Can I take your order

Several firsts today when mima and I took the boys out to lunch after a trip to the local park:

1. Owen ordered his entire meal by himself, directly engaging with the server. He was very cute in specifying "grilled cheese with french fries", [and to drink?] "a milkshake", [what flavor?] "vanilla". We just have to work a bit more on the please and thank you's, but go O!

2. More tremendously, both boys cleared their plates! This is huge; Z hadn't even taken more than a bite on previous occasions, but we found the magic menu option of straight up spaghetti noodles, and he was delighted to twirl them on his fork (mima helped) and wolf them all down. Tremendous! O was also impressive in polishing off his entire grilled cheese sandwich and all of the fries (except one or two that were "for daddy").

Haircuts for two bits

The rare weekend with both of us in town and both at home is now in progress. Somehow I think the boys save their more challenging days for the two parent days, which I guess is a good thing? But anyway, both were looking a bit shaggy, so it was time for haircuts -- and rather than take them one at a time as I did for the last outing, we figured we'd try the two boys at once. I called ahead and the timing worked out well -- neither had a long wait. Z enjoyed a bit of his favorite film (yes, still Cars 2), but then decided he much preferred the real thing, turning toward the window to watch passing cars on the busy street. They both did an awesome job at the hair salon and got to pick out lollipops for their efforts; alas, O fell apart in the car when he decided he really wanted Z's more than his own. Suffice it to say naptime soon followed!

Construction job

Mima graciously thought ahead to reserve the boys a slot in the local home improvement store's excellent kid-focused construction activities. And with the boys ongoing (permanent?) obsession with vehicles, they were extremely interested to learn that this morning we were off to, as O put it in yesterday's video interview, "Lola's house to build fire trucks!" Meh left for work and soon after, we headed out to pick up mima and get to the store. And when we got there, in the back corner amidst the piles of lumber and a forklift (O: "I hear the forklift!"), was a mass of kids and guardians/parents hammering away at red stained wood, nails, and stickers.

The boys had an excellent time, even if it was mostly then watching intently mima and myself doing the actual assembly. Of course they focused in on the wheels (because what is a vehicle if it can't roll on the ground?), whose assembly was in the last step - but patience somehow won out and Z did a fine job hammering as we worked together to build two decent fire trucks. Though boo to the too-thin pilot holes and instructions that ended with tires being hammered onto dowels without an awkward gripping point; bent nails and skewed tires aside, the boys were thrilled. The store even gives out badges for completing their kid projects; Z was a bit confused and thought he'd have to give up the fire truck for the badge, which was quite the dilemma for him, but we explained that indeed he got to keep both -- along with the safety goggles and fine work apron.

Of course once in the car there was great interest in controlling both trucks at once. We assuaged/distracted by heading to the boys' favorite sushi for an early lunch, at which Z did a fabulous job of trying new foods, sampling some sesame noodles ("it's spicy!") and even the marshmallow frosting of a cupcake after seeing his brother wolf down one.

The Sixth Sense

O has an awesome imagination; yesterday when I was driving him home from our nanny's house, he looked at the empty car seat next to him, and declared to me, "I'm going to pretend Zachary is sitting right there." But sometimes the line between imagination and potential X-Files plot pitch has gotten a little fuzzy.

Several months ago, in the middle of the night, I was snuggling with Z (who'd had a bad dream or a tummy ache), and O also woke up, asking mommy to take him to the bathroom. When she went to get him, this was their conversation:

O: [whispered] Who's that, Mommy?
M: Where?
O: (looking at Z's room) Who's that in the door?
M: There's nobody there.
O: Who's that in the door, Mommy? He's a little bit scary.

Yikes. Meh was mildly freaked out. Our explanations at the time ranged from him knowing that I was in Z's room to the fact that there's a mirror at the end of the hall and O was seeing a reflection of himself or mommy. Or if it was otherwise unexplainable, my vote was for Al Calavicci.

Then while Meh and I were out of town this past weekend, O gave papa a fright by having this conversation while in the upstairs bathroom:

O: Who's that lady?
Papa: What lady?
O: THAT one.

Further inquiry from Meh when we got back solicited that he'd seen "a queen with orange hair." Mommy interviewed him further about it today:


Since Meh and O were apparently talking about fairies at the time, we're hoping that it's either that kind of connection, O's imagination, or inspiration taken from something he's seen/read (the other day he pulled down a copy of Anne of Green Gables, which does feature a picture of the red-headed protagonist on the cover). On the plus side, he does appear to like her and thinks she's nice, so at least it's a friendly ghost/fairy/make-believe friend!

Mash Up

This morning, O sang:
"Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on this farm he had a dog and Bingo was his name-O,
E--I--N-G-O, E--I--N-G-O, E--I--N-G-O,
and Bingo was his name-O."

The boys are right back into the swing of things from our trips, with school back on for Z and play time with friends for O. O loves accompanying Z out to (and then onto) the school bus each morning, saying hi to "Miss Vicki" when the doors open (even if Z himself doesn't always) and then climbing onto the bus and finding a seat while I buckle in Zachary. O is definitely ready for school, even if he's still got around 3 years to wait.

The travels continue -- at least for the grownups. I had a work conference this weekend at a beautiful resort in northern California; while I was mostly indoors sitting at conference tables, I did make sure Meh came with this time around (last year she hadn't been able to), and she took full advantage of their spa treatments along with some quiet uninterrupted reading time. We both got to take a few nice walks together, on one of which Meh found a giant shed snakeskin right in the middle of the path.

It was a nice opportunity to recharge a bit after our two extended summer trips with the boys. And of course we spent much of the time thinking and talking about them (I even woke up a few times with imagined/dream-induced fears that they were awake and getting into trouble elsewhere in our room) in between admiring the scenery and eating tasty food. Huge huge thanks to mima for watching the boys over the weekend. She reported in daily with great snippets of quotes from her many fine conversations with O and Z:

O: I wish I had a dog at my house.
M: What kind of dog?
O: A small red one that doesn't bark.

M: Zachary, Papa is coming to take us to breakfast!
O: There may be bananas.
Z: In Maryland?

Clothes Out

Our now-seasoned travelling boys were excited and ready for this weekend's trip to Maryland for my cousin M's wedding. As Z pointed out frequently in the weeks beforehand, it was also an opportunity to go "get on another airplane" and a "space shuttle bus" to go see "Aunt I, Uncle S, Uncle B, Aunt J, Bubbie, Cousin M, Cousin M, Grandma, and J" (recited in various permuations, of course with names spelled out). He was also talking about getting to see Nanny and Poppy there, so I'm not entirely sure if he was just demonstrating his family tree knowledge. Anyway, there was a difficulty multiplier on the flight this time around: it was during the daytime (so we had to be ready for both boys to be wide awake), and there was also a snuggish connection. The boys actually did a great job all around, loving the flights as well as the stopover in Detroit. O traversed this particular course about 10 times: And no, running around the moving walkways and towing his own suitcase apparently did nothing to burn off energy, as he was chatting and asking for entertainment the entire second leg as well. It was still pretty darn cute (if perhaps not fully FAA compliant) to see him stand up on his seat, turn around, and smile or talk to Zachary or daddy during the flight.

We landed without incident in Charm City, and after collecting our luggage, got to experience their convenient light rail system straight into the city. Z was thrilled to get on the tall train, though he quickly lost energy as the train departed and likely would've fallen asleep if O hadn't kept tackle/snuggling his brother. One more form of transportation for the first night: from the train (which dropped us right outside of a very hopping Camden Yards with the Yankees in town to play the Orioles), we got to hop a "red taxi van!" to our hotel.

The hotel (and the whole area of Fell's Point) is among the oldest in the city, with cobblestone streets and buildings that seem nearly as they must've been several hundred years ago. The area also has more than a hundred pubs, and clearly no less than ninety of those were situated right outside of our not-entirely-soundproofed hotel room. We settled in, had bathtime, and Z discovered his favorite perspective: climbing into the wide windowsills and looking down onto the passing people and vehicles (occasionally announcing those that seemed the most interesting to him). O of course had to imitate his big brother.

Meh and I did a quick unpack, and discovered my epic fail: as we'd been getting ready to head out of the house that morning, I'd realized that the suitcase's retractable handle was broken. Quickly, I'd grabbed another suitcase and transferred all of the contents over. Except somehow I'd managed to fail to transfer the bag full of all of Zachary's clothes. Thankfully he had his spare set for the flight, but our task for the next day became apparent: get Z something to wear. And, oh yeah, his super cute and Owen-coordinated Janie and Jack wedding outfit had been in that pile as well. Crap.

The next morning, after a quick browse of the local street market and a good diner breakfast (hooray: they served Z's breakfast staples of Cheerios and bananas), we met up with grandma and J (along with my high school friend J, who drove up from the DC area for a brief visit), and were off to seek out clothes for Z. The inner harbor has a number of shopping facilities, so, killing two birds with one stone, we took the water taxi to get there. The boys were in love with the whole experience (plus they couldn't get over the fact that there was a taxi that went in the water), though O kept wanting to stand up and peek off the boat, particularly at the fun passing pirate ship.

The inner harbor was packed (primarily with visiting New Yorkers?), but we headed to the mall where luck smiled upon us and we were able to secure both casual wear and a new wedding outfit that ensured Z would look as dapper as his brother the next day. There was also sushi in the food court, and O charmed grandma into getting him a cupcake before we headed back. We had a small family dinner near the hotel, where O was wolfing down french fries when suddenly he said "my tongue hurts, that one is too spicy!" Meh confirmed that some of his fries had heavy seasoning, and she proceeded to hand-inspect the remainder to ensure a tongue-friendly meal. In the evening was the wedding party's pre-event, a trip to the O's-Yankees game. We'd hoped to all go or at least take one of the boys, but everybody was pretty wiped, so I headed over solo and had a nice evening watching a couple of former Mariners play for the Yankees, while the Orioles prevailed. I returned to the room to the two boys asleep, curled up around Meh in the double bed - both adorable and pretty logistically impressive.

Sunday was the wedding day, but as it wasn't until the afternoon, we had to figure out an activity for the boys; while we'd hoped to hang a bit with family, things were slow to develop and the boys needed a park ASAP; I discovered this one "not far" away (within a mile, but over rugged urban sidewalks that a stroller full of boys wasn't easy to navigate - yes, O has somehow figured out how to sit behind Z in the single stroller, which likely isn't quite to code, but is pretty darn cute), and we wheeled our way over there in the growing heat/humidity.It actually turned out to be great fun for the boys, with both standardish playground equipment and a very cool giant sunken gymnasium with scaled down architectural features of Baltimore in it. We played for a bit, then having burned through our snacks and juice bottles, stopped here on the way back for tasty sorbet for Meh and a big milkshake for O.

Then it was hypothetically time for a quiet nap back at the hotel. Of course the boys had other ideas, discovering that one of the chairs was spinnable.
Five minutes later (to answer the reference in the video's title), O got really green from all of the spinning, and I rushed him into the bathroom just in time for him to barf in the potty. He spent much of the rest of the trip talking about Z spinning him on the chair, his tummy hurting, that he barfed in the potty, and then the many other fabulous uses of our friend the toilet. Anyway, that was enough distraction for the day, and it was time to prepare for the wedding.

The ceremony was held on a beautiful wharf a short distance from the hotel, which was lovely for boat watching (the pirate ship and water taxis were announced on each passing by Z and/or O), but mildly nerve-wracking for us as the boys kept wanting to run right up to the edge of the pier and peer into (and talk about swimming in) the Baltimore Harbor. We strategically sat in the back row, which placed us close to the string duet (every song they played was sung along to by the boys, generally with the lyrics of "Old MacDonald" or "Mary had a little lamb"), and also gave us a good view of the procession, at least until the boys decided to try to take off halfway through the ceremony. Ah well, it was still fun and a beautiful wedding!

The reception was back on the top floor of our hotel. Z was a clear hit of the party, with many in attendance complimenting his hat and giving him five as he walked by. O was also receiving many kudos on his bow-tie-featuring outfit and his dancing stylings. Our table happened to be right next to the wedding cake, which O was excitedly talking about for much of the meal, but then declined to try when a piece was actually served to him. Eventually we retreated to the hotel room with the boys and I wrapped up our family's representation at the reception/dinner; I did manage to sneak a plate of wedding cake back to Meh for her to eat once the boys were more or less down for the night. It was a wonderful evening; even bubbie was up and dancing to the incongruous Ice Ice Baby.

The final morning was a brunch in the cute basement/ground floor of the hotel, in what has apparently been a bar for hundreds of years - a fun brick room with flowering plants in recessed window frames that let in light from up at street level. Zachary was pleased to pack away more Cheerios boxes, while O had a nice deep conversation with bubbie. And before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to everyone and ride one more taxi back to the airport (Z: "and go through security!"), before starting our long journey home. While I thought I'd cleverly timed the itinerary to allow for an O nap or two, he refused and exhausted Meh on the first leg, and when we switched sons for the second leg, he only conked out for me a few hours into the flight. Though we loved being able to spend time with our usually geographically scattered family for a very happy occasion, it's very very good to be home from our second family trip in three weeks!

School Day

First day of kindergarten! Zachary has been talking about the school bus (in between his increasing focus on our upcoming trip to Baltimore) for weeks, along with "doing your kindergarten work", and today was at long last the big day. A new outfit, a stuffed backpack, and a brand new school (they were literally still unloading boxes adn putting on the finishing touches when Meh went to the open house earlier this week - open house went great, though the ice cream social was apparently a madhouse with *all* of the school's kids invited, not just the kindergarten class -- which was a bit overwhelming for Z, and wasn't helped when O declared he had to potty and moments later did just that, in Meh's lap).

The bus rolled up to our house just about on time - roughly the same size as the one he took last year, but with giant single seats replacing the nearly car-seat-sized ones of the preschool bus. O was nearly as thrilled as Z, following him onto the bus and insisting on taking a seat while we buckled up Z. Due to a transportation snafu with the district, Meh got to pick him up today at the end of the first day, and reported that his teachers said he did great at following directions and participating in class. The only challenge was apparently his new lunchbox, which he apparently couldn't reconcile with the cute bento boxes of last year; we'll have to revert to those I expect for at least a little while until he gets used to things. But hooray for Z, and welcome back to school!

Now we get to disrupt this so-called "schedule" with an exciting (and highly anticipated by the boys since their last flight just a few weeks ago) trip to the east coast tomorrow to celebrate my cousin's wedding (and get to see a lot of family in one spot); Z will unfortunately be missing two days of school, but on the plus side, both boys are enormously looking forward to another plane trip - this one paired with the opportunity for some light rail, water taxis (O's response: "no, just regular taxis!"), and perhaps even the occasional shuttle bus (Z: "space shuttle bus!").

Dough boys

Z's fabulous aide from summer camp has begun babysitting him as we ramp down the summer days -- can't believe school already starts on Thursday! Z and J did some baking the other day (making some tasty chocolate-chocolate chip cookies that the rest of us enjoyed, even if Z passed on the finished product), and now both Z and O are frequently dragging their white chairs over to the main kitchen island with the suggestion that they bake something. Today it was a nice bread recipe - here's O's reaction (yes, "smile" still seems to mean "squint", and "show me happy" continues to translate to "open my mouth really wide") as they came out of the oven.

Meh is attending Z's teachers' open house tomorrow morning at his brand new (literally; construction is just wrapping up) elementary school, and then that afternoon there's an ice cream social, which she is (quite bravely) planning to attend with both boys. I suspect O may be more excited about the ice cream than Z, but I hope everyone has positive first experiences with Z's new school!

Landing Pattern

Home! Florida was a good time all around, but it feels very good to be back in our own house, with everyone sleeping in their own beds last night. The rest of our trip was packed with activities interspersed with attempts at naps and meals that were generally at least partially successful. The boys continued to have a great time with nanny and poppy, both playing with cars and enjoying their excellent collection of chocolates, while talking to and about their great-grandparents. We had another morning visit to the beach, and then reintroduced O to milkshakes at our favorite Florida ice cream shop, where he got one about as tall as he was (in addition to his favorite, french fries). In the opposite corner of the restaurant they were organizing some kind of extravagant dessert layout for a photo shoot, which had the grownups guessing whether some food TV show or publication was visiting.

Yesterday was our last day in Florida. After a lovely continental breakfast at the hotel (Z was packing away the fresh bananas and prepackaged one-serving Cheerios boxes), checking out of the hotel and visiting family once more, we took the boys over to Festival to browse the flea market wares -- the boys ended up getting a trio of shiny metallic dreidels from mima that were (mostly) well shared.

We still had a few hours before our evening flight back and wanted to ensure the boys had some good energy burning opportunities for the day, so we drove back down into Miami to check out the "MiChiMu". It didn't disappoint, with opportunities for climbing, art (the boys both made pictures of unicorns), remote controlled miniature boat driving (a favorite from my youth at amusement parks), playacting, a place to go "fishing" for magnetic fish, an entire Olympic-themed sporting area, and how about some actual life-sized vehicles as well? Needless to say, the boys had a blast; an excellent final activity in Florida before heading to the airport. It's left as an exercise for the reader to determine whether we actually tired them out at all; here was O at the airport: For the flight home, we thankfully all had seats together, and the boys again did quite well (even passing their cars back and forth between the seats). After our post-midnight landing, a quick luggage grab, and one more ride on the "space shuttle bus", we were at last homeward bound in the blue car. A goodnight to mima at her house, and we all conked out pretty quickly -- here's hoping the jet lag doesn't last long! Full visit pictures can be found here.

Swimming with the fish

We're in Florida! It's been a fun if exhausting family trip thus far, initiated with a bravely booked red-eye flight, where both boys actually did sleep a bit -- though my plan to tire them out with play time at the SeaTac play area didn't seem to work for O, who was chatty and asking for entertainment for the first few hours of the flight. Mima has been tremendously helpful as well in both navigating her old stomping grounds and providing a good bit of extra zone defense for the high energy boys. We weren't able to get our five seats together (in fact, we weren't even able to get O and me adjacent seats at all; despite repeated calls to the airline in the months/weeks before, it still came down to him and me standing at the gate waiting for them to shuffle around seating so our two year old didn't have to sit alone. Silliness.), and O occasionally checked the seat behind him and then reported back to me that "that girl is not mommy. She's a little bit scary!"

Upon arrival in Miami, we grabbed our rental (Z and O: "grey car!"; when we initially had trouble squeezing in, they offered me an upgrade to a black Charger and I had a momentary image of being in some kind of Burn Notice parody; the ladies sorted things out though) and headed up for the first of many tasty food stops for breakfast. Then it was onward to visit nanny and poppy. The boys have been having a great time, and yes, they did get to "swim in nanny and poppy's pool", which Z in particular had been talking about for weeks. On the minus side, the pool edge had an extra lip on it that caused a slightly scary O head bonk when he stumbled out at one point -- the many retirees of the community offered advice and help (and were impressively non-judgmental), but he recovered well. The hotel has been a hit with the boys as well, with scenic views of two major roads and a freeway.

The boys have been mildly obsessesed since we first announced our trip with "swimming with the fish". I've tried to explain that this doesn't really mean what they think it means, but whatever -- today was a beach day (and at 95 degrees by 10 am, where else would one go?), and we happily pointed out as they first set foot in the water a couple of small fish swimming around nearby.The beach turned out to be quite a success, with much swimming, playing in the sand (actual sandcastle building was mostly a destructive effort), and snacks in the excellent tent we borrowed from friends J and S. Then it was back to the hotel for an attempted nap; for dinner we decided to go low-key, but at precisely the same time that we got out of the car at the restaurant, got caught up in the daily late-afternoon torrential thunderstorm and everyone got soaked. Still, hot mac and cheese, french fries, and an apple turnover are always good antidotes to wet weather, and our evening closed out back at the hotel with bathtime (featuring a pair of brand new Cars washcloths), stories, and sleep.

Doctor's going to fix your nose

For his birthday proper, mommy made fun breakfast pancakes topped with an animal candle I'd brought back from a recent trip to L.A. Happy birthday once more to Z!

With his 5th birthday came Z's five year well check exam yesterday. Meh took him from camp (which he's continuing to enjoy - sadness that we're coming up towards the last week and a half!), and reported that he did really well with most of the exam, even with the light up the nose and ears (which he of course now has a bit of experience with).

The stats:

• Weight: 35 lbs (5-10 percentile)
• Height: 40.3" (10-25 percentile)
• BMI 14.3 (10-25 percentile)

Yes, his parents' height genes appear to perhaps be finally asserting themselves.

Each well check comes back with a "report card" from his doctor, and this one indicated that his next checkup visit doesn't have to be for 2 years -- definitely becoming a big boy when the doctor doesn't need to check in more frequently!

Beach boy

Happy fifth birthday to Z! Can't believe he's 5 already and off to kindergarten in just over a month. We had a beach-themed birthday party for him, which Meh of course planned to the nines. The highlight was a woodie car made completely of cake, with a fondant surfboard, crumbled nilla wafer beach, seashells, flip flops, and much more. The hood ornament? A cupcake. (Side note: the boys remain obsessed with Cars, and just a few days ago while on our umpteenth viewing, Meh and I realized that in the closing credits, where a bunch of other Pixar movies are parodied as if they involved cars, Toy Story's character Woody is reimagined as a woodie car. Silliness.)

Everyone had a great time at the beach; both boys even waded into the lake, and O managed to coopt ("share") another family's sand toys. Lots of Z and O's friends were able to attend as well and sample the yummy snacks that Meh and mima had made for the occasion (one big winner: white chocolate covered popcorn - nom.) The beach/lake time also made for a good preview for our upcoming trip to Florida to see nanny and poppy.

And speaking of family, Grandma and J were in town for the occasion as well! They enjoyed getting to take the boys to the park (where the swing obsession remains in effect; I'm convinced Z could spend hours in one given the option), watching Z's swim lesson, and generally getting to spend some good quality family time. Meh and I even got a date night - huge thanks to them for giving us that opportunity!

More pictures of Z's celebration here and of grandma and J's visit here.