Houston, we have no problem

Back on the road as a family! The fares couldn't be beat and Z had a day off school, so we flew to Texas this past week to visit friends and family in Houston and Fort Worth. For the first time in a long time, our trip featured (gasp) no laptop. This was partially to try to keep our luggage size down a bit, but mostly because, who are we kidding, would we have any time to practically use a computer on the trip? But anyway, these next few entries will be blogged from home sweet home, where we arrived last night after a very good but jet lag-inducing (and somewhat sleep deprived) trip. Overall the boys did amazingly well with all of the transitions, travel, new places, and (for them) late nights.

As with many trips, this one featured nearly every mode of transportation by land even in the first few hours: the very familiar "blue car" (our car, graciously shuttled by papa), escalators and elevators through the airport terminal (both boys got to push the call buttons in turn), the airport's satellite train thing, and of course the airplane itself. Somehow this time around we managed to consolidate our luggage to a single checked bag -- I was pretty impressed, until I recognized what this made our carry-ons look like. (Not pictured: Z's own suitcase, this time functionally packed with the boys' clothes rather than toys.) Still, the gate-checked stroller made for a pretty good luggage cart.

Of course first we played at SeaTac's excellent play area to get some energy out, and then had to look at lots and lots of "biiig airplanes!" before they boarded us. On the plane, the boys were very happy; we opted for the window+middle seat configuration in two sequential rows, and both boys had great views of baggage carts, other planes, the takeoff, and Mount Rainier.

Z conked out about an hour in for a nice nap, though O continued to be squirmy and talkative through most of the flight.

This was Meh's first trip to Texas -- and one of her first experiences was us trucking the boys and collected luggage out to the rental car shuttle, where the driver helpfully offered to bring the "buggy" (stroller) up front. One more exciting-for-kids ride later, and we were picking up the "black car" and heading to visit friend C. It was great to catch up with her for dinner, and the boys had fun playing on her "soft couch". In fact, they spent much of the rest of the week (and have continued since we got home) talking about how much "I had fun with C".

The hotel turned out to be fabulous, featuring a suite with a separate living room that allowed Z to quietly play for a bit without disturbing O on our second night, with a very convenient breakfast spot downstairs, and even a heated pool (not hot enough for the boys though, who didn't last long) and hot tub. And the biggest unexpected score was that our room happend to face a busy highway (fairly well soundproofed), which gave Zachary and Owen alike hours of entertainment pointing out passing trucks, cement mixers, car carriers, and the like.

Our first full day started off, after said hotel breakfast involving as many Rice Krispies on the floor as consumed, with a trip to Houston's excellent Children's Museum. We've seen some in the past with "towns" the kids can play make believe in, but this one really outdoes itself. It's got its own currency -- and a bank (unsurprisingly, Chase is a sponsor) complete with little debit cards that the kids can take around to various stations (Z of course fell in love with the combination police station/forensics unit/ambulance) to either collect a paycheck or spend on utilities and the like. I think much of it is lost on even the older kids, but still, the clear advertising for loans is something I think all banks could take to heart. The museum also featured plenty of science projects (the boys both liked the science fictiony, electric arcing Jacob's ladder), a shiny red car with cutaway door gears, exhibits of little houses from around the world around showing their Chrismahanukwanzakah observances, an outdoor water exhibit, and a steam locomotive in the lobby.

Though the boys were starting to get a bit weary, we hit one of Houston's kosher meat restaurants for a tasty lunch before heading back to the hotel for a nap. The restaurant owner (also a dad) came out and entertained the boys for a bit, and even helped me rescue a tiny Lego piece that would have otherwise gone missing on our way out.

After resting up for a while, we drove up to meet the boys' Uncle J, who's living north of Houston, for dinner. Meh suggested wanting to go somewhere 'fun and Texan', and I stumbled onto this eclectic option. It definitely didn't disappoint with random wood panelling, a carriage parked in the middle of the place, and an entire wedding party having their rehearsal as O and I scooted around them to hit the salad bar. Meh reported that there was a stuffed armadillo that O apparently pointed to and said "dinosaur!". It was great to catch up with Uncle J, even if only for dinner, and we hope we get to see him again soon!

Friday morning, after breakfast with C one more time, we were off on our cross-state drive to visit friends M, K, and N in Fort Worth -- more on that half of our trip in our next post!

Boys (2), Man

Meh is on a long-deserved and anticipated vacation with friends down on the Oregon coast, in Goonies territory no less -- apparently with the famous ocean rock formations visible from the house where they're staying. We've only chatted once, but it sounds like she's having a fabulous time! In the meantime the boys and I have been having a fun and busy guys' weekend; Mima and Papa have been exceptionally supportive as well, meeting up with us yesterday for lunch and hanging out, and today they watched one boy while I'd take the other one to his swimming lessons. When O asks where mommy is, I've tried to explain that she's in Oregon, and he's now very cutely started saying "mommy in Oh-reh-gun".
The primary challenge has been sleep; nobody's been sleeping well (and that's relative to our usual somewhat poor sleep schedule even when we're all home). Friday night we all ended up crashing in Z's bed when first O and then Z woke up and couldn't sleep. Last night Z slept through but O was up repeatedly, including both 2 am PDT and 2 am PST -- yup, that Daylight Saving Time change that everyone describes as giving us "an extra hour of sleep" was more about an extra hour for O to be awake -- and an hour earlier for the boys to be up this morning, ugh! But beyond sleep, we've been having a great time running errands, hanging out, and getting to play with mima and papa.

This coming Wednesday features our family's first flight featuring four separate airplane seats (hooray for non-crazy fares!), deep into the heart of Texas. We're looking forward to visiting with friends C (Houston), the boys' Uncle J (outside of Houston), and then M, K, and their daughter N (Fort Worth). On that topic, M's birthday was this past week, and when I mentioned that to Meh, the boys overheard and started singing; I caught the encore performance on camera:

Pirate booty

For the past few years, we've approached Halloween with a combination of enthusiasm and trepidation. It's Meh's favorite holiday, so the house always gets an excellent dose of decorating (my favorite little touch this year was that she added felt horns, glasses, and a witches hat to our illustrated portraits), and this year Z helped hang a bunch of ghosts outside. He then proceeded to happily point out the 'looooots of ghosts in the tree' every day while waiting for the bus, super cute. The trepidation comes on the actual trick-or-treating evening, where for the past few years we've actually made decent progress, from porch meltdown to driveway meltdown to successful afternoon event but failed/unoccupied house abort.

This year unfortunately Meh had to work on her favorite holiday; she did on the plus side put together a fabulous costume of a character from an excellent series of books currently making the rounds -- apparently her injury makeup was real enough that a few coworkers and patrons were checking to make sure she was alright! I planned ahead a bit by asking a few neighbors if they'd be home on the early side so I could bring the boys down before their (heh) witching hour, and by talking to the boys about trick or treating and costumes and such beforehand. Mima and Papa also came over to assist with the trick-or-treating, along with "Lola in a costume", as both boys pointed out repeatedly as she wagged around the house in her nifty Woodstock outfit.

Six o'clock rolled around and I got Z into his pirate costume; he was very happy about it and checked himself out in the mirror. On the other hand, O was having none of the costuming -- though he was enamored of the big felt candy bag. We then headed out, and actually had a pretty successful evening of trick-or-treating! Z did a great job knocking on doors (though usually he then transitioned to trying to open them), saying trick-or-treat, picking out a piece of candy, and saying thank you. Here's a fairly representative instance:

Even O got into the act of picking out bags and boxes of sugariness ("a yellow one!"), and dutifully held onto (hoarded?) the candy bag. We got through probably close to a dozen houses before O and Z were ready to head home -- but overall a huge success. And enormous thanks to mima and papa for helping me wrangle the boys on our evening outing and first wholly successful trick-or-treat!

I'm leavin' today

I'm wrapping up a trip to New York for a conference; in between giving several talks (one was actually scheduled against a competing talk by Tony Bennett, though apparently his son/manager ended up giving it instead), attending meetings, learning about the latest dorky music gear, and even getting to hear a certain musician slash Sing Off celebrity judge speak, it's been fabulous getting to visit with the boys' uncle B and aunt J, multiple friends who live in the city, and grandma and J, who timed a trip in from Michigan to coincide with my own. Grandma and J hit many of the tourist destinations with B, but I did get to catch up with them for multiple tasty kosher meals, as well as opening weekend for the Rockefeller Center ice rink.

Of course I now tend to see most anywhere I go through the boys' eyes, and know at least one of the sights I'll be returning to the next time the whole family gets back east: the New York Transit Museum. In addition to sourcing some of their favorite toys (I had to pick up two of Uncle B and Aunt J's new subway lines, the 3 and the Q), the museum, which appropriately occupies an old subway station, had a fabulous collection of trams, trolleys, ticket collection mechanisms, buses, and (nearly missed by us) stairs down to an entire subway platform filled from end to end with a variety of trains from the 1920s to the present. Entertainingly, the subway cars' interiors had fabulous period-authentic ads; I kept feeling like I'd walked onto the set of Mad Men. All in all, definitely something the boys would be interested in!

B and I met up for a final breakfast this morning before I headed to the airport, and we picked up a substantial number of bagels as well as walking both the waterfront and the lovely High Line on yet another fabulous fall day. Oh, and as can only happen in a city of 8 million, we even ran into friends S & J, also visiting from Seattle, and supplied them with a fortifying bagel for their day's activities. The remainder are now my giant second carry-on. It's been a very good trip, but I'm very much looking forward to getting home to Meh and the boys tonight!

Songwriting 101

When the boys get into the car, they alternate their demands between two Justin Roberts songs. And by alternate I mean that one seemingly randomly chooses between the two songs, and the other insists that we should really listen to the other one. When one of the songs (or really any song they know) actually starts playing through the car stereo, they happily say the name of it, and sometimes even sing along or at least find their favorite phrase from it and yell it really loud when it comes up.

Both of the boys' top song choices (as with many pop and certainly most popular kids songs) follow the standard musical structure with alternating verse and chorus, followed by a bridge before the final chorus. O has gotten to getting annoyed and insisting "more yellow bus puh-leez!" during the bridge in the middle of the song. Meh keeps trying to explain to him that it's just the bridge and the chorus will be coming back in a few seconds. And today, it finally stuck -- when he got to the point where he used to request the song, he instead happily said "bridge!". Of course, it was immediately followed by "more yellow bus puh-leez", but hey, it's a start. I've also scored big with both boys by finding a live extended performance of it online; next up I'll clearly have to teach the boys about such music concepts as the YouTube version's heavily featured breaks and vamps.

Whistle while you work

As a setup for today's impressive childhood linking of seemingly disparate relationships, I must explain that for a long time, Meh and my signal when trying to find each other in large crowds or stores or whatever is a certain whistle (for our musical listeners, a descending major third). I continue to use it when I come home to see where everyone is, and that often draws the boys out of their activities for welcome home hugs and snuggles.

So, onto the story, which is admittedly far shorter than the setup: O discovered a collection of straws under our sink today, and managed to bend one so that it caused a whistling sound. Meh whistled back to him from the other room, imitating the sound he was making but apparently somewhat close to that major third I mentioned. O responded by saying "daddy!". Z added, "more whistle!"

Friends J and S returned from their intercontinental adventure (with baby L impressively in tow for the journey) and brought Z the perfect gift for his newfound kippah love: a Thomas crocheted kippah. He's happily worn and talked about it, though he's often tempted to try to pull it off (while still attached with clips) to take a peek at the friendly train.

And on the topic of Jewish observances, happy Sukkot! Meh impressively went to Home Depot, got some PVC pipes and attaching corner pieces, and put up our most stable sukkah yet! We didn't really have enough branches to make proper s'khah, but we did have a fabulous fish and chips dinner in it this evening -- after which I suggested Meh shake the lulav (or at least our stand-in, some romaine lettuce) and etrog (substitute one lemon).

Yeshiva bocher

To those who observe it, a very happy Rosh Hashana/Jewish new year! We've been preparing in a variety of ways -- making double round loaves of challah (with a fabulous new circular braid technique Meh found on pinterest thanks to friend K) almost daily, bringing in our excellent bumper crop of red (and now increasingly staying green, but still flavorful) tomatoes, and busting out with the Rosh Hashana toys, books, and puzzles in our collection for the boys. All week, they have also been enjoying "shofar doggie!", a video we landed on while YouTube surfing to show them what a shofar is; the video has become a top request for early morning and pre-bedtime viewings.

As far as the holiday itself, we went to a service -- er, sorry, an "experience" -- hosted by one of the local synagogues and designed for kids. We actually got there way early with mima and papa and explored the JCC's new garden patch for a while while we waited for things to get rolling. The service (sorry again, experience) was held in the JCC's gymnasium, so intelligibility wasn't particularly high -- but it was mostly songs and a sock puppet/felt board seven-days-of-creation story, followed by an arts and crafts project involving making a creation story collage out of food bits (a pita background, shades of blue frosting for the sky and sea, broccoli for trees, swedish fish for fish, star- and person-shaped sprinkles, etc.) Meh was most excited by the high quality (i.e. actually edible) kosher marshmallows they used for fluffy clouds, and now has a mission to go hunt some down at the one local grocery store likely to carry them. O mostly slept/nursed his way through the event. Z really wanted to run around giggling (in between some excellent public self-grabbing, as we continue to work through potty training), but occasionally joined in the songs and certainly was absorbing the general spirit of the event.

That night, we had a lovely dinner at mima and papa's house. Both boys chowed down on excessive amounts of challah, but also enjoyed mima and papa's plush bedding:
Incidentally (and to explain this post's title), between services and the festive meals we had on both nights (and again with friends over for Shabbat dinner last night), Z has decided that his favorite part of Jewish observance is wearing a kippah on his head. It got to the point this morning where he insisted on wearing a fabulous purple one (O occasionally pointed and commented on the "purple hat") when we were heading out for a walk/jog with friends L, R, and their son E. Between the kippah and his increasingly ragged (fringed?) blankie, Z certainly looks ready to go study some talmud!

Mind reader

O has been participating in a series of fascinating child development studies sponsored by the University of Washington -- every few months Meh brings him in and he's given a series of "tests", which vary from basically just observed play time to monitoring his reactions to seemingly random video images with interspersed audio chirps -- I haven't gotten to see this bit, but Meh assures me it isn't Clockwork Orange or anything like that. Meh and I also get to fill out surveys on family activities, interactions, our own support systems, and so on.

Anyway, O wrapped up his latest round of testing today and we got an early set of results that indicates he's doing really well on the areas they've been measuring/testing against. Go mister O! He also continues to enjoy necklaces (or in his words, "bracelets!"), paying close attention to anything and everything his brother says and does, and of course singing (even if sometimes a bit shyly, or abbreviated):

Meal on Wheels

Yesterday was Z's open house for his afternoon preschool program (which conveniently takes place in the classroom adjacent to his morning preschool), where we got to meet his teachers and a few of the other students, along with some fellow parents. Looks like a fun and intimate group, and both Z and O had a great time exploring the classroom's many fun activities, only occasionally jockeying for the same vehicle. One of the parent educators who is continuing from last year took the opportunity to compliment Meh on the amazing lunches she always packs for Z, and how entertaining and cute they are for the teachers and students. (We'll overlook for a moment the fact that Z himself seems mostly indifferent, and is such a selective eater that often the attractively packaged meal comes back home nearly intact.)

This is all backstory for today, which was Z's first full day at school, and thus his first packed lunch. I have no idea how she did it, particularly so early in the morning, and on another high quality night of multiple Z wakeups (which I tended to) and O coming to bed with her at 4 am, but mommy outdid herself with a very cute preschool lunch masterpiece. Yes, that is a bread, cheese cracker wheels, and fruit leather school bus. Mommy is the best!!

While Z had his first full day at school, Owen and mommy had a full day today as well. Meh indicated he had some fun play and interaction time with his peers at toddler group, along with arts & crafts, and his own version of snack time. And then had his 18-month checkup, which was thankfully shot free (all queued up for his 2-year checkup). His latest stats:

• Weight: 23 lbs 11 oz (10th-25th percentile)
• Height: 33 1/4" (75th percentile)
• Head circumference: 18 1/2" (25th percentile)

Tall, just like his daddy and mommy. Or something.

School Days

We're post Labor Day, which of course means back to school -- today was Zachary's first day back on the "yellow bus!" (both boys say this with substantial energy). The summer seemed to fly by, or at least simply fly right past the northwest, though we've finally had some warm days in the last week or so. Anyway, the bus came back this morning bright and early, and Zachary was eager to be aboard. Even Owen got to step on briefly so we could all give Z hugs and kisses for his first day, before, as O put it so eloquently, "bah-bah bus". We're not fully clear on how things went on the first day -- no tell-tale art project paint on the hands/mouth this time around -- though he did come home singing a song about learning the other kids' names, and we can only assume that he's got to be having a very good time indeed. Welcome back to school, Z!

The Color Purple

Owen's language explosion continues, and is frequently punctuated by him picking up choice catch phrases of Zachary's (recent examples: "Good job!"; "Time for potty!"; "Great sharing!"). In the last day or two, he's gone from mastery of a few color words to actually relating them to what he sees; I got home yesterday afternoon from work and he demonstrated to me his knowledge of a whole rainbow of bunny colors in his book. Equally cute, he's picked up on telling the 'joke' of asking if something is clearly the wrong color. ("[Is it] a green fire truck? Nooo...")

Here's another word I had no awareness O knew until Meh showed me the video:


And of course he likes to talk through playing with his blocks too:

Beach boys

We had a fabulous remainder of Uncle Brian's visit, and were sorry to see him go! On Monday, we picked up mima and all went to the lovely Carkeek Park to enjoy a sunny day at the (rocky) beach. Trains, planes, Puget Sound, playground toys, and even a visiting bubble man - what's not to like? Both boys had a great time, first down by the water, then up at the swings. Zachary actually couldn't be coaxed away from the swings once he got started, though Owen spotted the aforementioned Bubble Man making giant bubbles for a large collection of excited kids and parents, and started to toddle over while pointing and chatting about the guy's many-colored "umbrella!".

The rest of Uncle B's visit was very nice but over way too quickly! We went blueberry picking yesterday morning, played at the park while mommy got a super cute haircut, had family sushi (where Owen displayed renewed ability to shell and eat edamame), and then Brian generously watched the boys and gave Meh and me a date night last night. This morning, both boys were up and antsy way too early in the morning, so we actually all piled into the car to take B to the airport for his morning flight while Meh caught a few more minutes of sleep. The boys were delighted to see all of the airplanes again, but both understood that Uncle B was leaving and gave him hugs, kisses, and a hearty "bah-bah unka bah-yan!" (Owen) or "byyyye uncle Brian" (Zachary).

Say uncle

The boys' Uncle Brian is in town! He arrived late last night from the east coast. Z was a bit surprised and shy to see him first thing this morning, and both boys hid a bit initially before warming up pretty quickly. By late morning, Z had added him to the enumerations he does of friends and family who are around, and O was pointing at him saying "Brian!" We also have another special guest today, friend and fellow blogger M, who was in town from Texas this week for a conference.

We spent much of the day all hanging out in the backyard with Z in the swing, catching up as well as catching -- an improv game of four square (the original, not that location-based social networking thing) broke out, allowing us to demonstrate our mad athletic skills.

In addition to having a great time with Uncle Brian and M, the boys enjoyed having extra company and an audience for meals. O even suddenly figured out how to whistle:

Once the boys were down, we grabbed some propane, grilled up a tasty dinner, and then slayed a few episodes of a classic TV show that M and I have been separately working our way through (but serendipitously happened to be at nearly the same episode), along with resident expert Uncle B. M has to head back tomorrow morning, but it was so good to see him even briefly, and we look forward to seeing him again (along with K and N) very soon!

Turnabout is fair play

Friends and family whose children are older than ours often remark on how things have continually changed with regards to child safety recommendations - how kids used to be put to sleep on their stomachs, or bassinets were perfectly fine sitting in car passenger seats, or how plastic/glass bottles flip-flop between being mortally dangerous and critical requirements for survival. One minor such change has even occurred between Zachary and Owen - the official guidance for rear-facing car seats for children has expanded to be "as long as possible" for 1 to 3 year olds. Z made the flip at one year, but O has remained backwards long after his first birthday. In the past few weeks, he's been leaning as far out of his seat as he can to peek around and check us out in the front, generally with a happy "heh-low dah-dee!" and laughs. With all of that uncomfortable-looking neck craning (and occasional crankiness just getting into the rear-facing seat), we finally made the switch today at just short of 1.5 years, also using the opportunity to swap in an identical seat to Zachary's; if we want to really blow their minds, we can (gasp) even consider switching sides of the car they occupy on occasion. But for now, the seat orientation was change enough; O was thrilled to be facing forward, smiling and laughing along with his brother on our many errands today.

Too cute to wait for sunrise

The last few days have been a bit challenging as far as sleep. O has been waking up multiple times, and despite our resolve not to bring him to bed before 5 am, that's slowly been slipping to 4:45, 4:30... Meanwhile, Z has been occasionally having bad dreams that wake him up at 12 or 1, and he's up for good at 5:30; the bedtime snuggle option is almost always declined, though he and I do occasionally get some couch snuggles in before breakfast (him) and a cup of black tea (me). Yet somehow both boys continue to be so adorable that it's hard to be overly grumpy (though feeling lumpy is perfectly fine). When Meh goes in to get O, I can hear from the other room a low-pitched "heh-low mah-mee". And when he does snuggle with us in bed, if we happen to fall asleep, he'll wake us up with the cutest little kisses (along with "more kiss daddy") a little while later.

Meanwhile, Z will wake up and occasionally start humming or quietly singing a song or two (lately his favorite is a Justin Roberts lullaby), then will quietly whisper "hiiii daddy" when I go to get him, and then gingerly walk (or be carried) down the stairs before standing on tiptoes to turn on a pair of lamps and then sitting on the "buh-rown couch". We occasionally do share a nice morning drink, his a cup of "juice" (water with a splash of fruit juice), and mine the aforementioned last remnants from our suddenly not-quite-so-recent London trip.

Let's close with a video of O, who continues to emulate his brother and show an interest in anything Z does, whether it's legos, books, Thomas, vehicles, dinosaurs, arts and crafts, or even potty time.

No more tears

Zachary's fourth birthday meant his four year wellness exam, which we went to this morning. Papa graciously watched Mister O while I took Z to the doctor. These have traditionally been very tough for Z, with much sadness and screaming and such. Fortuitously, a recently TiVo'ed episode of Sesame Street prominently featured doctors and checkups and such, so we'd been talking about it with Zachary for a few days. When we arrived in the parking lot, he did briefly tear up, but just asked for a kleenex and then was okay. We walked in, and he was immediately entranced by the office's aquarium and fish while I got the paperwork out of the way.

He then proceeded to have a crying free appointment - through two shots, shiny lights in the eyes and ears, a tongue depresser in the mouth, blood pressure cuff, and waiting. Go Z! The only thing that seemed to even moderately bother him was when the doctor flipped off the light to look at his eyes; he asked her to turn it back on, but by then she'd already looked at his pupils and complied. Such a good little man, I was very proud of him. And onto the stats:

Weight: 32 lbs 13 oz (10th-25th percentile)
Height: 38 7/8" (25th percentile)
BMI: 15.2 (25th-50th percentile)

Alas, he has what appears to be a minor ear infection, so we'll be braving the doctor again next week for a recheck. But congrats to the little man on a successful visit to the doctor (or, as he'll probably remember it, to the big aquarium of fish).

Child labor

Who does number 2 work for?

Here's an awkward post, but based on the amount of time it's consumed in the past few weeks, what the heck! While he's been fabulous about doing his impression of Manneken Pis (a sculpture that was in fact the subject of one of the books that first won him over during potty training), Z has had, um, challenges feeling comfortable using the potty for number 2. Previously he'd just wait until he was in his pajamas (and diaper, or later pull-up) to take care of business, which led to a sometimes challenging (but generally successful) half-asleep or sleeping diaper change. However, combined with his selective eating, he did occasionally get stopped up, to the point where it was visibly tough for him when he did go. In the last few weeks, he's given up on the nighttime avenue as well, and sometimes days have gone by without an event. So we're back into potty training mode, spending lots and lots of often Z-frustrating time on the potty when he clearly has to go but won't. There's an occasional success, but overall it's still a big challenge for him to overcome. On the plus side, he's found a new favorite potty book.

Since we've gone and done that poop post anyway, I'll also relay Owen's cute habit of going into our dining room corner, hiding behind a chair, and if we ask him what's going on, he'll exclaim "No poop!" with a bright red face. A few minutes later he'll generally start walking around saying "P. U. Stinky!"

First single

I mean, he's already conquered avante garde piano music, why not a little vocals and guitar?

Kiss and tell

Owen's vocabulary continues to expand, and he's impressively able to count all the way up to 9. Of course it's almost always precisely to 9, even if he skips a few numbers along the way: yesterday, he counted 9 fingers for grandma -- on a single hand. On that note, grandma headed home today. We had a wonderful time with her, and the boys both said "bye bye grandma" as we headed to the airport first thing this morning. (The night before she'd indicated she likely wouldn't see the boys again before she went since her flight was so early -- alas, they were up for the challenge and downstairs by like 5 am, which on the plus side meant they did indeed get to say goodbye!) Both boys had a great time with grandma - we all went out to eat a few times, walked around the neighborhood, grandma attended the big birthday party and swimming class, let Meh and me have a date night, and in general it was just a fun time all around. We hope she gets to visit again soon!

On the topic of early wakeups, for the past few days, Meh reports that he's woken her up (well, for good - he's pretty consistently coming to bed with us by like 4 am, and then sleeping at least a little bit longer) in the morning with sweet little kisses; Z and I are usually sadly already downstairs by 5:30. Today, he's begun giving out kisses to everyone, followed immediately by a smile and "hi!" Such cuteness -- yes, even at five o'clock in the morning!

Sharing continues to be a challenge for the brothers. Z does a great job of cueing O to share, though he doesn't actually follow his own suggestions, and whatever O has is the most important toy in Zachary's collection. Z has taken to frequently wanting to play with his toys while sitting at the dining room table, for minimal O access. In the meantime, O has wised up and often shakes his head 'no!' at the suggestion, which can lead to occasional tantrums from Z. I've seen O occasionally start to act as a bit of a peacemaker, noting the impending tantrum and gently sharing his toy with his big brother. Talk about a younger role model! In the meantime, we try to maintain parity where possible -- dual snack catchers, water/juice cups, etc. -- as well as encouraging equal sharing time where possible. It's challenging, but when they do effectively share, it's great and we start to see a glimmer of the day when they can play with and entertain each other!

Birthday maneuvers

Z's birthday is tomorrow, so we held his fourth birthday party yesterday - unbelievable that he's already four! Meh had the brilliant idea to inquire with his favorite kids' gymanstics location, and it turned out to be the perfect place for his party! Z and his young friends got to have a few semi-organized activities interspersed with crazy running around, swinging from rings and uneven bars, dancing to music, and of course an incredible Meh cake and cupcakes to wrap things up. Several of our grown up friends attended too, and reported it was as much fun to watch as to participate.

This year's party theme was airplanes, and Meh did so many wonderful and creative things with the theme, from goodie bags shaped like little travel parcels (complete with luggage tags) to custom Meh-made chocolate airplanes on sticks -- all assembled by herself, mima, and papa. And of course the birthday cake itself was shaped like Zachary's most favorite of planes from Thomas and Friends.

Z had a fabulous time, running around, swinging from the rings, bouncing on an air matt, walking a balance beam, getting sung happy birthday on a giant parachute, and getting rolled onto a matt (video below). The full picture set of the festivities can be here). He even actually picked up his cupcake (alas, only long enough to get frosting on his fingers and wipe them off in his hair) and was super happy when everyone sang him happy birthday. Even Owen had a blast on the parallel bars and many foam ramps. And the staff at the gym were incredible as well -- they took care of getting everything in and out of the car, set up, and cleaned up. It was extra special to wrap up the birthday party, get home to a clean house, and be able to just relax a bit before bath and bedtime.

And boy are her arms tired

Grandma has arrived for a weekend visit, just in time for Zachary's birthday party tomorrow! The boys and I picked her up at the airport this morning (apologetically late; Z had an epic 90-minute battle with the potty) -- they were of course excited upon our arrival by seeing all of the planes, trucks, baggage carts, and construction equipment, but even happier to see grandma! We went to lunch at what Zachary continues to call "A Great Place" (ever since he spelled out a sign inside of the restaurant and we told him what he'd spelled), then played for a bit at home before a walk was clearly demanded. The local junior high school's massive renovation (and accompanying heavy construction equipment) always entertains, and Owen kept talking about "big diggers" while Zachary commented on the "lots of trucks". Owen and grandma had a great time on the slide at the park, while Z opted to mostly hang out in the stroller.


Tomorrow is the big party, and the preparations have been fast and furious - mima and papa helped stuff the kids' goody bags, Meh has been working on an impressive cake for the (of course) themed celebration, I picked out what I hope will be a perfect gift (if I can ever find time to actually go buy it before the big day) and I'm really hoping Z has a great time with all of the activities tomorrow!