The boys' obsession with cars and trucks continues unabated despite the cars remaining on extended holiday (due to some pretty dramatic tantrums and constant fighting). They have a new favorite Curious George episode where he plays with cars (actually giving them a car wash, which the boys experienced in person last week with mommy -- Z apparently loved it, O got scared of those vertical scrubby cloth strips). And yesterday, they asked for "double decker buses on the TV"; sure enough, the Xbox YouTube app supplied us with video captures of both London and Brighton bus routes, and then motorbikes ramp-jumping over a series of double decker buses. The boys loved the latter so much that I found them a few other monster truck and stunt videos that they can watch again and again (but hopefully never imitate?). But their very favorite was a video of an evaluation of the "Cars 2" line of die cast toys. The boys continued to ask to watch the toys being removed from their plastic boxes ("here we go, opening presents!" said Z) and then stored inside of the larger Cars 2 playset storage Double Decker Bus. It's no tamagotchi, but these boys clearly have a favorite new virtual set of toys.
(And incidentally, more than a million hits on both of these videos?! Perhaps we're not the only ones with kids who are into toy unboxing.)
While Owen isn't quite two (I'm particularly sad to miss the proper day, as I head out to San Francisco tomorrow morning and don't get back until the day after his birthday), we celebrated his birthday today with family (mima, papa, grandma, and J were all in attendance!) and several of his young friends. As usual, Meh was amazing and outdid herself with incredible decorations, food (for both the kids and grownups), drinks (tea and even London Underground-themed labelled waters for goodness sake), activities (making jeweled crowns), little picnic lunches for the kids, and pretty much everything; even the invitation was amazing stuff, not to mention our sons' matching outfits. More pictures of the fun times can be found here.
Oh, and ever since his friend L's birthday party a few months ago, Owen has had a very specific request for his own birthday cake:
(If you're wondering, "minna" is what O calls nursing -- we'll pass on discussing that topic in this entry, though I was amused to discover that one of the streets/venues I'll be at this week shares the name.) Anyway, more than a month later, and Meh fulfilled this 'red heart' request on the back window of her amazingly incredible double decker bus cake. I myself contributed some UK-based chocolates, a miniature pop-up book of London sights, some stickers, and a piggy bank shaped like a double decker bus from my recent trip.
O was particularly giddy with everyone singing happy birthday to him, getting a huge smile on his face. He also chowed down on the cake itself (occasionally with a fork, mostly with his hands), in addition to playing energetically, making a crown with his friends, and generally having a blast. Z did very well with the flurry of other kids too.
Grandma and J had generously wanted to offer us a date night, but between our activities (my orchestra had a dress rehearsal Friday night, a concert on Saturday night, and Meh had a meeting Sunday night) the only opportunity was after the birthday party wrapped up. Meh and I had a nice quiet tea at our favorite Seattle tea house - thank you grandma and J! The whirlwind continues tomorrow, with grandma, J, and me all driving to the airport to fly our separate ways. Again, huge huge thanks to mima and papa for supporting Meh and the boys while my work travel schedule goes through hopefully its craziest stretch of the year.
It's been a hectic week of travel and meetings here in the UK. I did get a brief chance to catchup on someshopping, and even hopefully will help equip O's upcoming London/double-decker themed birthday party with authentic accoutrements. It was also nice just to walk around Central London and catch up with my locally based coworkers. I got to briefly chat with O and Z online; Z apparently keeps taking about daddy "going to work on an airplane to London". Meh remains the most amazing, creative activity planning, and patient mommy, and a huge preemptive thanks to mima and papa for all of the assistance and support they're providing during my absence!
Did I mention the posh and pretentious-looking bar I walked past in Covent Garden called "Detroit"? Awesome. Anyway, tonight, a coworker and I had a lovely catchup dinner with friends N and S after delivering a Costco-sized portion of the one surprising food they most crave from the US (trust me, O certainly agrees on its value), and getting to hang out with their fabulous kids for a bit. But tomorrow I head back after perhaps one more attempt to grab some gifts/birthday party decorations.
Very much looking forward to getting home tomorrow afternoon, though unfortunately I have to turn right back around and head to San Francisco on Monday for my annual Game Developers Conference pilgrimage. On the plus side, the aforementioned O birthday party promises to be fun (if hectic), and grandma and J are flying in on Friday to join us for the big number two, before heading back to the airport with me on Monday.
O has come up with some classic quotes over the past few months; the other day rather than asking for me to turn off the light, he wanted me to turn on the dark. Why not? But I think I've got a new favorite: Mima was watching O today, and when I got home, she reported that he had been scrunching his eyes closed, then opening them and looking around. Eventually he turned to her and commented, "It's dark in there!"
Z continues to get used to his new boot. He actually really likes wearing it, but isn't tremendously sure about navigating around while it's on. His school has thankfully retained the wheelchair so he can keep up with his classmates when transitioning between rooms, though in the classroom he's been crawling, pivoting on furniture, and starting to try out standing on it. Based on how he was handling the cast towards the end, I suspect he'll be getting around at high speed on it in no time!
The day has finally come! Z had been talking about it for quite some time, but today was "pictures of cast, then bye bye cast". There of course was one more hitch; the doctor he was supposed to see had to cancel, but Seattle Children's managed to score us an appointment with another doctor back at their main hospital where the adventure had first started just over a month ago. Things ended up being in reverse order than I'd expected/prompted -- cast off, x-rays, then exam.
But Z did an awesome job, waiting in the lobby, then giggling as the ticklish saw cut off the cast, then listening and holding still for the x-rays. He even commented and watched as another little boy at the station next to us had a very similar (though shorter) green cast removed -- that boy unfortunately was getting set up with another cast, a bright purple one that had Z reconsidering whether he really wanted to be done with his leg immobilization.
The x-rays looked good, and there's just the slightest remaining visible remnant of the fracture. He now transitions to a little boot for the next four weeks, which we can thankfully remove for bath and bedtime. No jumping or sliding, but in all other ways, he's encouraged to walk on it as much as possible to build back up the bone.
The technician didn't ask if we wanted the cast saved, but when the doctor inquired at the exam, I said sure; she said kids like to save them and fill them up with candy, making for an odd-shaped candy dispenser. (I'm sure Meh would do something more creative, but anyway...) So she fished it out of the back room -- only when we got home, we realized it was not Z's cast but actually that other little boy's. Whoops. Ah well, no physical souvenier from this particular adventure is fine by us!
Meh continues to astound with her amazing and creative food presentation skills, from a hot dog octopus to ongoing bento box portions of Z's favorites for school lunches. This morning she took it to the next level, making the boys and me tasty heart-shaped pancakes for Valentine's Day, and serving them along with strawberries and boxes of heart-shaped chocolates. And on heart-shaped plates of course. Somehow getting this all done despite the boys being up at 6 am. Amazing!
Z actually commented on them for quite a while (and tried the chocolate) before requesting his classic Cheerios. In the meantime, O ate/smushed his way through at least one heart (and a few of his chocolates) and was still talking about them at dinner tonight. Mommy is the very best!
Our boys do love their cars. Occasionally their playtime looks like this:
Sometimes there's even a live action version:
Early on, the inevitable "everyone wants the same car" conflicts seemed like good opportunities to learn sharing and turn-taking. However, more frequently of late things seem to completely break down to Z wanting to hoarde or put away all of the cars (even in the above video, notice the cluster on the brown couch), O wanting to continue to play with one or two of them, and dual crying / screaming / throwing / tantrums ensuing. It's gotten to the point where the cars have to take a break; we've first hidden them in near-plain-sight in the laundry room (at which point O still wanted to go "visit" them fairly frequently, pointing them out and talking about them), and have finally decided the boys need to focus on some other toys for a while; the cars are now on "holiday" up in our closet. (It's particularly cute when O first asks where the cars are, then rhetorically answers "Cars on holiday!") Thankfully playing with trains or the slightly larger sized vehicles doesn't seem to fall apart in this way, so only the cars are in exile for the moment.
We'd been happily looking forward all week to Z getting his cast off today, even starting to prompt him about going to get a "picture" of it (an x-ray) -- but when I went to check the appointment time in my calendar this morning, I couldn't find it at all. And then I did find it -- but for next week. Meh's calendar said this week, but alas, the hospital confirmed that we're on for next Wednesday, so we've got a few more days to watch Z basically walking on the cast. All things considered he's really been doing amazing getting used to it and dealing with the awkwardness of baths (we got him a cast cover, but he's such a skinny little man that the hole in it doesn't make a skin-tight seal -- so instead, we have to cover it with a few garbage bags and still keep his leg elevated during the whole bath), but I think all of us are just about ready to move on to the next step, even if that ends up just being a boot. Seven more days!
Zachary is a great memorizer and imitator - books we've read, television shows he's watched (so we definitely need to be extra careful about what he watches!), things he's seen, and yes, sounds from his environment. When O was very young and cried, Z started imitating O's whines. He still does it on occasion, particularly first thing in the morning when he wants us to come get him. In the last few days, the reference has gotten a bit circular, as O has started to imitate Z's imitation of O's baby cries; how very infinitely recursive of them!
Of course in general, the boys do continue to pick up on things each other say and repeat them, sometimes back to each other, and sometimes causing each other to giggle uncontrollably in the process. Here's hoping that neither one discovers any potty language, or I expect we'll never hear the end of it!
Z had his first day back at school today -- between winter break, snowstorms, holidays, and that broken leg, it may have been nearly a month since his last full day! I drove him (a rare green car journey) and the little wheelchair to the classroom, where he got reacquainted with his favorite school toys and activities while the teachers, physical therapist, and aide assigned to help him out got oriented with the wheelchair and adjusted a few tables and desks for him to use. I ducked out once it looked like things were in order, and it sounds like he had a good first day back -- I think he really missed it!
In addition to his recheck yesterday, we had a nice conference with Z's teachers to figure out how to handle his immobility for the next three weeks. We'd written them last week from Arizona to let them know the situation, and the school district's physical therapist had already made great progress in both hiring an aide to assist (we got to meet her) and hunting down potential leads for a children's wheelchair to help with navigation and participation in class activities. Perfect timing: she successfully located one early in the afternoon, the doctor wrote a prescription for it at our appointment, and early this afternoon a tiny yellow and black wheelchair was delivered. (It was so petite that Meh initially presumed it was folded up, but nope!)
I haven't actually seen Z in it yet, but Meh reports that he likes it quite a bit. The district PT even came by to check it out and make sure it will be a good fit for the school -- she indicated they might be able to make adjustments to allow Z to steer himself. Why am I thinking he'll be reluctant to let it go when the cast and boot are gone?! Anyway, for tomorrow we'll have it around the house for Z to get used to it. He's definitely really looking forward to getting back to school, so it's great that we could line up everything to make his transition back smoother -- here's hoping for a good first experience back on Thursday!
Z has been doing a great job adjusting to the "giant green cast"; in the past few days he's started crawling and scooting around on it. And with snowmageddon or snowpocalypse or whatever finally behind us, Z and I made our one-week-delayed trip back to get his leg rechecked, this time at the closer eastside rendition of Seattle Children's Hospital. Still a very cute and kid-friendly place (if a hospital can be kid friendly), and this one even featured a Starbucks in the lobby. Only in the Pacific Northwest.
Z did amazingly well with the x-rays, even going so far as to say thank you to the imaging technician (along with his current favorite exiting salutation of "happy new year") on our way back out to the lobby. He also did great with both the medical assistant and doctor, entertaining himself by weighing and reweighing himself on the portable scale and reporting on the results (35 lbs if you were wondering). There was a lull in the action before the doctor herself could see us, and the assistant asked if he'd like a snack -- how cool is that? Z enjoyed some cinnamon bears and juice before the doctor came back and showed us the results of the "pictures of the giant green cast" (Z's words) -- he's already growing new bone and healing well. She reported he'll be done with the cast in about 3 weeks, likely to be followed by a boot while his leg restrengthens.
Seattle's first snow of the year has come with a vengeance; we arrived back in Seattle on Monday night after the first accumulation, and the warnings for the real snowstorm were lined up for the rest of the week. School was preemptively cancelled (via an automated call every day of the week at around 4 pm), and the forecasts in some ways actually managed to understate the conditions, as things have been increasingly messy all week. I slipped and slid our car the block and a half to the grocery store for supplies at one point (where I was entertained by what people here apparently find important to stock up on in a snowstorm: empty shelves for soda, bread, and a long queue of people waiting to rent movies, but plenty of milk, dairy, fruit, and veg). Finally things started to improve a bit today and I was able to make it into work for some meetings, after picking up Mima to help Meh out with the boys (and get her out of the house herself!) But for the most part, we all just stayed indoors, snuggled and warm. Meh tried to initiate arts and crafts with the boys a bit, but they were getting pretty stir crazy by the third day at home. Z of course couldn't get out into the snow, so Meh had the brilliant idea to bring the snow to the boys -- he played with it a little, but O was fascinated and had a great time. Here he interacts with the excellent indoor snowman Meh made:
And finally, Meh and O headed outside for a little bit of walking, sledding, and even a quick inspection of the boys' playhouse (he really wanted to go inside despite the high snow drifts and its door facing our house for the winter). My favorite is still just how bundled up he got for his snow adventure:
I think we can say our trip to Arizona was a big success all around! The boys had a wonderful time on planes, at parks, and in the "big red car" (with apologies to the Wiggles), Meh shaved 10 minutes off her last half marathon time, and it was very special to be able to catch up with and spend a long weekend with friends T and P and their sons J and M.
On Thursday morning, Papa dropped us off at the airport, where the boys made it through security (I got to carry Z, and his cast got to be swabbed, along with the boys' liquid sundries) and hung out for a bit in SeaTac's spacious central mall for floor to ceiling views of lots of baggage carts, trucks, and of course airplanes -- there was a rainbow-colored Horizon one that I think was their favorite; they're still talking about it days later. Onboard the plane, O actually slept most of the flight while Z enjoyed watching the view out the window (including the Grand Canyon), reading books, asking for "big presents" (last trip we'd wrapped some toys; this time we forgot, so he got to unwrap cars that Meh stuck in the [clean!] motion sickness bag), and watching the adventures of his favorite animated monkey. Once we landed and claimed our "big red suitcase", we drove up to T's parents' house - they were out of town during our visit and had graciously offered for us to stay there. It was so nice being in an actual house rather than a hotel, and I think Z and O both liked having a few rooms (and lots of grandparent toys!) to choose from. They even had a tiny little bed for Z, though he's still getting used to the cast and had trouble sleeping except in bed with us, often leading to some heavy-footed kicking of mommy and daddy in the middle of the night. And the "neighborhood" is very lovely southwest desert, with plenty of catci and wildlife: the boys and I saw a coyote, rabbits (Owen: "where'd the bunny goooo?"), birds, and more.
We had lots of playtime with the J family boys, as well as M's college friend C and her daughters. Everyone played really nicely together, and all of the kids were particularly helpful to the immobile Z, bringing him many of their favorite toys (and once they learned he liked vehicles, often carried him tributes of every car, truck, and airplane in the house!) O got his first taste of our favorite west coast burger joint (that still somehow hasn't gotten to Washington); clearly he's a big fan of their grilled cheese, and was also pleased to nosh on their french fries. Z was meanwhile very happy with the excellent collection of In-N-Out stickers the cashier gave us.
On Saturday, we caravaned up to Phoenix for the girls to register for the race, coordinate getting into the same starting group, and collect their bags o' swag. The kids and I have clearly left the building, thankyaverymuch:
Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and went back to the excellent McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park that Z had last seen nearly three years ago. Did he remember? Hard to tell, but both he and O had a great time pointing out the many parked trains and riding on the small scale train. The park has even since built a giant indoor model railroad hall, where I think we could have easily left Z for the afternoon if we so chose. But instead, he and I rode on the even smaller scale train while O and Meh watched.
Of course we brought some of the boys' favorite music on the road trip, and Z is so smitten by one of our newer CDs that he started his own performance on the drive back from Phoenix to Tucson:
Sunday was race day, and Meh left very early (4:30 am) with T to get back up to Phoenix. The boys were up soon afterwards; O impressively said "mommy running in pink shirt in Phoenix" when I asked him where she was. After a bit of toy vehicle play, watching an excellent sunrise over the desert, and then an episode of George, we decided to head off with P and his boys to Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. Everyone had a great time; J and M fed the giraffes, O visited some fish that were about as big as he is, and both O and Z fell in love with the playful sea otters (they're still talking about them today). We all had a nice guys' lunch (O ate a literally footlong hotdog plus suddenly decided that he liked potato chips) at the zoo cafeteria while awaiting news from the ladies of their successful race completion, then headed home for nap time before an evening dinner (outdoor grilling in January!) On our last day in Arizona, we all headed to the mall where the ladies got to enjoy a nice pedicure (well earned after running 13.1 miles!) while the kids played (well, except Zachary, who was content to watch) in the mall's fun play area. Once they'd burned off some energy, we toured the mall (including a stop at the pet shop to visit with puppies, hamsters, and other cute creatures), with O joining the J boys in their jogging stroller while Z continued to stroll solo. At one point, O spotted a yellow bus in the mall, and everyone piled out to go play with the multiple toy claw machines it contained. Then a joint group lunch, and it was time to return the red car to the airport and get ready for our flight back -- the boys had big snacks and enjoyed watching the far fewer planes of the somewhat petite Tucson airport. Both boys were awake the whole return trip, which made for an exhausting afternoon -- papa picked us back up (with snow on the ground, talk about a temperature swing!), and we're now back home with the boys in bed, ready to conk out. More pictures of our Copper State adventures can be found here. Thanks again to T and P for spending time with us and being such wonderful hosts, and to J and M for playing so well and also being great hosts for our boys!
A dramatic follow up to yesterday's post: Zachary's injury turned out to be a bit more serious than a bump, bruise, or twist. This morning he couldn't put weight on it, so he and I embarked on an epic medical adventure, visiting no less than four locations (ah the joys of specialized medicine -- next time we'll skip the pediatrician-radiologist-pediatrian roundtrip and head straight to the ER) to determine that he had a spiral fracture of the left tibia (non-displaced). Apparently it's common enough among kids his age that it even has its own term. Meh and Owen joined us for the final leg of our day, a visit to the impressive Seattle Children's Hospital for Z to be fitted with a cast (or as O calls it, "big green sock"). It was a very long day, but all in all Z handled things really well.
Tomorrow the adventure will continue -- we'll be flying to Arizona for the long weekend to visit with friends and for Meh to run a half marathon. After much discussion and debate about whether Z should be grounded and Meh and O should fly solo (er, duet), we agreed that Z will hopefully enjoy the distraction of flying and travel in general, and of course this may be the last time he gets to see the J family for a while as they're soon moving to Europe. The bags are all packed (and once again, impressively, a single suitcase for a family of four -- amazing!), and here's hoping for a smooth and hopefully fun and semi-relaxing trip for the family.
Did I mention O sang me happy birthday at a mad gallop?
Everyone is basically wrapping up recovery from that nasty stomach bug, and Z's cough has mostly dissipated and both boys seem to be their raucous selves again. Unfortunately, O's been teething in a major way (at his dentist check-up last week, they apparently indicated that he's got quite a few coming through at the same time). He himself has been pointing toward his mouth and saying "teef hurt!" though some tylenol or motrin has helped out enormously.
Zachary loves to run around before bedtime in his room, sometimes singing songs from school or reciting sections from his favorite books, and generally laughing and having a great time. We're convinced a lot of this sudden energy comes from, um, him holding his #2 for the day until right after bath time, after which he's ten pounds lighter and needs to express this Lightness of Being. Occasionally during the running around he'll trip (on himself, or a book, or the stuffed bear seat), then get back up and run around some more. But tonight when this happened, he got upset and stayed on the floor for a few seconds. I took a look and couldn't see any obvious signs, and when I touched his knee, ankle, and toes, he didn't seem to mind. I asked him if/where it hurt, and he seemed to actually be more concerned with his wrist or elbow - again, nothing that actually seemed uncomfortable though. Hopefully he just hit his funny bone, but we'll certainly keep an eye on it. Poor little bumping man!
Many months (years?) ago, we got a fabulous make-your-own-puppet for the boys from our friend T. They hadn't really shown much interest in it before, but then O wanted me to pull it out yesterday, and it instantly became his best friend. He eventually even wore it himself, faced the puppet towards him, and said "Hi Owen!". Even Z got into the act of engaging with it.
We had a lovely New Years brunch for my birthday this year; Meh made a fabulous lemon meringue pie (among many other tasty treats), the boys and I grabbed bagels (a very gracious baker helped walk the three dozen rolls with holes to our car, where O noshed down happily on a piece of pumpernickel) and we had a nice time with family and friends.
Unfortunately it's been a pretty rough new year health-wise. Attendance at the brunch itself was down a bit due to a nasty stomach bug that had been going around -- and which landed with Z the next day. As he recovered, all three of the rest of us got it at the same time, leading to an exhausting and rough time all around. Here's a video of O already on the way to recovery:
Then Z's recurring cough got him sent home from school on his first day back from the bug; I took him to the doctor (where he did really well) and he was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Pink stuff was prescribed, and he's overcome his general distate for medicine (follow up pieces of chocolate have helped) and is nearing the end of his regimen. Hopefully everyone will be in top shape by the time we head down to Arizona in a few days to visit friends P and T (the same T who gave us the puppet -- and so we come full circle) and their boys J and M.
I forgot to mention, before going on holiday break, Z came home from school with this drawing. He also came home with one of a Christmas tree, and what I think were intended to be plus-sign stars -- but the way he makes plus signs really looks like crosses; much hilarity ensued when Meh mentioned this on Facebook, with a few folks getting perhaps a bit up in arms about keeping religious holidays out of the schools.
With the influx of new toys and the general clutter of the holiday season wrapping up, Meh has taken the opportunity to do some excellent reorganizing, clearing out a few drawers, optimizing our phone 'charging station', and grabbing a few new plastic boxes to house the boys' growing collection of legos and train pieces. And speaking of boxes, one of the boys favorite Chanukah presents was a fabulous kid-sized cardboard house from mima and papa! Here they are enjoying it with mommy:
I think it's actually intended for coloring or painting, but since we don't want to be planting suggestions that crayoning walls is a Good Thing, they were completely happy with climbing around in it, and eventually transferring a menagerie of stuffed animals into it. At some point O decided he needed to enter through the window, so one wall is a bit more of a suggestion than a contiguous piece of cardboard at this point -- but a huge success with the boys!
We got to celebrate many nights of Chanukah with mima and papa; they made us dinner (twice!) and we had them over for candelighting and present playing several times as well. The night before last, we all enjoyed the boys' new Lego (sorry, Mega Bloks) playground set. It's been fabulous to see O playing make believe:
And Z ran through a few verses of one of his favorite songs:
(If you're not familiar with the meme, see this.)
The boys have been enormously enjoying Chanukah this year. On the minus side, when I announce it's time to light the candles, O often responds "presents!" And there has been a fair amount of present jostling and fighting when we give each boy a present; for the past few days we've gone down to a single present for them to share (possibly with enough components that they can both have fun without noticing the other one is playing with something clearly more interesting than what they have). To prove that they can play nice, here's more fun at the train table (which sports a new Chanukah-gifted set of tracks, bridge, and station):
Today's present was Connect 4. As I assembled the board, I was a bit bummed to see that even our childhood games are getting updates; there are now variants for making the game into a "5 in a row" version, as well as specially marked checkers that do special things like giving the player a bonus turn. Each of these checkers is actually named for its obvious icons: anvil checker, wall checker, and so on. Except for the one that knocks out an opponent's checker, which has the obvious classic bomb logo on it, but is simply described in terms of playing "this checker". Oh how the times have changed. Anyway, the boys enjoyed taking turns putting checkers in, but they've removed the most fun part of the game - the little switch that drops all of the checkers out. Now it's a weird twisting hinge thing that a grownup has to manipulate. Still, it was fun to have a family game day! O's got a new tooth or two coming in, so he's been a bit under the weather. Zachary's fighting a cough that seems to mostly appear in the evening and first thing in the morning. And I'm recovering from allergies after visiting some friends for a Chanukah party last night. Meh's been doing a good job of taking care of us, but I think we'd all love a nap. Over the last few days that I've been home alone with the boys, we've gotten closer and closer to landing the communal nap, but still no dice - either Z will get bored and start to turn on the radio or O will be a squirmer (or push me out of the way to try to snuggle Z, keeping both of them awake). I still have hopes for the stars to align one of these days!
Happy Chanukah! O and Z's first chanukah present from Meh and myself was too good to not open immediately (as in, three days before Chanukah): to complement the new coffee table/train table (which is currently topped with a matt technically intended for doll houses and the like), Meh picked up what can only be described as a Playmobil summer dream house (or, as the box stirringly proclaims, "set no. 4857"). Very exciting, with a grill, bikes, bathroom, kitchen, tiny jars of pickles, and more -- a grand total of 323 pieces. Alas, all of the cute tiny things are separately delivered, assembled, and oh-so-easily disassembled. Meh managed to get it all together over the course of an evening (it took several hours), and the next morning, shortly after introducing it to the boys, I found O plucking the tiny flowers from the groundcover, and Z removing the tiny kickstand for the little bicycle. We tried to explain how things were intended to not come apart, but when the boys started pulling trees and partially attached home furnishings, it was time to pack it in. Alas, we were too late to save one tiny sandal from one of the little Playmobil people's feet -- or at least so we thought for most of the day; tonight I put my hands in my sweatshirt pockets and discovered a large, suspiciously solid piece of pocket lint, which turned out to be the lost sandal, surreptiously dropped in my pocket by O. The playset is sadly hiding in the laundry room, perhaps to make a reappearance in the future after strategically and liberally applying superglue.
Both boys have immediately taken to the holiday. Even a few weeks ago at his last swim lesson of the quarter, Z was practicing his "chhhh" sound for the instructor (and alternating between "challah" and "chanukah" for use demonstrations), which had her busting up in laughter. O frequently asks for chocolate gelt, Z has been singing Maoz Tsur, both boys liked lighting the menorahs (especially the train one), and when I put Z to bed this evening, he even whispered "Night night daddy. Happy Chanukah!"
There's probably some biological/psychological reasoning behind it, but when O needs to poop, we often notice he disappears (or at least tries to) -- either into a corner of the room, or by saying "bye bye" and shutting a door. It's privacy, it's cute, and it's a likely sign that he's probably well on his way to potty training. (And if we ask, he typically says "I hide and make a poop!" -- silly boy.)
So it was immensely entertaining for me the other day when this behavior was linked unexpectedly. O and I were reading a book that has a mouse on every page (no, not that one), and on one page, the mouse is peeking out from behind an object. Owen pointed at it and said "mouse make a poop!" Similarly, later in the evening when he cleaned up from dinner, his dog-faced sippy cup ended up landing inside a mug in the sink. I mentioned the dog looked like it was hiding, and without pause, Owen commented "dog making poop!" Silly man!
O's verbal skills continue to develop, and he keeps a close eye on anything Z does. Here he shows his mad clean-up skills.
He clearly adores/worships his brother, often echoing what he says or following him around the house -- sometimes following perhaps a bit too close?
I was home with the boys today (I've actually have gotten to spend a lot of good quality time with them in the past few weeks) and he continues to be particularly interested in emulating Z on the potty -- he'll frequently sit on one of the little training potties in the bathroom while Z occupies the, um, official one. Most of time he's fully clothed, but in the past few days he's frequently requested we help him remove his diaper. Yesterday Meh reported that he actually went a bit (she was so proud that she, er, left it for me to view). And today he wanted to sit on the big boy potty himself. But he couldn't quite figure out how to climb up, and when he kept squatting next to the potty, I was starting to get a bit nervous. Still, trying to help him up led to more of the insistent "Owen do it" or "do it myself" that shows just how determined he is. Meanwhile, Z has now turned around and started to imitate O imitating him (!), hanging out in the bathroom on the tiny potty and reading his favorite potty books -- sotto voce, of course:
Today was the Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon, and Meh braved both an early morning wakeup and the increasing rain to run the half with friend L from start to finish, in an impressive 2 hours 37 minutes -- congrats and hooray!
The boys and I met her afterwards at the always fun Seattle Children's Museum, where they have a fun new Lego exhibit (translation: tables and tables with lots of Lego and Duplo for the boys to play with), in addition to what I think was a new 'restaurant', 'grocery store' (the upscale Metropolitan Market no less), and the continuing favorite buses, fire trucks, and cars. We met friends A and K with sons E and R -- though by 'met', it was more an occasional wave as the kids tore through the various activities at the museum. Z was literally jumping out windows.
Yesterday Meh had to get into town to pick up her bib and chip for the race, so we decided to make a family outing of it and give the boys an opportunity to enjoy our sometimes underutilized public transportation options. We took the bus into the city (they really enjoyed and continued to talk about the "blue bus!"), and down into the fancy newly retrofitted underground tunnel at Westlake. Several equally fun elevators later, we were registering Meh for her race and picking up a few goodies (Z's favorite: a green cowbell) before the crowds got too hectic for the stroller. We then walked around downtown (where Z got drawn in by a large multi-track train storefront window display) and grabbed lunch while O somehow managed to have an epic nap through the whole visit. Another walk past the trains, and we were back down at the tunnel station, getting to enjoy wave after wave of passing light link rail trains while waiting for our bus home to arrive.
The boys' obsession with cars and trucks continues unabated despite the cars remaining on extended holiday (due to some pretty dramatic tantrums and constant fighting). They have a new favorite Curious George episode where he plays with cars (actually giving them a car wash, which the boys experienced in person last week with mommy -- Z apparently loved it, O got scared of those vertical scrubby cloth strips). And yesterday, they asked for "double decker buses on the TV"; 
sure enough, the Xbox YouTube app supplied us with video captures of both London and Brighton bus routes, and then motorbikes ramp-jumping over a series of double decker buses. The boys loved the latter so much that I found them a few other monster truck and stunt videos that they can watch again and again (but hopefully never imitate?). But their very favorite was a video of an evaluation of the "Cars 2" line of die cast toys. The boys continued to ask to watch the toys being removed from their plastic boxes ("here we go, opening presents!" said Z) and then stored inside of the larger Cars 2 playset storage Double Decker Bus. It's no tamagotchi, but these boys clearly have a favorite new virtual set of toys.
