pockets while the staff tried to start shooing kids out for the later afternoon show. All in all, a fun and successful father/son date - thanks to R, M, and J for the invitation!

A portrait by the artist as a young man

Both boys love to watch L explore her new world. Last month we brought out some of the baby toys as well as the modular play mat (she of course enjoys disassembling it as much as practicing her plank pose on it. Z has taken to calling it her "privacy", since he knows that he and O aren't supposed to go on it, a concept reinforced when one of the folding gates came out to circle her toys (as much to keep the boys from playing with them as to keep their own toys out of the reach of baby hands and mouth). Yesterday, Z drew this excellent "Picture of Eleanor in Her Privacy" (2014, pencil on paper), which will most certainly adorn the fridge for some time. Nice job, Z!

Love is an open door

Diapers are of course a constant in the house with L, and as the supply depletes, I use our trusty bulk mailing website to restock. This time around, there was an extra discount when purchasing two giant uber-economy-size boxes. I only had to ponder momentarily, as she definitely goes through them quickly enough (occasionally they even protect her clothes, but apparently only if we happen to both hear in time and when she's not wearing anything cute. Otherwise it's doomed to get soiled.)

This is a rather roundabout way of setting up the explanation for the boys' new favorite toy, the giant cardboard box that the two giant boxes of diapers arrived in -- which Meh stood up on end and O declared was a door to a secret room containing his treasure chest. He then proceeded to decorate it with stickers, markers, and crayons. Meh found an unused pair of Ikea doorknobs (take that, Ikea hacks), and voila; both boys now enjoy stashing treasure and occasionally themselves inside.

Boys (2), Man

While we've been missing mommy and L a lot, the boys and I have certainly been filling the time effectively! The week featured school for O and camp for Z; O gets out of school earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he and I got to have some quality time at a variety of parks. And maybe got ice cream one or two times. One of the parks had a piece of playground equipment that reflected some of the city's sister cities around the world; it was amusing to think that two of these cities were far closer to mommy and L than we were, and O was asking what direction mommy was from each of them. We also had a sushi dinner and guys' evening at the beach. And the boys have had renewed bathtime interest in their foam vehicle and robot stickers; when I tried to coax O out the other night after the tub had already been drained for like 10 minutes, he very seriously commented, "No, daddy. I have to build my robots."

Yesterday morning we started the day by Skyping with mommy and L -- it was so good to get to talk to them, and both boys were very happy to see the girls. As an added bonus, we got a mini-tour of Varna, as, while video conferencing with us on her phone, mommy walked from her hotel room down to the Black Sea with L to quickly dip her toes. O of course dominated the conversation so Z and I couldn't really get much of a word in edgewise, but it was still good to get everyone chatting together, and it sounds like the two of them (and Meh's entire choir) are having an excellent time!

Magic Z Ball

One of the many items that came home with my from my conference was a small kitschy magic eight ball. O loved it, but couldn't be bothered to try to read it himself, instead insisting that I ask it variants of whether monsters were going to come to our house, whether Lightning McQueen was faster than a monster, whether the monsters were good guys, etc. Z has been enjoying it as well, and I've been noticing him incorporating its cryptic responses into his own vocabulary; earlier today I asked him a yes/no question and he responded "outlook unclear".

Yesterday was friend K's second birthday party, and they went all out with a Richard Scarry Cars & Trucks & Things That Go themed celebration of cuteness -- so clever and original, and the boys had a blast hunting for goldbugs (drawn on paper and artfully hidden throughout a full model cardboard city outdoors), painting trains, eating individual-sized chocolate cakes shaped like vehicles, and much more. K opened his presents at the end of the party, and I was amused to see there's already a printed book of the viral hit "What Does the Fox Say?", complete with spelled out noises. In the meantime, the boys sat front and center at rapt attention, like it was some kind of close-range live action version of the toy unboxing videos they used to obsess over, while K opened an impressive number of increasingly large construction vehicle toys. Z and O both got their own new cars as part of their goody bags -- win all around!

Today's birthday party (for O's close school friend J) was an outdoor sports affair (complete with multiple coaches/referees/kid herders) -- the boys had lots of fun at a sports field kicking balls with friends, while L was first in the stroller snoozing and then later was on me making her familiar happy cooing and screeching noises. I thought the party was winding down after snacks when all of the sudden we heard a familiar musical noise out on the street, and J's mom told the kids to come around to the parking lot. Voila, an ice cream truck awaited, serving up perfectly cool desserts on a very hot day. O first picked one option, then changed his mind (thankfully before opening it) when he saw what the birthday boy had; both he and Z (and O's shirt) ended up sharing a rocket pop. The after party (yes, there was one) was at the adjacent school playground, where both boys played and played some more while L enjoyed her second nap of the event. A thoroughly enjoyable and exhausting day for the boys and littlest girl!

A bit of perspective

Z has long enjoyed drawing, and has pretty much drawn his way right through about four magandoodles (I don't think I knew before that they could actually wear out), as well as multiple reams of paper with a variety of sketching media (pencils, pens, markers, crayons). The subject matter varies a bit -- buildings, people, lots of interest in vehicles, roads, traffic signals, and (for some reason) utility poles are among his favorites. This weekend we went to a party at friend J's house, and Z was intently using her oversized (and more or less pristine) magnadoodle. When I checked in on his masterpiece, I saw that for the first time, some of the roads were at an angle and seemingly disappearing in the distance -- Z has discovered and started using perspective. Go Z! Once he's done, he's quick to erase and move onto the next picture; thankfully I got this shot a few moments before he started a second (also perspective-aware) drawing.

Trip planner

Tomorrow the boys and I head off for a new milestone -- a boys' plane trip (4 hours no less) without mommy or L. We're visiting grandma and John in the Great Lake State for a brief summer holiday, along with my 20th (well, actually 21st) high school reunion. Mommy has been hard at work getting some amazing stuff into their travel bags; O continues to ask when he can open his backpack, and I too am looking forward to seeing them discover a wealth of legos, snacks, drawing books, stickers, and (my favorite) these adorable little car cases Meh created complete with 4 pockets and a little road for the cars to drive on. Plenty of snacks and a few movies as well -- overall a wealth of entertainment options. Let's just hope they don't burn through them in the first 10 minutes off the ground!

It's going to be a fun adventure, and we're excited to spend time with grandma and John, but we're going to miss Meh and L a lot! O keeps asking if we'll be able to talk on the computer, and what direction grandma and John's house is from here, while Z insists to himself that "we'll definitely see them again another time".

Third fourth birthday

Happy *official* birthday to O! He had a busy and action-packed day. We gave him his birthday presents: an excellent ukulele from Uncle B and Aunt J, which he was performing on almost immediately, though he wasn't quite patient enough for me to show him how to hold and care for it, so we may have to work into that a bit; cars from grandma and John, and a car carrying case from us -- partially with the hope that this will be the beginning of instituting a rule to limit the vehicles in the house to those he can actually travel with. Then his friend J (and his parents R and G) came over to both welcome L and celebrate with O; J and he did this through a combination of running, jumping, giggling, wrestling, and loud talking.

Mima and papa had graciously invited us over for a birthday dinner (O: "and presents?"); alas, things went a bit south when he and I went to go pick up papa from work and O completely conked out -- I couldn't get him awake again throughout the birthday dinner, so mima and papa's lovely preparations were mostly enjoyed by O's parents and brother. Naturally when we got back in the car to go home, he woke up and was completely confused and upset that he'd missed cake and presents. Fear not, mima had packed up a piece, and when we got home, he had a late last celebration, complete with cake and the opening of his two last presents (shock of shocks, they were cars).

Yesterday was his school birthday party; after dropping him off in the morning with supplies for his birthday class "activity" (Froot Loops and landyard gimp to make necklaces), I arrived back for their lunch and saw this poster on their classroom door. When I walked in, a few kids had necklaces already around their necks and others had clearly already eaten theirs -- but it was still fun to get to see O interact with his class, and of course we all sang a raucous chorus of happy birthday. Afterwards, O posed with two of his best friends and his birthday poster for the school's daily documentation -- so cute! Oh, and his birthday necklace? Green and blue Froot Loops only, of course.

Once more, a very happy and busy fourth birthday to O!

For a very important date

I've been hearing bits and pieces from many of our friends scheming about it for months, but today at long last was Tiny's baby shower, an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party! For my own part, all I could contribute was sneaking a tiara and clock into grandma's bag to be used in some way at the event. But it sounds like it was a fabulous affair, and the boys and I returned home to an alarming collection of pink things along with a custom-made Alice in Wonderland trivia quiz where I'd be lucky to score any correct at all. Meh reported that she was really overwhelmed by all of the creativity, thoughtfulness, and love of her friends and family; the pictures really say it all. The food and ingenious decorations all looked amazing, and Meh is already planning out how to incorporate many of the items into Tiny's "Alice in Wonderland"-themed room.

While the girls were at the shower, J and I took the boys to a local children's museum, where we met up with the spouses and kids of a few other shower attendees/planners. The kids had a superb time as always, though I think they ran J and me a little ragged. O got to show off his mad K'nex skills, working with me to build (what else but) a car, and Z had a great time mostly involving the large truck cab. The shower was still going when they shut the children's museum down, so we and the H boys headed onward to (where else but) Red Robin for dinner. Alas, there was a bit of a crash and burn on trying to get the boys' food order in first (it instead was forgotten, twice), but everyone I think had a nice if exhaustingly complete afternoon out.

If you're gonna build a time machine...

One of the fabulous presents Meh and the boys got me for my birthday was an official Lego Back to the Future DeLorean. Z was certainly interested in looking at the box, talking about the DeLorean, reading the license plate, helping pick out the dates it should go visit (our birthdays, Halloween, and also December to see the holiday lights) and eager for me to assemble it. And I don't think I was quite prepared for just how into it O was going to get. For the past ten days, he has spent probably at least 30 minutes a day demonstrating his excellent fine-motor skills (and patience, actually occasionally even sitting in a seat for minutes at a time!); I hunted down the specific parts we needed to put together, and then he did most of the actual assembly. We'll ignore for the moment that he was constantly asking if it was time to add the wheels, as that is his favorite part of any vehicle he makes. Thankfully we were able to overcome the fact that the box somehow came missing at least two parts -- Meh's giant canvas bag full of childhood Legos saved us with some appropriate size and color replacement parts. Anyway, all of this led to the completion of the DeLorean tonight! O was super excited to show it and drive it around, though being a Lego model, it's a bit on the fragile side and the gull wing doors kept popping off -- I'll probably take the completed creation to work in the next day or two for more permanent display. But super impressive, complete with rotating wheels to convert to hovermode, a tiny time control panel (with the destination date set to the invention/patent of Legos), Mr. Fusion, 2015 license plate, hood-mounted 1955 time control circuits, and more! Hooray for fun presents and good bonding time with Mister O and Mister Z!

Movie palace

O stacked pretty much all of our embarrassingly large collection of toy cars on the piano today. I complimented him on the epic parking lot, but he declared that it wasn't a parking lot; he'd apparently had such a great time at the movies yesterday that he decided to make a movie theatre -- the cars on the piano were in the stadium-style seats, and they were all apparently watching "Frozen" projected on the wall behind the kids' little trampoline. Silly man.

In addition to setting up his diorama, we also took the boys to one of their favorite parks today. There's a giant boardwalk through the woods to get to a playground shaped like a castle, and Z kept talking about going through the forest "and then we'll go home". Great fun was had by all - hooray for holiday break family activities!

Corporate Headquarters

Tonight, O asked me if we could go to "Mikkel". I asked where that was, and somehow we were able to walk through his logic to figure out that he thought that was the name of a store -- the store that makes nearly all of the cars and other vehicles that he's always interested in. From there it was only a short leap to realizing he was saying he wanted to go to Mattel. Note to self to investigate possible tours of their El Segundo headquarters the next time we're in Los Angeles.

Today was a very fun third birthday party for L, the son of friends J and S. They held it (apparently sight unseen beforehand -- brave!) in an area of Seattle I'd never really explored, though it was blocks from the grassy field north of Boeing Field where the boys and I have occasionally gone to watch planes land. Anyway, in the midst of this mostly industrial neighborhood was a giant indoor sandbox. No really, that's what it's called, and it looks like a converted airplane hangar or factory that has been covered with a foot or more of high quality sand. On one side of the complex was a volleyball match; on the other was a kids birthday party complete with many sand toys, vehicles, slides, and more. The boys and I had a blast, and the birthday boy was clearly having a ball as well (literally: he had a beach ball in hand for much of the event). Towards the end, Z and O both ended up way in the back corner where there were a pair of slides I hadn't even seen when we'd come in. It really does look like some kind of avante garde art installation seeing this much sand in front of solidly colored walls of nearly the same tone.
"aire de jeux de sable à l'intérieur"
(2013, assorted plastics with children on sand)

Eighth Crazy Night

Happy eighth night of Chanukah! As promised, the boys got their sole non-shared unique gifts tonight: new bicycles! As I've mentioned, O has been eager to ride the little tricycle, so getting a bike -- and a Hot Wheels themed one no less -- was, like, Price Is Right "new car"-reveal exciting. Z was very pleased with his as well, and wanted to wear the new helmet (Cars-themed, natch) and climb on his Lightning McQueen-themed bike nearly immediately. Yes, we even put aside common sense (hey, it was raining -- and at least they had the aforementioned helmets "for safety") and let them briefly, and more or less carefully, ride the bikes on a few loop through the house.
O did somehow manage to crash once, but all in all, a very happy last night of Chanukah. Meh is going to attempt to take them both biking solo (brave mommy!) tomorrow after Z's school is over.

Favor in the morning, favor all through the night

With O's cough continuing to persist (and getting so bad as to make him actually barf a few times -- poor little man!), Meh took him to the doctor yesterday, and alas, he had a sinus infection. A round of the pink stuff is now in progress; he's been taking it like a champ and is already doing much better. He was talking today about having to take medicine for his "favor" (fever) -- I'm very glad that we were able to get it sorted and treated.

Chanukah has continued with much enjoyment by the boys as well as by us, though sometimes they start to ask about gifts before we've even had breakfast in the morning. They've done a great job of sharing the various gifts (perhaps in part because we made it clear that all of them except the ones for the upcoming last night of Chanukah will indeed be for both of them), and we've gotten to successfully play some fun new turn-based games from grandma, J, Uncle B, Aunt J, mima, and papa -- it's been great to see both of them start to understand the basic logistics of classics and new games alike -- sometimes they even encourage each other. My favorite is that they're still convinced (based on a few earlier games we've played with them) that when you win, you shout out the name of the game. Why not?

Two helpings

Happy Thanksgiving and Chanukah! Unfortunately, Mima had injured her back last week and couldn't leave the house to join the dinner at friends S and J's house, so O and I headed to the local grocery store to pick up an improvised Thanksgiving lunch (they even had some nice reasonably sized rotisserie turkeys) to bring to her. Z and mommy joined us soon after at Mima and Papa's house for the unexpected but very nice Thanksgiving part one. While there, Mima and Papa gave the boys some lovely Chanukah presents, including reversible superhero capes and masks -- a huge hit with all! There were also a vehicle-themed erector set (which the boys, gasp, wanted to immediately build into a fire truck), along with a fun new allegedly drop-proof (the boys almost immediately "tried out" that feature) Android tablet -- thank you to mima and papa for the fabulous gifts!

Later it was on to friends J and S's lovely home for Thanksgiving dinner. I brought challah (big shock), and Meh made both her yummy sweet potato casserole and an excellent dairy-free pavlova. There was an honest-to-goodness kids table for Z, O, and D & D's sons N and B -- not that any of them sat for an extended period. There was running around the family room (J was patiently moving things out of their path) and N helped "show" the boys how their new tablet worked (that is, playing one of the pre-loaded games that he was apparently already familiar with). But in between they did sit nicely at the table and color in some excellent placemat worksheets that J had found, and we had a nice and even mildly relaxing festive meal with friends.

Chanukah comes earlier

Yes, yes, it's crazy early this year, and the first time in something like a trillion years that Chanukah coincides with the 150 year old Thanksgiving. But really Chanukah arrived even earlier for us, as grandma and J brought a number of gifts for the boys (in addition to their new favorite Museum of Flight space shuttles). Among the many presents was a childhood favorite of daddy's: a plastic bowling set. O was mostly about holding the ball and swatting the pins with it, but eventually he was catching on to the whole rolling thing, and we built out an alley between the kitchen and dining room.

We had such a nice time with grandma and J, but their visit came to a close this morning. There were fun trips to some local parks (where, as usual, the boys primarily wanted to sit in swings or merry-go-rounds and have daddy push them - does that really consume any energy?), playing with games, reading books, baffy time, and general silliness. We miss them already and hope to see grandma and J again soon!

Cold play

Today we had a very nice brunch with mima and papa; O was particularly excited to taste some of their yummy Keurig hot chocolate, which was supercharged by adding both whipped cream and sprinkles. Then Meh and we parted ways, with her heading to work and the boys and I off to run a brief errand to pick up groceries. Of course it's never a "brief" errand with the boys, and they were wild enough (thankfully at least sitting still long enough to accept and devour free chocolate chip cookies from the grocery store's bakery) that we clearly needed to find someplace to go burn off energy afterwards. Lately I've been walking them up to Z's elementary school -- the dual benefits of them actually walking (exercise) and going to a playground without swings (more exercise; they're guaranteed to be doing more than just sitting there while I push them) has made it an attractive option. I've also mentioned O's renewed interest in his tricycle, so off the three of us went.

It was, shall we say, an adventure. O continued to want full independence on the tricycle (except when he didn't), and Z wasn't always interested in holding my hand. Somehow we arrived at the park at roughly the same time, at which point the boys ran around like wild men before it was time for snack. I miscalculated just how cold it's gotten; while the boys were fine with their heavy shirts and (somewhat light) jackets, I was freezing. Of course this meant it was time for an extra-leisurely snack. The boys found it super funny when I huddled way down in my jacket -- hah hah. Anyway, some more play time warmed us up, though it was finally time to head back home. Again, getting both boys to head the same direction and rate of speed was a bit of a challenge.

Friday night was the Seattle opening of my friend J's film, and I was excited to be able to take Meh on a date to see it while the boys had a fun evening with their favorite sitter S (seriously -- Z just smiled and said "byyyyye mommy and daddy" when he saw her). I was rooting for a full audience, and was texting live attendance numbers to J as we counted down to showtime; in the end, the theater was at about 90% capacity, hooray! Meh was a big fan of the film itself, even though the theater had to do a restart after accidentally showing the first few minutes with a bunch of the frame clipped. As the end credits rolled, a huge cheer went up from behind us for the assistant editor credit; apparently he's got family and friends in Seattle. It was fun to see the film again on a big screen in my own town, and encouraging to see people flowing into the theater for the next showing as we headed out afterwards. Congrats again to J!

Working for peanuts

A blissfully empty day in the family schedule, and we tried to take full advantage of it. O really wanted to "go to the mall", so we decided to take the boys to at least a different mall with a new play area. Foiled again -- the play area was torn up for remodeling (though hey, at least there was an indoor crane there to look at). On the plus side, opposite the play area was the Lego store, so we went in there and browsed. The boys were super excited by all of the Lego vehicles (Meh made me promise not to look at one particular section, where I suspect a potential Chanukah present lives), and there were several tables/stations for making your own inventions as well.

Mommy had some clothes to return/exchange, and it was still a few minutes before the restaurants would open for lunch (at 11 am mind you), so we wandered outdoors to some of the fun fountains -- the boys enjoyed watching the water sprays, but were clearly very focused on mommy coming back. We had a very nice lunch at an old standard. Then O and Z clearly still needed to burn off some energy, so we headed up to a favorite park for some exercise time. Granted, park activities generally end in more parent than kid exercise (pushing on swings, holding them up on zip lines, spinning the boys as they sit on merry go rounds, etc.) -- but still, somehow they usually seem more tired afterwards; go figure.

O has recently rediscovered our big wheels style tricycle, and has been asking us to clear the garage of vehicles so he can drive it around a bit. Since the weather was actually decent if still a bit wet, and the boys clearly had even more energy, we opted to walk up to Z's elementary school playground when we got home. O rode the tricycle, and alternated between peddling like a mad man and "letting" me help push him. He was very concerned that I not even touch the push handle if he could make forward progress solo. Anyway, when we got to the playground, the boys had a fabulous time -- Z kept talking about "recess", and really enjoyed pushing his brother around on the tricycle. Plus there weren't any spectacular crashes or wipeouts, so I'll call it a win.

The day wrapped up with dinner at another of the boys' newer favorite restaurants. Z continues to improve his reading, and at this restaurant it's particularly challenging to identify which of the many signs he might be sounding out at a given time (the walls are covered with large font reviews of the restaurant). Today he was working his way through announcing that "burgers are boss" -- while happily munching on a giant hot dog. In the meantime, O was having a wonderful time and making a spectacular mess shelling and eating peanuts. I still haven't gotten him to actually try the restaurant's tasty-looking grilled cheese sandwich, but it's a bit alarming just how many of their tasty french fries he can consume. Hooray for full family days!